Digital Marketing Consultant

Why is Social Media Marketing Important?

Up until now we’ve heard that content is king. This is even more important as one can now place your content on many social media sites as well.

Content Marketing now moves to video, slideshows, blogs and networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. So many more places for people to find your company and brand.

But with the popularity of Social media networking sites, like forums, Facebook and LinkedIn, we find out that not only is content king, but “conversation is king”. People like to ask others for recommendations and experiences with products and services. What people say about your product, service or company can mean all the difference to closing a lead or losing the business.

Generating Leads Online

Lead generation for most businesses is possible on the Internet. You will be surprised what good relevant content can do for website visibility and lead generation. You will be seen as a resource website and this builds credibility which in turn creates confidence for the visitor to engage with your company.

The Solution

The solution is to think creatively about the types of content you should upload to your website. One of the best ways to come up with content ideas is to do some research and identify other keywords that would help you with writing relevant content.

This is where Search Engine Optimization comes into its own.  It is used to increase your website’s search engine rankings so users can find your products or services easily.

With the addition of Social Media Optimization you can dramatically increase the number of search engine rankings you list in, which in turn will drive more targeted traffic to your website.

Your overall goal of any lead generation campaign is to connect with prospects in a meaningful way to nurture and convert them into customers. By using the below 10 process steps as a sales lead generation method, you will capture more sales-ready opportunities where email marketing is concerned.

1 • Monitor open rate

2 • Identify clickthrough rate

3 • Identify emails that were opened multiple times

4 • Identify target or familiar industries

5 • Research the target prospects

6 • Search in Google and Yahoo! for prospects keywords

7 • Call the prospect and use the script in this Kit

8 • Send confirmation email

9 • Track your activity

10 • Update system for converted clients and opt-outs

If you want to get started sonner, you can find more information on our website.

Before we go through the 10 Steps of Effective Email Marketing Lead Generation Conversion, it is important you take the following recommendations into consideration when it comes to composing the email messages you will be sending to your prospect list.

• Ensure your prospect list has complete lead information – If you are purchasing a list to email (whether it be from one of our email lead generation partners or a list provider), you will want to make sure this list contains complete lead data (name, title, company, phone, industry etc.)  This way you are able to effectively segment your list and follow up with active prospects more efficiently later on in the process.

• Don’t be afraid to segment your list to test your messages – Email is a great mechanism for testing your offers and messaging. Rather than sending one message to your entire prospect list, try segmenting your list into separate groups and sending different messages to each group.  This will allow you test which offers resonate more with potential prospects. From there you can then update the messaging used in your other lead generation initiatives.

• Send a compelling email message – We can offer a number of pre-written email marketing messages as examples. Use these as the basis for composing your email message and communicating to your prospect database. Messages can range from generic (Who are We?) to more offer-specific messages (A special product or service with its features, advantages, and benefits).

• Make sure any URLs in your email are set up to be tracked – As you read through the 10 steps in the next section, you will see that it is essential you have all URLs in your email set up so you can measure clickthroughs. This can be easily done in any email system you are using for your email lead generation initiatives.

• Be sure to drive visitors to your website or a unique landing page – Make sure one of the URLs in your email drives them to a page on your site or a unique landing page that will give them more details on your services and also drives them to a form to submit a request to be
contacted.

After composing your emails using the recommendations above and sending them to your prospect list, you will want to go through the 10 steps outlined in the next section. These steps will help to ensure you see higher conversions when it comes to generating leads using email marketing.

Email Marketing is a type of drip marketing technique. It is best described as a direct marketing strategy that involves sending out several promotional messages with specific “call to actions” via email over a period of time to the leads within your database. Email is most effective when you section your database into specific segments and hit them with a message relevant to their particular interests, demographics etc. The main objective of email marketing is to form a dialogue with your prospects and move them along the sales funnel. Email marketing is also an effective channel for lead nurturing a prospect.

Lead Nurturing is a process by which leads are tracked and developed into sales opportunities. Lead nurturing usually begins with an unqualified lead in a list within your email marketing system. Your email marketing system is then used to send offers to the prospect to which they respond. Leads are categorized based on their behaviors and subsequent offers are made based on that categorization.  Leads either move into the next step in a sales process or are set aside for future nurturing. As the unqualified lead responds to your offers and asks to be contacted, they are then turned into a qualified lead and entered into your lead nurturing system for further follow-up at the sales level.

In order to keep your sales pipeline active with new leads, it is imperative to implement different lead generation strategies. Email marketing is a subsequent channel you can use to effectively generate new leads for your business. When conducting email marketing from a lead generation perspective, it is recommended that you use an email lead generation service or an email marketing system that allows you to easily manage and nurture your prospect list.

Many of our consultants have found that while the overall volume of gathering qualified leads via email is lower than other more direct lead generation tactics (like telemarketing), they generally experience a higher sale revenue with clients they obtained through email marketing. As such, using email marketing as a lead generation tactic can be very effective for your business, if executed properly.

In the next few days, we will walk you through the 10 essential steps you need to follow in order to maximize your lead conversions using email.