Your sales team is begging for help. They call every day with the same message and struggle to get thru to a human being. You might say, “The strong survive.” Banging your head against a wall is not strength. Marketing campaigns are designed to open doors, make conversations easier and provide motivation to the client. There are clear ways to do this and rather than worrying about the strong to survive concept, the only thing in life you can’t get back is (wasted) time. Success is defined with return on investment and the more people you can expose to your company and the sooner you can have your sales team making live contact the more you will see ROI.
The Theme
We need a reason for the campaign. It does not need to be complex, but it does need to address a client need. Do you know what your client needs? If not, then give a client advocate a call and ask what issues they are having and what they think would resolve them. The idea is to turn that need into a theme. Theme is a device we use to build the creative concept for both content writing and design. You are trying to attract the client’s attention. Within the content, you need to emphasize your key messaging and differentiation. Make it impactful and the next thing you need is your target list.
The List
Are you sending it out to existing clients or prospects? What level of decision maker do you need? What markets and industries are you focusing on? Using your existing database is one way to build your list. Another is using list services to generate specific new targets. In either case, you want to work with your sales team so that they are the owners of their individual lists. If they are bought into the campaign and they assist in building the list then you should see high accountability for driving success. But, what is going to motivate your clients to take action.
The Offer
When building a solid offer, you want to address something that the client has an issue with. You can give away an item that they want. You can discount to address financial needs. You can create a bundled approach in order to drive a team concept. There are so many ways to build an offer and the most important thing is to understand what the client motivation is and address it.
The Execution
Email is relatively inexpensive, should you use it? Social media is free, should you use it? Advertising reaches a wide audience, should use it? Direct mail is focused, should use it? The answer is that you need to build out an execution plan that addresses as many delivery vehicles as you can afford and that are on point with your plan. There are merits to each of these and your expectations can increase the more of the vehicles that you use. You are trying to get your message to the intended audience as efficiently as possible to drive return.
The Tracking
There are several tools on the market that allow you to track, but the best friend to tracking is still using codes. If each piece that you do has its own code then individual tracking can be created using web forms, custom urls, custom phone numbers, custom response email addresses, and more. Do not overlook tracking or you will complete your campaign wondering if it was a success.
Marketing campaigns or lead generation programs are designed to attract an audience and deliver a result, ROI. If your team is doing the same thing as everyone else and persistence equals “The strong will survive” then a marketing campaign can turn the tables for you. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Five Lead Generation Takeaways:
- Build a theme to unify your campaign and address client needs
- Target your list for maximum effect
- Build an offer that motivates
- The devil is in the detail so have a strong execution plan
- Create tracking for complete clarity
About S.J.Hemley Marketing
S.J.Hemley Marketing is a marketing and sales consulting firm focused on driving tangible results for professional services firms. Brand matters, but not without ROI. With over 20 years of sales and marketing experience within staffing and recruiting, we have helped to drive successful branding, sales training, lead generation activities as well as defining marketing strategy for top organizations.