How To Fill Your
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contents
Fight data decay Content
Get to the right people
Nurtur
e
DAYS 5 days 2 days 10 days 7 days 30 DAYS
Adding value
You need to be equipped with the right content, tools and, ultimately, prospects to generate high-quality leads and approach them knowing exactly what makes them tick to get converting fast.
This eBook is packed with practical and highly actionable steps to help you grow your Sales pipeline.
With the commitment and creativity of your team, you will expand your pipeline before year-end - even if you only have 30 days left to do it. It’s not too late to make a difference!
Tom McMullen,
Subscription Sales Director ALF Business Development
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It happens four times a year. The quarter-end is approaching and the race to fill your Sales pipeline is on.
analyse
Spring clean your contacts:
add zest with fresh leads!
How’s your contact database?
Fresh, or staler than last week’s sandwiches?
Urgently analyse what you’ve got and rebuild what’s missing.
B2B contact databases decay at a rate of 2 percent per month.
Sounds tiny, right? But this trickle effect can really damage a healthy database after just a year!
This decay is happening in your CRM, right this minute. Here’s a scary example: Target Marketing surveyed 1,025 businesses to find out how many of their B2B contact records had changed over a year.
A huge 71 percent of contact cards had altered in some way. Gartner estimated that businesses were losing $8 million annually because of
this problem.
Now’s the time to spring clean – and do it fast. Get your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system primed and ready for action by removing stale data and breathing new life into it.
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B2B contact databases decay at a rate of2
%
per month. If you haven’t cleaned your CRM, it might be next to useless.Identify your tier 1 and tier 2 top 200 lists and start making those connections.
You have four potential routes here:
• Research: determine your tier 1 and tier 2 top 200 lists
• Database: invest in a reliable company information database.
Go for one that aggregates from several sources or which is updated on a regular basis to make sure your data doesn’t go stale again
• List purchase: buy a cleansed, de-duplicated and verified list from
a broker
• List exchange: ask another business in a complementary niche to
lend their list
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Get to the right people
Invest in a database that gives you a 360-degree view of the prospect and company profile for more of a strategic sell.
Your sales team wants to identify opportunities to pitch the product and know their audience inside out in order to approach confident and informed.
Once you have decided your target segment – we would recommend no more than 5 – invest in building out your core database.
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content is king
Informative, interesting, new
content will get the attention of
your prospects.
It links every other part of your marketing efforts, and it’s the
very core of any campaign. Quality is worth investing in: the
aim here is to convert and convince.
Winning content will:
• Offer something new to the target audience
• Be memorable for the reader as a unique and compelling piece
• Be easily shareable
• Understand its audience
• Be based on research and position your brand as a thought leader
• Be monitored and measured regularly to understand how people are consuming it
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Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)
Techniques
MOFU techniques, such as creating and distributing informative content, will support you in your campaign to
nurture those leads. Use richer content that offers
value to the recipient to get that response,
which will encourage them
down the funnel.
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It’s all about the timing
EVENT BENEFITS CHALLENGES
New Year New beginnings and new starts: lots of potential for themed content and
infographics, particularly in health, fitness, fashion and diet sectors
The party (and hangover) season isn’t the most productive month to launch a
marketing drive
Valentine’s
Day woven into a content marketing strategy Love is a universal concept that can be for practically any brand on the planet
You’ll need a sharp, sassy team to bring out the best in this well-worn, slightly
dog-eared occasion
Summer Better weather and longer days open doors for marketers selling everything
from sneakers to plane tickets
Find a niche to get noticed, or your message will get lost in avalanche of
smiling people in sun hats
Back to
School summer provide a lot of opportunities The end of the school holidays and for ‘fresh start’ content.
Schools and education is a niche not every brand will slot comfortably into
Black
Friday buzzphrase as retailers slash their prices This US event has become a global ahead of Christmas
Traction may be limited outside the US
Christmas Perhaps the biggest holiday in the world,
it transcends some religious boundaries and has recognisable and dependable themes. This event is primed for fun and interactivity and presents huge potential
Everyone else is working on a rival campaign… has your audience tuned out already? You’ll really have to raise the stakes to get this one right: are you
up for a challenge?
Seasonal events provide golden opportunities for
focused marketing activities and quick-blitz campaigns.
Timing will inevitably play a part in your choice of holiday, but some are easier to capitalise on than others.
Pick a cheery event that gives you lots of themes to play with.
Let’s look at some pros and cons of seasonal marketing for the most common holidays:
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adding value
Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)
techniques help push those final
prospects into your database.
Add value by offering:
• Free assessments,
demonstrations or evaluations
• Co-promotion: partner up with another organisation
• Extra licences or upgrades
• Workshops
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Offer something that’s worth it
To get more organic leads into your CRM, make them really want to sign up. Offer a compelling incentive and make the form as hassle-free as possible.
Use strong call-to-actions and short sign-up forms to get them to hand over their details, and give them a great reward. Your newsletter may sound exciting to you, but fast list building may require something more creative.
B OFU con ten t i s th e f n a l, c r u cial pie ce t o tr ans f orm l ea ds in t o cus tom ers.
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accelerate
…and nurture the best leads
It’s time to focus on converting those leads.
When times is of the essence, it makes sense to
focus on driving the warmest leads – those have
interacted with your content – down the funnel.
Nurtured leads spend more and are more likely
to make a purchase. It really is that simple.
According to research, nurtured leads:
• Make purchases that are
47 percent larger
• Produce 20 percent more
sales opportunities
• Are more likely to engage with marketing messages
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If you haven’t cleaned your CRM, it might be next to useless.
Nurturing 101
So don’t hang around. Identify the hottest leads in the pot. 1. Rapidly pursue those leads
2. Find out what makes them tick 3. Offer relevant content
4. Reach out with a tailored sales pitch
5. Smash your first week targets (trust us, it will happen!) 6. Move on to the next tier
7. Build conversations and stay engaged
8. Dance a joyful jig as one after the other converts The key is to understand each
lead’s situation and know their challenges and triggers.
Make sure you feed all information into a proper CRM or Marketing Automation tool to track behaviour.
35-
50
%
of sales go to the vendor that responds frst.| 14
compete
Hold a marketing & sales
48-hour marathon
Now you have an abundance of warm leads ready to convert,
it’s time to knuckle down and hold a marketing marathon.
A 48-hour stint will push the team to convert and
Defined goals are the key to success in a marketing marathon.
Whether it’s closing 10 deals, upselling to 5 customers or even
generating 20 opportunities, its easier to meet goals when they are clear. If you define the aims of the exercise before you start, you have a better chance of focusing everyone and getting that sense of urgency across to meet your sales goals before the year, or quarter, is out.
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Make sure your Sales team are completely bought into the concept.
Setting Targets
To really push, you’ll need to create a competitive atmosphere.
See which teams can generate and follow up the most leads, and get the adrenaline pumping.
Keep your teams motivated and start seeing the deals close.
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Switch off all the smartphones, order large quantities of pizza and focus everyone in the room on the task at hand.
Focus
Keep your teams motivated and start seeing the deals close.|
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ALF
Access to Marketing Intelligence and a full contact database of Decision-Makers at major UK brands.
Lead Forensics
Know everything about every lead on your website.
Marketo
For Marketing Automation and lead management.
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5
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Top 5 Tools to help fill your
Sales Pipeline
Buzzsomo
Find the most shared content and key influencers.
Unbounce
To A/B test for effective landing pages for
your content.
