Targeting, content, and timing.
The three aspects that lead generation must revolve around to deliver leads that result in closed deals.

Digital marketing campaign’s are complicated. Their success is expected and failure is easy. Creating a proper campaign that develops inter-business relationships is like walking on eggshells. There is an extremely high sensitivity to how the message resonates with recipients this makes attention to detail that much more important. A devoted focus to your marketing’s content, targeting, and timing will prove to be beneficial for you, your client and your client’s prospects.

Targeting
Target markets vary from company to company and industry to industry. Targeting the right companies and the appropriate decision makers within those companies may be one of the hardest challenges in email marketing.

The solution can be more clear with certain clients than others because as we work with many different clients we are also tasked with marketing differing products and services that each require a unique approach in targeting the right people.

It would be easy to email blast as many contacts as possible in hopes that we’ll find any interest but this will more than likely be more harmful than anything. A campaign without specific targeting can cause negative relationships. Contacting anyone in a company that’s not able to make a decision on the matter is one way to do this. Your boss doesn’t want to know that sales pitches are being given to everyone but them. Likewise, the IT department wants nothing to do with HR services. As a lead generation company we are responsible for maintaining the integrity and image that our clients have entrusted in us. This does not mean that we expect to target an unqualified prospect at times (this would be impossible!) but it does mean that a pattern of inappropriate contacts is going to end up negatively affecting the campaign, our client and ourselves.

Time is precious and wasting it on emails that should be intended for someone else is going to lead to hostile responses and costly campaigns. It’s almost nearly impossible for this to be completely avoided but the opportunity to be minimalized is there. Ensuring that we are targeting the proper contact is essential and the first step is to be fully understanding of who you’re marketing for and who you’re marketing to. It’s necessary that you know and are aware of what product or service you have and set a realistic profile of quality prospects. This will not only allow you to reach those that will lead to customers but just as importantly keep the contacts that are going to be harmful away.

Content
It’s extremely easy to find email marketing templates that supposedly lead to a more clear and receivable message but the important thing to note is that as a lead generation company, all our clients are different!
Basic templates lead to basic campaigns. Lead generation is about representing the unique values of our clients and being able to sell them to unique prospects all within the capabilities of an email.

Lets face it, when you look through emails, you open, read the first sentence and decide whether the email is worth your time. Well written, structured, engaging emails that are able to relate to the target audience are going to be the most successful. This also includes well informed, and relevant content. Regardless of how well a product/service would fit the needs of a company, the power of a poorly written email will always turn a prospect away. It is our job to clearly inform, persuade and allow respondents to deliver any inquiries. Any failure to do so will lead to a failed campaign and lost opportunity. It’s very easy for an email to go wrong and when they do go right it’s then up to sales to turn this lead into a customer!

Timing
Turning a lead into a customer may seem like a responsibility just for the sales team right? From a lead generation standpoint, No! Our job is not done properly unless a lead is delivered to our clients in a timely manner. This means RIGHT AWAY. The handoff timing plays a crucial role in transforming a lead into a sale.

A lead is only hot when they’re your first priority. It says a lot about a company when they cannot take the time to follow up on a potential customer and our clients rely on us to send them leads accordingly. With this being said, the handoff isn’t the only timing of a campaign that needs to be considered. Reaching prospects at the right time can mean everything. It’s amazing how many companies would be interested in a service or product but cannot commit because they just signed a new contract or how many ask to be contacted at a later date.

Think about it this way. For every hot lead that we have generated the one thing that they all have in common is that the opportunity has been presented to them at a time where their interest is peaked. This does not mean that it would be appropriate to contact prospects everyday all day until they are ready for a sales pitch but it does mean that timing of contact can mean the difference between having a lead and not and should be noted when deciding on when to send a campaign.

So you’ve got the target right, the content is engaging, and the timing matches. These aspects of an email marketing campaign all need to be aligned for any lead to ever be developed. Unfortunately it’s much easier said than done and in generating leads you will fail more than you’ll succeed. A focus on these three aspects will develop leads and just as importantly maintain the vision and principles that you’ve put into the hands of your lead generation company.

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