Marketers realize that in order to grow revenue, they have the primary responsibility of bringing in more qualified leads—a task easier said than done. In keeping with this month’s in-depth look at marketing analytics, we’ll take a look at the role that data plays in the lead generation process.
As we’ve discussed in previous articles, engaging with analytics allows modern marketers to gather valuable insights into customer preferences and trends and offer prospects and customers a more personalized experience.
By analyzing your data, you have the ability to see what campaigns and marketing initiatives bring you leads, see what content is getting the most views, and what interactions users are taking, and also measure task completions such as downloading whitepapers, registering for a webinar or lead capture. But there are some actions that are more valuable than others. Qualified prospects will engage in activities that will continue to feed them more of your content. Actions such as subscribing to content, downloading premium content, or completing a form can all indicate a prospect as a qualified lead.
Furthermore, in the current marketing landscape, it’s no surprise to hear—yet again—that content is still king. And with an abundance of information available to prospective customers at their fingertips, it’s vital to know which content is drawing viewers’ attention and which is failing. By recognizing which content is performing, you’ll be better able to tailor your content both in topic and in presentation. For example, are visitors finding your content through a particular keyword search? Is there a download that has gotten far fewer downloads than anticipated? Is the positioning of your email subscription bar making it hard for prospects to find? Using analytics to view your content with a critical eye will ensure that all qualified leads who are searching for your content will be successful in their efforts, and you’ll be able to turn the leads into customers.
One of the biggest mistakes in engaging with analytics, however, is relying on a single tool for your intelligence. This is where a marketing automation tool, like eTrigue, can be highly valuable. By combining the data from both an analytics platform, like Google Analytics, with the intelligence provided by a marketing automation platform, you are able to gather a more complete picture of your prospects and ensure the highest quality leads possible.
In fact, Sirius Decisions recently reported that market leading companies that employ strong lead nurturing processes supported by marketing automation solutions are able to close over 4 times the number of deals of average firms. But despite the acceptance of marketing automation at a rapidly increasing number of organizations, some small and mid-size businesses are apprehensive about moving from manual processes to automated systems. Marketing automation is far more effective and far superior to the batch-and-blast email systems it replaces. So why is there any reluctance?
For more information on how to utilize marketing automation to enhance your lead generation efforts, be sure to check out this recently released whitepaper from eTrigue, which offers six steps for giving your lead gen efforts a boost with marketing automation.
