The new year is for new beginnings and if your lead generation needs a reboot, now’s the right time to give it the attention it needs so the year ahead will be a success. Here are some helpful tips for the coming year that will help with your lead generation campaign.
Review your successes (and flops)
What were your goals for 2018? Did you want to build your subscriber list, boost sales, or raise awareness on social media? Were you working on new products or services and plan to start selling them this year? Whatever your objectives, a good way to begin every year is to do a bit of reflection. Pull relevant data and see what happened over the past 12 months. If something worked, try to understand why and build on those efforts this year. On the other hand, if something clearly didn’t work, it’s time to try something new.
Data analysis for any upcoming lead generation campaign
The most important asset of your marketing department is your database, where the lifeblood of your marketing and lead generation lies. The health of that information is paramount to your business’ success, so find the time to evaluate the age, source, quality and relevance of the content, as this will ensure you are equipped to make the right decisions going forward. Take some time this month to analyze and improve your database.
Know your market
A lot of sales teams handicap their own efforts by not fully understanding the motivations of their customers. Why someone is considering buying something is as important as when or where that decision might be made. Once you understand their reasons for buying something, you can effectively position your widget or service as the best one for their needs. No amount of time spent researching a buyer’s motivation is ever wasted. It’s how you will generate the most sales in the long run.
Sales loss analysis
Good sales loss analysis can help you see what you did well and where you went wrong in a previous sales situation. This includes lead generation, marketing, sales support, sales documentation, the sales team and managing the entire process. If any of these are fumbled you could lose the sale to a competitor. Feedback from the sales team is a good start but even more helpful is hiring an independent third party to solicit feedback from prospects at all stages of the sales and marketing process.
Keyword research
Think of keyword research as not just a means to an end – better SEO – but as essential information to aid your B2B sales and marketing efforts. Keywords are what your prospects use to research the products and services they are looking for, so they are paramount to your success. Spend time now doing this critical task to amass the best arsenal for the tasks ahead – not just for SEO purposes, but to be deployed in every aspect of your outreach.
Don’t believe the hype
There are hundreds of companies that will claim to know how to sell to your audience, but ultimately you are the best judge of that. If you study your market carefully and learn everything there is to know about how (and where) they start the buying process, you will know exactly how (and where) to target them. And no slick B2B marketing company can sell you anything else, because you will know exactly what you need to get the attention of your market.
360 Leads is purpose built to help B2B companies acquire more customers, deepen existing relationships and optimize sales team performance. Find out how we can help you hit all your targets in 2019.
