Are you frustrated by the inefficiency and low quality of third-party leads?

Trawling through the haystack of high volume raw leads to find the proverbial needle of an in-market consumer can be an exhausting challenge any sales team faced with a challenging short-term target.

But in a crowded-market place, with competitors vying for attention across multiple digital screens, connecting with real potential customers as they research their next purchase is vital for incremental sales growth.

Lead Generation can – and does – provide a cost-effective and efficient route to new customers. Just not in using the traditional high-volume, low-quality approach.

‘Volume and quality are not mutually exclusive’

At the crux of every lead generation campaign, the primary goal is to connect with the consumer. But too often the need for volume drives organisations further and further away from the consumer’s needs, wants and expectations.

But volume and quality are not mutually exclusive. Advanced lead generation goes beyond traditional lead gen at every stage of the process to reach more consumers, engage more meaningfully and qualify thoroughly to generate high quality, qualified in-market consumer leads at scale.

It does so by focusing on the customer from the outset and maintaining that focus throughout every stage of the acquisition process.

We have identified eight steps you can take right now that will dramatically improve lead quality and campaign performance.

1. Purpose – Dig down into the root of what problem you’re trying to solve. This is where you will see the biggest success – aligning your expectations with consumer needs will harness quality from campaign inception.
2. Track all interactions – Understanding all consumer touchpoints will allow better optimisation of activity further down the line. Without the visibility of where a consumer is in their decision cycle, it’s almost impossible to drive quality.
3. Acquisition – Qualify consumers from the outset. Testing multiple digital channels, optimising accordingly and focusing on what drives quality at the first touch point will yield strong results further down the line. Deep and purposeful questioning, which adds value to the interaction, will ensure only quality leads are fed into the top of the funnel.
4. Optimisation – Evaluate all user journeys within the decision cycle and understand at an intricate level what is/isn’t driving quality consumers. From this you can take appropriate actions to capitalise on the opportunity or alternatively fix the issues. Whether this be reprogramming or tailoring the language used for questions asked over the phone to looking at the what imagery drives engagement in the digital channels, it’s imperative to have an ongoing optimisation framework.
5. Qualification – Re-engaging with the consumer through the appropriate communication channel, whether this be on the Phone, through Email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Live Chat service (etc.) can have a significant impact on lead quality. Understanding that live consumer interaction is the key to driving quality! This is the one opportunity to get real-time feedback on specific consumer demands but also shape expectations from the brand. It truly is the integral piece of connecting brands and consumers.
6. Nurture – An acquired lead is always valuable, regardless of where the consumer is in their decision cycle. The real magic is how to move a consumer along their journey from consideration to purchase. Often the tendency is to focus on consumers at the final point in the decision cycle. It’s important to remember that lead times between consideration and purchase can vary based on the actual size of the purchase. Consumers are different, operate and think differently and take different lengths of time to reach their decisions. It’s important to be there at every stage in their cycle, this will engender trust and help produce lead quality when the consumer is ready to pull the trigger.
7. Re-evaluation – It’s important to drive understanding of the activity, gain feedback and iterate on what could be working better. Can new solutions be developed to help alleviate an issue exposed within the user journey? Tackle any problems head on and lead quality will be ensured.
8. Evaluate customer lifetime value – A lead should not be thought of as just a lead. This is a person, who may/may not be ready to make their purchase at the point of when the lead is passed over. Working with the brand to ensure that the lead goes into the appropriate user journey on the brand side is equally paramount to ensuring quality. Understanding whether the consumer needs to go into a nurture programme or is ready to pull the trigger immediately will have long-term quality benefits.

Written by Paul Court, Head of Performance Marketing at The Lead Agency.

To discover how advanced lead generation can support your goals, contact us today.