Now let’s add the Internet to the lead generation and qualification pro-cess. With the Internet, you can target interactive media just as you target direct mail, and the incremental cost of Internet direct marketing is so low that you could improve the results of your lead generation campaign at almost no risk. That’s the mail-enhancing power of the Internet.
First, by introducing the Internet as an electronic response path in your mailing piece (pointing the prospect to either an e-mail address or, better yet, a specific Web URL) you can potentially increase overall re-sponse to your mail campaign. Then, if you enhance your direct mail with carefully targeted Web advertising or opt-in e-mail, you can in-crease the overall response rate. Finally, if you create a special Web response form (WRF) to capture responses and ask respondents to an-swer a number of qualifying questions, you can significantly increase the number of qualified leads. The bottom line is that you enhance your direct mail lead generation by leveraging the Internet. That means you acquire more qualified leads from your direct marketing lead genera-tion campaign at a very low incremental cost.
As with direct mail, the Internet should be used in a very targeted fashion. Media for Web advertising should be researched and carefully
chosen, ideally using the same or similar sources as for the direct mail campaign. The Web response form should be designed for the campaign specifically to qualify respondents. E-mail should not be broadcast to individuals who do not want it but rather targeted to prospects who demonstrate an interest in the product and gave permission to commu-nicate with them via e-mail.
When you use the Internet in the same careful, precise, and efficient way as you use direct mail or telemarketing, it becomes Internet direct marketing.
Internet direct marketing can be targeted, tested, controlled, and measured—just like direct mail marketing.
Because of the current economics of Internet usage, Internet direct marketing can be even more cost-effective than traditional direct mail lead generation. After all, there are no materials or postage costs.
There is an added bonus to Internet direct marketing: There is noth-ing to physically produce, so your production timeline is compressed.
Instead of waiting to print and mail something, you can get on the Internet very fast, and you can make modifications to programs just as fast.
That means you can see the results of your efforts quickly as well.
Although the Internet can be proven to enhance the traditional me-dia used in your lead generation programs, it is probably premature to assume that the Internet can replace direct mail or telemarketing en-tirely. For one thing, the Internet is not yet a precision medium for tar-geting. It has not reached the level of maturity of direct mail in terms of your ability to hone a prospect list by using key criteria to select exactly the right individuals for a mailing program.
In addition, access to individual names and titles via the Internet is problematic. As you will see in Chapter 3, prospecting via the Internet presents a whole set of unique challenges to the b-to-b marketer.
You must also consider the fact that Internet lead generation and qualification is still not mature as a marketing practice. Some target audiences may be comfortable with it; others may not. The accep-tance of the Internet as a means of self-qualification will vary from prospect to prospect. Nevertheless, augmenting traditional lead gen-eration media with the Internet is something successful b-to-b market-ers are doing today.
The Internet Can Improve Your Entire Lead Management Process Think about how to incorporate the Internet into your own lead quali-fication process. Ask yourself how the Internet can play a role in facili-tating that process:
• How can you use the Internet to generate leads in the first place?
• How can the Internet support and enhance your use of tradi-tional direct marketing media?
• How can you incorporate the Internet into your existing lead qualification process so that it helps to produce a larger number of qualified leads and, ultimately, a higher lead close rate?
• How can you move toward true electronic lead capture and quali-fication over the Internet—integrating that information with your marketing database?
• How can the Internet enhance the relationships you have with marketing and channel partners—so that they, too, benefit from your lead generation activities?
• How can the Internet help you strengthen the relationship be-tween your marketing and sales organizations—so you receive the feedback you need to know how well your lead generation and qualification programs are working?
• How can the Internet become a feedback mechanism for pros-pects—so you can continuously requalify them and know where they stand in the qualification process?
• How can you apply Internet technology to automate your sales lead management system—so it becomes a flexible, responsive system, accessible across your enterprise and to select parties out-side your enterprise?—so you can increase response, qualified leads, and profits.