Savvy Demand Marketer's Guide

Transcription

1 Savvy Demand Marketer's Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 1

2 The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation In today s buzzword-ridden world, the term lead generation is one of the buzziest right behind synergy, that is. Because lead generation is so important to any business and because the term is thrown around so often it s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. When you hit a sales lull, your team has to scramble to get more leads. And instead of focusing your efforts on the most effective strategies, you fall into the trap of staying busy. When you re hustling to drive sales, you risk spending lots of time on lots of disjointed activities, which can lead to a scattershot approach to lead generation. A more effective method is to think of all lead-generation activities in terms of inbound marketing and outbound marketing and learn how both types of activities can work together. Lead Generation Inbound Marketing Outbound Marketing The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 2

3 PART 1 What is Inbound? Before you can build an airtight strategy with a strong foundation of inbound and outbound tactics, you need to understand the key differences between the two types of activities. Inbound lead generation is designed to draw people to a fixed location (usually your website) and collect their information through a combination of forms and content-based incentives. As opposed to in-your-face direct marketing tactics, inbound marketing relies on a more subtle approach, including (but not limited to): Contact or Order Forms Blog Subscription Gated Content Unlike the first two options, these forms aren t tied to a piece of content. Rather, they re outlets for visitors to ask questions or reach out to your company. Subscriptions allow your readers to receive periodic company-related updates. These forms are usually tied to a piece of content, such as a blog post or a newsletter. These bigger content assets (e.g., white papers, e-books, case studies, etc.) are placed behind a contact form that visitors must complete to access. Inbound lead generation affords you some pretty amazing benefits. For one thing, because these tactics attract your audience s attention organically, they allow you to build customer relationships that are based on your expertise, not a transaction. Inbound is also fairly cost-effective. It demands a significant time investment up front to craft the content, build a social media following, improve your SEO, etc., but once the content and processes are in place, there are no additional costs per lead (other than website/asset maintenance). What s more, you can capture leads at any point in the buying process. Typically, leads have conducted some preliminary research, which means they may be closer to the middle or bottom of the funnel. Of course, not all leads will be a good fit, but it hardly matters because your inbound lead engine is always working even when you re not. Instead of a campaign, which produces leads in fits and starts, your inbound marketing efforts can produce a steady stream of leads all year long. The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 3

4 How to Build a Solid Inbound Strategy To reap the benefits of inbound lead generation, you need to have a solid strategy in place and be willing to invest the resources to attract, convert, and close the right leads. Here are Five Steps you can Take: 1 Outline Your Content Strategy This is a robust document that will set standards to guide your content creation and distribution process. You ll need to answer questions such as: What am I trying to accomplish? Who is reading this content? What are my areas of focus for content? How am I going to distribute this content? How am I going to measure this content s effectiveness? Use your content strategy document to outline existing content, tie content to specific buyer personas and stages of the buying cycle, and align your content with organizational goals Craft Compelling Content This is the linchpin of your inbound lead-generation strategy. Content is what draws visitors to your website, and it s the incentive that drives conversions. Publish Frequently Content quality is more important than quantity, but publishing frequency is still an important factor. A large body of content will establish your authority in your industry, so you need to distribute unique content on a regular basis. A frequent publication cycle also allows you to stay nimble and weigh in on current industry trends. Develop Your Distribution Channels Without any readers, your content isn t going to generate leads. You need to develop your distribution channels (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, your lists, etc.) to get your content in front of your target audience. A developed social media account will have a completed profile, attractive images/designs, and a sizable following, but it will also have good engagement. Measure Everything I m not just talking about counting form completions. The most successful companies pay close attention to the front and back ends of their inbound lead-generation process. On the front end, you need to identify (and attribute) all of the channels and assets that lead to form completion. On the back end, you must monitor the quality of leads by tying them to deeper-funnel conversions and sales. The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 4

5 PART 2 What is Outbound? Outbound Unlike inbound, which brings leads to you, outbound lead generation is the process of reaching out to a group of contacts that meets specific criteria. It s typically campaign-based, and you collect information through temporary (but specific) landing pages. Like inbound leads, outbound leads can also be driven by content-based incentives. While outbound requires more of an ongoing investment, these tactics are great ways to grab your audience s attention. And if your outbound strategies are well-targeted, you can make a big impact on your audience. Here are Three Common use Cases for Outbound Lead Generation: Asset Promotion If you have a content asset, such as a white paper or an e-book, you can circulate this asset to a highly targeted audience via an campaign to drive leads. Webinar Recruitment This requires a similar process to asset promotion, but you can use your campaign to drive registration for a live or on-demand webinar. Effective webinar recruitment also includes reminder s to maximize attendance. Trade Show Or Event Recruitment Industry trade shows, conferences, and other events are effective outbound channels that allow you to connect with prospects one-on-one. You can use an -based campaign to drive attendance and even schedule booth appointments to increase the event s sales potential. One of the major differences between inbound and outbound marketing is that inbound contact forms attract a variety of people, while outbound uses database matching to collect several contact methods for the specific persona that you outline. For example, at HiP, we collect in-depth information about a client s target audience before an asset promotion, and we use marketing automation software to exclude those who have already engaged from circulations. What s more, the turnkey nature of outbound lead generation means that a campaign can be up and running in a matter of days. This can provide that extra jolt you need to push past those tricky end-of-the-year marketing or sales goals. The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 5

6 How to Craft a Striking Outbound Strategy Just like your inbound strategy, you need to give your outbound lead-generation strategy some careful consideration to maximize its effectiveness. Here are three tips you can use to create a solid outbound campaign: 1 Target the Correct Audience To see results, targeting the correct audience is a must. This requires an intimate understanding of the types of people who make the best customers. At HiP, we offer targeting options to zero in on your target audience, no matter what your niche is. 2 3 Depending on how sophisticated your inbound efforts are, you may already have detailed profiles of your target audience. However, if this data isn t available, talk to your sales and marketing team to flesh out this buyer profile with common pain points, questions, objections, etc. Match Your Assets to the Occasion Outbound lead generation creates top-of-funnel leads. In other words, it introduces prospects to your company for the first time. At this stage, it s best to assume that recipients know very little about you or your offering. Effective assets will educate buyers about the potential value of this type of solution. For example, a promotion for IT administrators at cloud storage companies could outline the benefits of secure cloud backup for business data. At this stage, your content should be educational and situation-oriented. You want to get the IT administrator interested in secure cloud backup, not your company s specific offering. This will establish you as a trusted advisor, rather than a sleazy vendor, which allows you to influence the lead deeper in the funnel. Nurture Your Leads According to HubSpot, about 50 percent 1 of qualified leads aren t ready to buy. So your top-of-funnel leads certainly aren t ready to be closed. If you put them on the phone with a sales rep, it could spell disaster. The key to unlocking the value of this lead is to nurture him with additional content. This will guide him through the buying process, from awareness to evaluation to decision. According to Forrester Research, 65 percent 2 of decision makers want to do business with the companies that create the buying vision. So start by establishing the need, then point the buyer toward the solution The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 6

7 PART 3 Inbound & Outbound Together While both inbound and outbound have their individual perks, most businesses will find the most success combining them. Here are a few ways to do so: Cover Your Gaps In Inbound Production If you ve measured inbound and developed a strong understanding of the crests and troughs in lead flow, you can use outbound to provide a boost during slow periods. Example: You may discover a seasonal dip in inbound leads during the month of October. In this case, running an outbound campaign in late September can generate fresh leads during your downtime. Reach a New Audience Because an outbound campaign utilizes contact databases, you can use it to reach a new segment of the market, reposition your brand, or launch a new product. Example: Let s say you re developing a new product that s targeting database administrators. It would take time to create content and attract a significant number of database administrators to your website and inbound forms. However, because outbound lead generation can be used on a turnkey basis, you can reach a huge number of database administrators within days. Grow Efficiently Adding outbound leads to existing inbound production can help you expand and avoid plateauing. And if you re trying to grow your sales team, outbound can supplement your workload. Example: For example, imagine that your company is experiencing slow but steady growth using inbound lead-generation tactics. You ve reached a point where you ve created more leads than your sales team can handle, but not enough to justify another sales rep. In this case, you should use outbound lead generation to provide enough leads for a new rep while inbound grows to fill the gap. The Savvy Sales Manager s Guide to Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation HiP 7

8 Increase Your Per-Asset ROI Creating unique inbound content on a regular basis can be grueling, but you can get more mileage out of each asset by running an outbound campaign that utilizes it. Example: You can repurpose a white paper that s popular with your inbound visitors by circulating it via an outbound campaign. Inbound should give you an idea of which assets are the most successful with specific target audiences, so make sure you tailor future content assets to these results. In conclusion, once you understand how your inbound and outbound lead-generation tactics can work together, you re one step closer to laying the foundation for an airtight sales engine. When you focus on striking a healthy balance between inbound and outbound marketing, you can create a steady stream of leads and boost it on an as-needed basis. Can Hip Take Your Sales to the Next Level? We are a New York-based agency providing agile, single-vendor, and high-outcome B2B digital marketing and lead-generation services for technology-centric clients. Our key differentiators include our own content marketing platform, a B2B contact database of millions of engaged contacts with deep segmentation data, a commitment to excellence, and a tight-knit team of deeply experienced marketing and lead-gen professionals. CONTACT US 8