Budget Lead

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝?

Some of the challenges faced by IT companies in their lead-gen efforts include:
➔Significantly increased competition.
➔Reaching decision makers and not just the general audiences.
➔Not having enough trust and brand value to appeal to an influential audience.
➔Not having an organized multichannel approach strategy.
➔Managing sales lead sources.

Here are a few ways in which marketers for B2B IT firms can revamp their approach:

𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: Marketing automation uses a funnel to design a customer journey which starts with a trigger, like filling a form, downloading a whitepaper, signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or sharing an email. These journeys are designed to be more relevant to the recipient than just a mass email campaign. Once you thoroughly know your buyer persona and target audience, a lead generation tool like this can come in handy for your outbound lead generation efforts.

𝑮𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕: A great way to generate quality leads is to offer premium content regarding your IT niche to visitors who are willing to provide their contact information. Examples include blogs, whitepapers, e-books, and even video tutorials. Rather than just asking for the visitor's details, you can innovate in different ways to gate your content; this may include taking a survey regarding the industry followed by sharing a poll showing what other visitors think about the same or even including a small pop quiz to engage your audience.

𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝑵𝒆𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒐𝒅𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕: Webinars and podcasts are here to stay. They are proving highly effective tools for B2B lead gen, especially for IT companies. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 60% of marketers use webinars as part of their inbound marketing campaign.

𝑼𝒔𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉: Whether it is a small IT startup or any other niche industry enterprise, consumers trust one another more than they trust messages from less familiar brands. This is where partnering up with the right influencers can be a game-changer. PPC and other paid advertising is getting incredibly expensive, congested, and in many cases, ineffective. While thought leadership can help you build credibility, influencers can help expand your reach while generating leads.

𝟑 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤
Seeing an excellent open rate on a marketing email can be exciting. It could mean a few things:

✪The email has a compelling subject line

✪Your audience is engaged and interested

✪Or, perhaps you delivered your email at the perfect time

Time to celebrate, right?

In this post, I cover the three biggest reasons using open rate as the leading indicator of email marketing success is a mistake, and I'll suggest additional measurement strategies.

➔𝑨𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒅:
An email is only considered open when the Internet Service Provider (ISP) sees that an email's graphic/HTML elements were downloaded. If the graphics aren't downloaded, this can mean that the email wasn't opened or that the user read the text version of your email instead of the HTML version. This can happen due to the email host or a user's preference settings.

Because you can't be 100 percent sure whether a user will read the HTML or text version of an email, it's a good idea to double-check that both versions are readable and look how you want the user to view it.

➔𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒎 𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 "𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏" 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒔, 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒔:
A spam filter bot scans emails to make sure they're safe. Sometimes, the spam filter will open it multiple times, while the receiver never actually opens the email. This skews the total open and unique click-through rates (CTR).

Did this contact open this email six times in two hours? Possibly, but not likely.

➔𝑶𝒑𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅:
Just because a contact opens an email doesn't mean the email was read. Some users open emails to clean up an inbox and reduce the number of unread emails, or they may open an email to unsubscribe from a drip campaign. There are many reasons an email could be opened that have nothing to do with interest in the content.

Clicks can't be tampered with: Although it's more challenging to optimize, a click is the best indicator of an email's success. Likewise, your CTR indicates how well your message resonated with your audience and the overall strength of your call-to-action (CTA).

The "open rate" silver lining: As with all marketing activities, email marketing is all about process and content optimization. Regardless of where you stand compared to industry benchmarks, your goal should always be continuous improvement.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫’𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲

Email is one of the best tools for connecting with your network. You must follow a few best practices to make it work for you. Here are some tips to help you develop an email marketing strategy that gets the job done.

➔Create a Documented Content Plan:
✫Establish Who Your Audience Is
✫List Your Goals
✫Outline the Various Rules and Guidelines for Your Emails
✫List the Types of Content You Need to Create to Fuel Your Email Marketing

➔Establish Which Tools You’ll Need:
Email marketing tools are a significant advantage for any educator since they take on much of the rote work, leaving you to just fill in the details.

➔Determine Your Sending Details:
Figure out how often you’re going to send emails. Will it be once a month? Once a week? Timing is everything regarding email marketing, so you want to be sure to find the right cadence for maximum results. Test a few different frequencies and then use the analytics on your automation platform to see what gets the highest performance and engagement.

➔Map Out Your Creation Process:
The last tip for effective email marketing as an educator is to iron out the kinks of your creation process, including both general content and the emails themselves. If you have other people helping you with this initiative, could you ensure that everyone knows their role and how the team will work together to get things done?

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐈𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐲.

What is lead generation?
For those that don't already know, lead generation is all about opening doors with people who are a good fit for your product or service, paving the way for a business opportunity now or in the future.

Why isn't a traditional lead generation strategy enough?
We've written at length on this blog about sales and marketing alignment and the need for both departments to work in harmony and guarantee your business stepping up its growth and getting anywhere near fulfilling its potential.

So what does a digital marketing strategy offer that a traditional strategy doesn't?
There's a common misconception of marketing that it's here to remove the human touch from the world, wiping your traditional salespeople and their old-school lead generation tactics off the face of the earth for good, replacing them with nothing but cold, mechanical, modern marketing methods driven purely by data and analytics.

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 - 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲!
Traditional sales are crucial and always will be: we have a sales function and are a digital marketing agency. But there are three key things a proper, well-researched marketing and lead generation strategy will help you to achieve that you otherwise couldn't:

➜Generate more leads: They were based on the fact that different people absorb information in different ways, with some preferring to read things in their own time, some being great at listening, and others only really learning when they get involved and see things for themselves.

➜Better nurture new and existing leads: This short but most evil of sentences starts a never-ending cycle of sales torture, whereby each time you call, there's a high chance the prospect won't remember you - or will at least politely pretend they do - telling you not much has changed and to get back in touch again in a few months.

➜Close more deals: Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the fact that new marketing techniques can be used in conjunction with traditional sales to help you close more deals.

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 + 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 = 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡
Of course, the examples in this article are very top-level; a complete marketing strategy combined with traditional lead generation tactics will go much deeper than the simplistic methods mentioned above.