Demand Generation Articles

Practical Tips to Drive More Leads in 2018

It’s a lovely time of year with Christmas lights, festive decor, and an Elf on the Shelf or two. Amidst the holiday hustle and bustle, marketers are planning for the New Year and how to spend their time and budget.

According to Gartner’s 2017-2018 CMO Spend Survey, marketing budgets will recede despite a continued demand for results. Demonstrate that your programs deliver with these helpful tactics that generate engagement, convert leads, and create pipeline while using your hard-earned marketing dollars wisely.

Re-Engage Your Current Audience

Look for ways to get the most value out of your current database. Run a re-engagement campaign to awaken leads with new content and enticing offers.

Here’s how:

• Pull a list from your database that contains leads who are roughly 180 – 360 days old (you’ll need to make the call on this one!).
• Create an email nurture, 2-3 emails should suffice, that offers your leads a new piece of content and perhaps a demo or free trial. The goal should be to capture their engagement and show that they are active.
• Run your campaign and monitor results. Pass awakened leads to your business development representatives or sales team and track pipeline from there.

Convert More Website Traffic

It’s time to show your website some love. Do a website throwdown and select high priority items to improve, and new ideas to test, to ensure your website is working hard for you.

Here are some things to try:

• Use tools like Moz.com to identify high priority errors and fix them fast! Take a look at keyword usage in your headers, content and meta descriptions. And, be sure that they are consistent across your site.
• Look at site speed and take inventory of video and graphics that can be condensed. This will help your visitors get where they need to go faster and minimize the chance that they will bounce from your site.
• Gather data from optimization tools like Crazy Egg and Hotjar to get heat maps and user insights to determine which messages resonate with your audience and make them more prominent on your website.
• Test, test, test! Start optimizing your campaigns through testing and use the data you gather to make better decisions.
• Move your call-to-action from the right vs. left side of the page.
• Swap button text in the ASpot of your website. Get a Quote, Sign up for a Demo, etc.
• Add a pop up with Optimizely or Opt-in Monster to see if you get more conversions.

Review Your Digital Advertising Mix

Gartner’s report also shares that “two-thirds (67%) of CMOs plan to increase their spending in digital advertising,” and, “63% will decrease spend in offline advertising.” Don’t be afraid to experiment with owned, earned and paid campaigns. Rapidly experiment in early 2018, measure your results using visual dashboards such as those offered by Google Data Studio, and then invest heavily in the channels that show you a good return.

Consider investing in channels such as:

• LinkedIn – Text ads, Sponsored ads, and InMail
• Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing
• Stackoverflow, Quora, and Reddit
• Industry publications related to key personas’ interests
• Your Blog – Use paid channels to promote your content

Above all, be thoughtful and data-driven as you make decisions on where to direct your hard-earned marketing dollars. Marketers (especially those with small teams and big goals) often fall into the trap of go, go, go! Get that email out, release an eBook, write a blog post, run those ads, and get those leads!

Instead of trying to do more in 2018, focus all marketing tactics like SEO, content, email marketing, and PPC, around a cohesive campaign that targets key personas along your customer journey. Look at all of the moving pieces and evaluate what works so you know where to spend more or less time and budget.

If you need a push in the right direction, reach out to us. We’re here to partner with companies, like yours, looking to build their plan for a prosperous New Year!