B2B leads Archives

Ways to Improve The Quality of Your Leads

March 12, 2018/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

I agree it’s easy to achieve high-definition quality pictures now with just a mere cell phone camera, but would any cell phone camera give you the best HD, perfect selfie pic?

Innovative marketing tools and tactics can let you swiftly acquire leads but may be of low quality and less assuring to roll over to conversion. If you have not been hitting your targets yet, then hold for a moment and adjust some methods to improve the quality of your leads.

Profile Your Data List

Your database must contain tip-top demographic data. This means that each entry or name has complete, valid and accurate information: name of the contact, business name, address, phone numbers, email address and social media accounts, as well all other business specifications like industry category, location, target market, target location, and size. Using a complete and accurate data list will greatly contribute to achieving smart calling to your lead generation program.

Smart Calling

You must be able to reach or call your target decision maker at his most convenient time. However, having the best number to reach your prospect in your data list is not enough to guarantee you the perfect timing to catch a chat but may require psychographic research of how he does business and his purchase habits. Reaching your prospect real time at his most convenient time will spice up lead nurturing efforts.

Nurture Leads

Your first call would be the most remarkable conversation, especially with prospects that have high interest, so make it nurture-worthy. Hubspot has some amazing lead nurturing tactics which you may provide to your prospects:

targeted contents
personalized email
and timely follow-ups

Attune Lead Scoring System

When creating scoring criteria, consider the rapidly changing demographic and psychographic elements of your prospecting scheme. Update and validate your scoring system based on your prospect’s industry engagements and buying behavior.

Automate

Callbox utilizes multi-channel lead generation from the top of the sales funnel down to the bottom, maximizing resources like mobile, email, voice, social, chat, and website. This will help through the period of nurturing to keep track of your customers and give you control over the buying process.

Practice Consistent Lead Measurement

Marketo wants you to consider the following factors:

how many leads will be generated in a given period
how those leads move through various stages of lead nurturing and qualification before they are sales-ready
how quickly different types of leads move through the system
which marketing programs will generate new leads and at what conversion rates.

Leads acquisition has become so easy with the use of innovative processes but marketers must remain fastidious in choosing and utilizing the most effective sales and marketing tools in order to extract only the most qualified leads that can smoothly slide down to the bottom of the sales funnel. Just as using the best camera phone to take a selfie without the hassle of using filter apps.

Confronting Key Challenges in Generating B2B Leads for IT Products

January 15, 2015/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

The IT services and software industry is continuing to prosper. According to Gartner, the industry grew 4.8 percent between 2013, with global revenue pegged at $407.3 billion. This comes as small and medium enterprises have entered the market with independently developed B2B solutions. Aside from that, steady growth within the sector is facing rising demands for software tailored for games development and office management. In this tide of positivity, IT businesses are beginning to put focus on marketing activities, particularly B2B lead generation.

Generating B2B leads is indeed a priority for software companies at this point. Intensified competition among important industry players has each business vying to get a huge share of the software market. As one step in getting ahead of rivals, efficient strategies are needed to secure a place within the sentiments of decision makers.

Many IT businesses however tend to forget that B2B lead generation is a complex process. First of all, you are spending money to advertise and promote your products. You are also compelled to look for marketing solutions that can support your goals. Without such facilities, you will fail to increase your lead volume, entailing a huge waste of investments.

Apparently, proficiency is needed when generating IT leads. Numerous factors need to be taken into account, such as:

Website traffic. With competition within the industry getting tighter, it is important to calculate your gains based on site traffic. Analytics tools can track your campaign’s progress within a certain time frame, identify strong audience touch points, and gain data needed for strategy adjustments.

Lead scoring. IT leads that enter your pipeline need to be segregated and scored according to levels of interest and engagement. For this, efficient lead management infrastructures are a necessity to gauge prospect preferences and identify personalities that express a willingness to purchase your solutions.

Lead nurturing. As prospects journey through the sales funnel, marketers need to focus on nurturing their interests to buy at a time when they are not yet ready. Email and social media campaigns are vital in this respect as they provide prospects with a constant flow of information.

These activities comprise the most prominent challenges IT and software services companies face with regards their lead generation. Fortunately, marketing operations can be streamlined by B2B outsourcing firms that know the industry inside and out and have the needed experience to boot.

The Big Three of Online Lead Conversion

July 17, 2014/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

Conversion is the ultimate goal of B2B lead generation through the use of content. Whether you’re using websites, blogs, landing pages, social media profiles or email, success can only be measured by the number of prospects who are eventually converted into paying customers.

Unlike telemarketing or appointment setting campaigns, online marketing takes more time and strategy in order to produce results. Also, it’s much more complex on account of several factors that contribute to a campaign’s success or failure.

There are certainly a lot of different ways to achieve that, but when talking specifically of content as a tool for conversion, everything boils down to 3 aspects:

Grabbing attention through headlines and images

Let’s face it: people online don’t go straight into reading the text of an article. The first line of offense is always the headline and the accompanying image.

When people browse through hundreds of content online, the only ‘filtering’ tool they have is that very brief moment when they read the headline and see a picture that mostly describes it. And in that brief moment, your content must be able to capture their attention, harness it, and back it up by substantial content. Otherwise, they move on to the next, and you lose a potential client.

Being specific. Being very, very specific

A lot of marketers employ a hailstorm of gimmicks to lure readers into reading their content and clicking their call-to-action buttons. That’s great and all, but at the end of the day, you have to tell people what they’re going to get, and you have to deliver spot on.

The worst thing you could do is to drag them into a lengthy series of suspense and diversions only to end up disappointing them with the result. The only way you get them to commit (and be happy about it) is to lay everything on the table and never hide anything.

The power of incentives

Of course, showing them the door isn’t enough. You have to juice it up by dishing out incentives, but these ‘freebies’ have to be relevant to their end goal. To offer them something they don’t or won’t really need would come off as patronizing, and prospects don’t appreciate that. It makes them think that you’re throwing in anything just for the sake of it.

Instead. offer something that has real value, and make sure that you live up to the promise.

B2B Lead Engagement: How to get more Website Response

July 9, 2014/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

Most of the time, when B2B leads are in the market for purchasing products or acquiring services for their company, they would search for it on Google and end up visiting several websites in the process.

If those prospects end up on your website, how confident are you that you have enough content, visual presentation, strategic lead capturing elements and site speed to keep them from moving on to the next?

Your website’s overall impact should encourage lead engagement so visitors won’t end up in the trash bin. But how exactly does one make a business website more engaging?

According to Howard Yeh, co-founder of ContactUs.com, a software-as-a-service platform providing advanced contact forms, live chat, lead capture and lead management solutions for businesses, you need to “get a potential customer excited about starting a sales dialogue with you”, and then “translate that excitement into action”.

Here are some of his tips on how to optimize your website for lead engagement:

1. Effective Lead Capturing Requires a Proactive Mindset

Take the first step in translating customer interest on your website into action. Don’t force your visitors to initiate contact. If you were operating a retail store, you’d surely be training your sales staff to make the first engagement with the shoppers walking in the door. On your website this mindset still applies.

2. More than Your “Contact Us” Page

Some websites don’t have effective paths for dialogue. By default, it’s often the “Contact Us” page. If you have generic action prompts, you’ll receive generic inquiries. And more importantly, you may miss out on customer prospects who would have engaged with you if there were an easier way to do so. You might want to consider adding more navigation links to your “Contact Us” page.

3. Give Visitors a Reason to Contact You

If the only inbound leads you are getting from your website are from the “Contact Us” page, you might want to consider offering more contact paths. Examples of lead-generation call-to-actions include: “Download a white paper or eBook,” “Schedule a sales demo,” “Join a webinar,” and “Get a quote”.

4. Don’t Rely on Form Submissions Only. Try Live Chat.

Adding live chat on website can be very effective in generating incremental leads. According to a LivePerson survey, 21% of buyers cited live chat on a website as a reason for choosing one website over another.

5. Capture, Segment and Prioritize

At a minimum, make sure your lead capture form is capturing enough information to qualify the interest and estimate the size of the opportunity. Your sales team will be more efficient if they have the necessary data fields to segment and prioritize the leads coming in from your site.

6. Respond Promptly

Once customer interest has been sparked and they’ve given you permission to contact them, it’s up to you to respond and satisfy the initial itch. If you don’t, then a competitor eventually will.

7. Track What’s Working, and Do More of It

It’s important to have your leads provide some level of attribution back to marketing channels, thus closing the loop between marketing and sales. Each lead submission has the potential to append rich meta-data that gets transmitted along with lead and contact information.

Source: http://www.business.com/b2bmarketing/7-ways-maximize-website-lead-engagement/

Why Grades Do Not Matter In Marketing And Business

August 27, 2013/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Jayden Chu

One of the qualities of a successful marketing campaign pretty much depends on the ability of the marketer to do the work required. And here is the fun part, how do you choose your marketers, then? For companies hiring new ones, what qualifications are you looking for in a lead generation representative? Will an interview bring out the truth, or would their grades be your indicator of their capacity? Will whatever evaluation method you use during the hiring process tell you who are the most qualified in generating sales leads?

Actually, if the interview with Laszlo Bock, Google VP for people operations, was any indication, then grades, interviews, tests and what-not’s actually do not contribute anything. And that is coming from a company that has collected a ton of data about hiring processes and employee performance. All their research reveals that there is no correlation between school grades and work performance at all. The only thing they learned is that some people are hardwired to succeed in school while there are others that are more attuned to corporate and appointment setting work, not school.

One thing for sure: the way you do your work after a few years will greatly differ with your work back in school. Being able to adapt to these changes will be the real measure of your employees’ ability to generate B2B leads.

Of course, there is also the communication medium to be considered. Will it be social media, email, or telemarketing? These will influence the kind of people assigned to the task.

a graphic illustration of 3 different people

The Three People You Need In Sales Leads Marketing

August 13, 2013/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Jayden Chu

As a business owner, you certainly want to make a presence in all aspects of your operations. You have the energy and the determination to make your marketing and lead generation processes succeed. Still, there will come the time that you lose steam, feel sluggish, or simply run out of ideas to propel your firm forward. When this happens, it can pose a serious stumbling block in the continued success of your company in generating qualified sales leads. But it does not have to be a serious handicap. If you have done your homework right, then you would know that your business will need at least three people to keep things going even when you are no longer around. And these are:

#1 The Visionary

This is a person who can visualize the direction of the company 5-10 years from now. Well, they may not be able to foresee what to do the next day, but you do need someone with long-term plans.

#2 The Strategist

A visionary sees where your business can go, but it takes a strategist to plan that path out. This is also the person responsible for communicating the vision to those below the business ladder.

#3 The Tactician

Basically, this person stands in the frontlines, putting the strategist’s plans into effect. If the plan does not pan out right, then it is the tactician’s job to make the necessary deviations to reach the desired goal. They can use various marketing tools like social media or even telemarketing, ensuring the success of their campaign.

The success of your business and its appointment setting processes depends largely on these three people. If make the right hires, then generating B2B leads will not be that hard anymore. Of course, it helps if you can alternate between yourself and them, just to make sure everything is on the right track.

Why Should Your Lead Generation Campaign Invest In LinkedIn?

August 12, 2013/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

As a marketer, you would want to use all tools available in getting in touch with business prospects. After all, this is an activity that requires a multi-touch approach in tapping your target market. Think of it as a matter of necessity. Business lead generation is not like the old days, where you can easily reach potential B2B leads through the phone or a simple visit to their shop when you have the time. These days, you have to work through different channels to get in touch with them. It could either be through telemarketing, email, social media, among other things. So, where does LinkedIn enter the picture?

LinkedIn is, for a lack of a better phrase, a social network geared towards professionals. This is a place where people of similar interests (around the globe) to connect, discuss their professions, and identify better opportunities for business. They can also create groups or publish articles that can be read by various people from any part of the world. These are just some of the benefits that professionals get when they sign up in LinkedIn. And this is also the reason why marketers conducting appointment setting campaigns are so interested in using this network. It is a virtual treasure trove of information that can help you find more business prospects.

Still, you might wonder if using LinkedIn as another business network would be worth your time and effort. That is a warranted question, since this is a relatively new form of social media network. It is a valid observation, but the achievements that LinkedIn has achieved in connecting professionals with each other. It is also a reliable source of information for many marketers who are planning their next campaign in generating and nurturing of potential sales leads. The professional data of professionals (most who are executives or sales managers in various firms) can be used by marketers in their promotions.

Let us look at the facts:

77 percent of business researchers use LinkedIn for their work. 83 percent of online marketers tap the network. As for reliability, 87 percent of LinkedIn users trust the information stored there for products and services they are interested in. And these are just a few of the reasons why LinkedIn has a lot of market power. In terms of effectiveness, this could be the next best source of market information, after Facebook. It is not that hard to obtain the information you need. If you already have an account, you only need to log-in, search for a professional group of your interest, and view the profiles of those found there. It is that easy.

The only challenge here, in this regard, would be the people tasked in handling your company’s LinkedIn profile. We all know how bad things can go when you put ill-experienced or incompetent people on the helm of our online efforts. The last thing you would want your telemarketing team to answer during a lead generation call is how much of a liar our online promoter is. And LinkedIn is the one place that you cannot afford to make a mistake. It has your professional presence there. Make it count.

A Graphic illustration of a man on a telephone call while using computer

Improve Your Appointment Setting Call Handling

August 6, 2013/in Old Blogs /by Jayden Chu

In any appointment setting campaign, calling B2B leads prospects on the phone is a normal activity. After all, identifying business leads and nurturing them for future conversion is not something you can do simply online. Either you talk directly to your prospects or, if not possible, use direct communication tools for it, like telemarketing, as an example. But since we are talking about calling prospects, we need to be good in handling it. So, how will you go about it, then?

First, you should plan your campaign carefully. All lead generation campaigns that fail lack the proper planning in their processes. If you want to be effective in attracting the attention of prospects, you need to prioritize learning what makes them tick. And that requires lots of planning.

Second, build rapport. Banter with them, if you know them already. If not, show them the necessary courtesy and go straight to the point.

Third, inform them of your call. Either by email or another business call, you need to tell them beforehand why you are calling in the first place.

Fourth, ask good questions. You need to know what exactly your prospects are looking for in the first place. Asking them good questions will give you clues about what you can actually offer them.

Lastly, do not waste their time. Time is precious, and you as a marketer should understand that. It is the same thing with your prospects. As a rule, the less time you need to spend in order to tell them your purpose, the better.

These are just some tips that you can follow in order to be more effective in handling calls for sales leads. Will there be anything else you can add?

Winning B2B Leads Relationship In Singapore: Strategic Alliances

March 15, 2013/0 Comments/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

Generating sales leads in Singapore is not that hard to do. What is important here is that you have the people skilled enough in handling lead generation campaigns, as well as patient enough to handle the drudgeries of the work. Aside from that, you need to know just who you need to get in touch with. Unless you have established quite the presence in the local market, you will find it hard to promote your products or services. In cases like these, it is best that you seek help from others as well. For example, you enter into a strategic alliance with another company.

Having a strategic alliance with another firm can play an important role in your appointment setting plans. Co-marketing with another firm can help increase your presence in the market. Take for example, Intel and computer manufacturers. The chip maker can gain access to the otherwise resistant market, while computer manufacturers gain the processing prowess that Intel is known for. This win-win relationship can also be used by other firms. A telemarketing agency can partner with a social media firm in order to complement each other. The inherent weaknesses of both marketing tools can then be augmented by each other.

Of course, you need to be sure that you have the right business partners in Singapore. Co-marketing can be a double edged sword. While it can vastly improve your lead generation capabilities, it can also damage your campaign if your business are totally unrelated with each other. So choose your partner properly.

The Three Decision Makers In Singapore Lead Generation

March 12, 2013/0 Comments/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

Conducting a lead generation campaign in Singapore can be a big problem, especially if you fail to get in touch with the right business prospects or, more exactly, the right decision makers. Each organization has may have different decision makers but, generally speaking, there are three people that you should reach. This can affect your ability to generate qualified sales leads. Knowing who these people are will be the key to ensure success in your appointment setting process. Now, who are they?

The access person – basically, he is the first person that your telemarketing representative should gain in favor. They are the ones who can provide you with inside information, as well as entry to the organization. Your credibility rests entirely on the trust the access person will give you, so you should do your best to impress.
The problem person – he is the next person you should contact, since they will be the ones deciding whether what you offer is something they need or not. This is where your product knowledge and expertise is needed. If you can impress them, then you are two steps closer to turning such B2B leads into an actual sale or deal.
The budget person – the last, but definitely the most important of all decision makers. They are the ones who decide whether your offer is within the restraints of company finances. You will need to be a little bit flexible and skilled in negotiations, since the aim of this person is to reduce company costs.

Once you get the approval of all three decision makers, success in your lead generation campaign is assured.

Three Ways To Grow Your Sales Leads In Singapore

November 14, 2012/in Lead Generation /by Jayden Chu

Singapore is certainly a country with unlimited business potential, and a lot of investors and entrepreneurs are interested in it. Think of the various selling possibilities that you can take advantage of. Still, there is the challenge of actually getting your firm a business deal or two. That is the reason why an outsourced lead generation agency is needed. After all, generating B2B leads requires some marketing skills that only a handful of entrepreneurs have. Think about appointment setting, a more involved form of generating sales leads. You need to take note of some important pointers to grow B2B leads:

Look at your current customers – remember, your previous customers can become your new customers, so make it a point to include them. It is especially helpful if you are using telemarketing since you can communicate better.
Use the referral system – you will be surprised to know how many opportunities you can get for your campaign when you ask for referrals from your current customers. After all, they would be the first to know if anyone needed something.
Make your offer clear – this is one common fault for many marketers. Too often, they would tell prospects about business offers that may not sound to have any value at all. That is why it comes as no surprise how difficult it is to generate B2B leads.

Yes, you can grow your business in Singapore. Even if you do not have the skills or experience to follow the three marketing pointers, you can always outsource the work to a good lead generation firm.

rear view of a businessman on a phone call

The Need For Telemarketing In IT Managed Services

October 24, 2012/in Old Blogs /by Jayden Chu

If you are an IT managed services provider in Singapore, and you want to get more clients to come in, you will need a way to grab their attention. This is the reason for you to conduct a lead generation campaign. But you have to be sure that you are choosing the right way to do it. Depending on whether you have a marketing team or not, perhaps an appointment setting service is your type. In this case, it will also be necessary look for ones that can use a variety of communication mediums, like social media or telemarketing. This is all for the sake of you generating sales leads.

Of course, the idea of outsourcing the work can raise the eyebrows of a few of you out there. Still, this is a necessity. As IT professionals, you may not be familiar with the intricacies of calling prospects on the phone, so you might not be able to handle the task. If we put this in the Singaporean perspective, it will be better to just leave the job to professionals who know how to generate B2B leads better. There are other factors to be considered, like cost and efficiency, but the important point here is that generating sales leads requires professional help. Of course, you still have to choose which B2B leads generation service provider you should be working with.

There are plenty of them around, but you can be sure that only a few of them will need what you have. Good appointment setters can help your IT managed services to grow.

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