A good marketing agency should know upfront what the perfect lead looks like for your company. It could be that a good lead is based on age, income, associations, industry, needs, gender, location, interests, or who benefits the most in the value your products and services provide. The more a marketing agency knows about your business or spends the time to ask you details about your customers, the better the leads can be targeted, and the more quality leads a company can receive.
A good marketing company should also be able to take this a few steps further and know upfront how you as a company will try to convert your leads before they are generated through online marketing efforts. Knowing your company's conversion ratio's upfront and what this process looks like helps you as a business owner avoid overspending and utilizing marketing dollars just to say you got a lead. It's wise to really dive into how you approach the various types of leads your company receives or what this might look like after implementing a new marketing strategy, something Critchfield Consulting strives to learn and teach.
VARIOUS WAYS A COMPANY CAN RECEIVE LEADS DIGITALLY:
- Incoming Phone Call Leads - These are people that are looking at your website, social media, or Google My Business page and pick up the phone to reach out.
- Contact Form & Email Leads - These are people that have filled out a contact inquiry form, usually on your business website.
- Live Chat Leads - These are people that want additional information and have engaged with a live chat feature on your website.
- Inbound Marketing Leads - These are people that are engaging with your business from a prompted approach like an eBlast, newsletter, or digital advertisement.
- Paid Advertising and Social Media Leads - Some companies, depending on the products and services they offer, have an opportunity to drive more favorable leads through social media or paid advertising, whether this be targeted social ads, display advertising approaches, pay per click campaigns or viral engagement.
OTHER WAYS COMPANIES CAN ACQUIRE NEW DIRECT LEADS:
- Sales Department Leads - Whether this is a sales team cold calling, prospecting through their natural market or calling on qualified leads that come internally or from another 3rd party, sales departments are typically the army in the trenches driving company sales.
- Referred Leads - The very best lead a company can receive is a referred lead as these are often 75% more likely to result in a sale. Getting referred leads comes from having a solid sales team approach or having a product or service that people like, need, or want.
- Radio & Television Advertisement Leads - Whether you are trying to create awareness, brand recognition, or new lead generation, radio and TV can still deliver when done correctly.
- Tradeshow or Event Promoted Leads - Showing up to an industry related trade show to showcase what you do or creating events that engage with potential new prospects like hosting an area golf tournament or providing a free lunch and learn is a great way to drive additional leads.
- Direct Mail Leads - Believe it or not, direct mail still works and is a great way to introduce your business to a local market that you are targeting.
When analyzing your lead intake tactics, here are some questions that are important to ask and answer. What is your team's elevator speech? How are you generating most of your leads now? How fast does your team respond to a lead? What is the general script used for different types of leads? What ways can your team respond better or more quickly to a lead?
PARTNERING WITH CRITCHFIELD CONSULTING
When you partner with Critchfield Consulting, our focus is to analyze the entire lead process from start to finish. Of course, we measure and track all the online leads for our customers, but we work hard to measure how well your team is converting your leads by tracking our process and success. One of the ways we do this is by secretly shopping our clients so that we can provide critical sales coaching where needed.
Whether we need to jump in and provide a more reliable and timely way to respond to inbound inquiries or provide elevator speeches, templated email responses, phone scripts, or updated sales processes, we will help. Our scorecard relies not only on how many leads we can help generate for our clients but how well your team converts leads to sales. If you'd like to talk to us about your lead intake process or you need a little coaching in this area, reach out to us at 816-718-6617 or message us here.
