In our last webinar ‘Lead Qualification: 3 Steps to Conversion Success’ we were joined by Ganesh Rajendran, Head – Marketing and Communications at Uniphore Software Systems. We discussed the lead qualification and its importance in helping businesses close more deals. Those of you who missed it, some of the questions asked during the session are summarized below.
Question 1
When we create a landing page, which platforms can we put them in? Any advice on creating good landing pages?
It depends on where exactly you advertise, and promote your stuff. You can use it in Adwords, Facebook, LinkedIn – basically any place where you can place a link to capture leads. We have multiple resources on our blog and some older webinars that would help you create good landing pages. You can check out some here.
Question 2
How to increase the ratio between interested and not interested leads or how to increase the quality of leads?
Let’s take two different scenarios that might explain how to increase the quality of leads.
If you are doing outbound marketing and outbound calls, the quality of leads which come out of that effort will be high.
a) When the database on which you are operating is high quality or has a quality which you want to chase.
However, that might not be the case in the following situations:
For example, if you are selling a product or service which can be bought only by companies who are in manufacturing and you are trying to call and reach out to people in the petroleum industry or any other service-based business, that effort will not really give you any results.
b) The rule of thumb is basically getting the right traffic in, and then start qualifying them.
Again however, that may not work if you are trying to attract traffic from a variety of sources, to promote your product and generate leads. The important bit is getting quality traffic. If you are running ads on sites with a really wide range of ads, and you are targeting all kinds of mediums with all kinds of ads, then you are attracting all kinds of traffic. This won’t get quality leads.
Question 3
How to get quality leads in B2C business through digital marketing?
You could try the following:
a) Make sure you are getting quality traffic:
If the traffic quality is poor, the leads that you get from them will also be poor.
One aspect of getting quality traffic is through searchable content. If you are investing in content marketing, and your prospects discover that content, it is likely that you will get high quality leads. However, it would also depend on the intent of the lead. Organic and content traffic tend to be Q&A kind so that’s why, the intent matters.
b) The ability to recommend and refer:
Anybody who has bought a home from a particular builder and has had a great experience is likely to refer that builder to his/her friends, colleagues or relatives. Leads which come from referral and reviews will be extremely valuable and of high quality.
Question 4
Are you willing to integrate with WhatsApp?
The answer really lies with WhatsApp people. Their APIs are not open. So far, they have not given any provision or any hint to open their APIs to anybody or do an integration in a proper way. As of now, there has been no opportunity for developers like us to build any kind of meaningful integration with their app.
Question 5
What are your thoughts on B2C aspect of lead qualification?
In B2C lead qualification, one of the most important aspects is the turnaround time. I know this gentlemen from Pune who runs a language coaching center and he gets leads from JustDial. He told me that he wanted the fastest way to to contact the lead when it came in because the first contact with the lead, in B2C, will actually have the opportunity to win the deal.
I spoke to another company who is in the logistics business. In this case also, when a person inquires on JustDial about movers and packers, the company who calls the lead first is more likely to win the deal.
How marketing automation can help:
Now obviously, JustDial is doing some kind of qualification. But if the response time is poor, then the qualification will never happen. The response time is important for even doing the qualification. That’s why you need a system that is automated to distribute leads, to capture leads, and to follow up on them. The response time may vary from business to business, but it is very important from a B2C standpoint.
In B2C there could also be products are not necessarily sold immediately. For example, if you are selling an online training program, it may not be sold immediately. However, the prospect will always remember the brand who called them first.
The prospect may show interest in buying after a couple of months. Now if you miss the opportunity of tracking their website visits, email opens and clicks on links, then you may again lose the opportunity to sell to them.
In consumer business, if you are selling a high ticket item, you need to be extremely careful and watchful of your leads’ activities, or else you may lose them.
