Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
It’s not how many leads you have, it’s….
Posted by 
on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 
at 12:11 PM 
in If you are involved in the marketing efforts for your company, I am betting you would agree that the lead-generation process can be a lot of fun.
It typically goes like this – you come up with an interesting bit of content… Maybe it’s a mailer, an email, a blog post, a video, etc… You entice people to respond to that media and then provide additional information.
Each time someone clicks and submits, congratulations – you’ve got a lead.
As great of a feeling as this can be, there is more satisfaction to be found if you look further down the sales funnel. Yes, the role of a marketer is not just to bring in leads; it’s just as important to provide content that helps sales people convert the lead into a customer.
I found a statistic recently that said this: “80% of all sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact”.
So, that’s where the real challenge lies – can you provide enough interesting and compelling content to enable your sales people to “touch” their prospects that many times?
Below we’ve provided a few different ideas on what steps might make up those touches. It is by no means a magic formula. But if you are scratching your head right now, wondering what touches 1 through whatever could consist of, here is a possible list of materials or events that allow you to reach out to a prospect (in no particular order):
· Company Overview (PowerPoint on file)
· Product Features and Benefits (fact sheets)
· Direct Mail/Postcards (perhaps from a recent campaign? or a standard one that promotes benefits of working with your company)
· Case Studies
· Articles from the press (newspapers or magazines that you’ve appeared in)
· Phone Calls – checking in on the prospects
· E-Mails (allows you to check-in, without the fear of interrupting someone’s day with a phone call)
· Demonstration of your product or service
· Reference from another client, or testimonials
· Hand-written thank you note (perhaps the day after they sit through a demonstration)
· Monthly newsletter
· Social media - Friend them on Facebook? Send a message on Twitter? Reply to a post on LinkedIn?
That is a list of 12 unique ways to reach out to a prospect… Of course, there will no doubt be multiple phone calls, emails, and perhaps mailers in your relationship with a prospect. Those will all help you to make multiple touches.
Some prospects will buy before they reach the 12 touch. Others will opt-out before that point. But the bottom line is, moving people through the sales funnel can be just as important and satisfying as it is to bring in the lead in the first place.
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