Leads, Leads, Leads...Quality Over Quantity

One of the biggest "issues" I hear about from marketers is regarding lead generation. One of the biggest "issues" I hear about from fellow sales people is regarding lead generation.

Here are some great tips for helping both sales AND marketing increase lead quality. Yes, quality; not quantity. Read on to learn more and ways BPI Media Group's various solutions can help along the way of helping to find leads, reach out to them, lure them in and communicate with them 1:1.

1. Agree. When sales and marketing agree upon what is meant by a lead (and a qualified lead at that), then you're well on your way to a happier team and the potential for more revenue for your company. (For more reading on sales and marketing alignment, click here.) Once you identify the demographic(s) of who an "ideal" lead might be, then you're well on your way to this agreement. BPI's data mining solution can definitely help you in identifying the categories of folks who are your best buyers, potential buyers and rule out those who just plain aren't interested. Read more.

2. Dig Deeper. Once you've agreed upon and identified what constitutes a qualified lead or an ideal customer/prospect, you'll gain an understanding of the demographic profile of this group, subgroup, etc. This provides you with a benchmark by which you can score and measure other potential leads. Data mining can also be highly beneficial in this area as well. You can monitor your leads and new customers to see how trends in the demographics may change and restructure your marketing message accordingly.

3. Observe and Record. Once you've launched a campaign to your qualified prospects, you'll need to closely monitor the behavior of these leads to see exactly to what they're responding. Was it an email for this segment? Was it a coupon for this segment? Was it direct mail for this segment or maybe even a QR code? This will help you better market to these types of prospects on future or ongoing campaigns. For more details about executing these types of campaigns, drop me a note, and I'd love to discuss in depth to create a plan that's right for you, your sales team and your prospects.

4. Track. While you're nurturing your lead with campaigns, collateral and possibly even calls from your sales team, don't forget the importance of tracking the results. BPI's only dashboard is beyond perfect for this. If you do an integrated campaign (combine print and web), you'll have access to your own dashboard for every campaign where you have record of your prospects' activities and can pass on those warm leads to the appropriate sales region or rep automatically. To see more about how this works, click here. I can also share some case studies with you if you'd like...just ask!

5. Respond. When using the real-time dashboard, you will see how quickly you get an email notifying you of a prospect's activity. Strike while the iron is hot and reach out to that lead while the getting is good!

6. Follow Up. This is an extension of #1 above. Marketing needs to follow up with sales to make sure they're reaching out to those "hot" leads, and sales needs to follow up with marketing to let them know what's working. This can usually be done through a CRM (we love salesforce!) where leads and sales activity are recorded. BPI's integrated campaigns and dashboard sync seamlessly with salesforce to make this even easier for both departments.

For more reading on "6 Surefire Ways to Increase Your Lead Quality", click here. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and BPI Media Group would love to hear from you and explore how our solutions of marketing, printing, design, campaign execution, mail and data management can help you not only generate qualified leads but also convert them to repeat customers.

Until next time...Elizabeth

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Mining for Golden Data

As you read last week, BPI Media Group has added several new solutions over the past few years. Data Mining is among those new solutions. In case you're not familiar with data mining, it is a data-driven process, managed by a technology that enables marketers to develop, test, implement, measure, and appropriately modify customized programs and strategies. WHAT????

In this week's blog we'll break that down for what it means to you as a marketer. Keep reading, I promise it won't be quite so technical sounding.

Another term for data mining, in regard to how to parlay that into your marketing mix is managed campaign services. As part of our partnership with Kodak, we are pleased to be able to offer you this service.

Managed Campaign Services (MCS)

MCS takes industry knowledge based on your vertical market and combines it with data analytics, marketing sciences, operations and technology to provide project management and delivery for your segmented marketing campaigns. With our alliance with Kodak, we have access to proven campaign management applications, secure hosting, multi-channel campaign execution (print, email, sms, QR codes, etc) and custom integration.

So, what's the value in a Managed Campaign Service?

Rapid Go-To-Market

With our managed campaign services, you can have immediate deployment rather than waiting 3+ years to do the research on your own time and utilizing your internal resources. This makes for a quicker path to revenue and sales growth. It is more than just technology; it is a way to explore new revenue opportunities. This allows your company to achieve stronger margins while providing a differentiated offering and a value that can't be commoditized.

Benefits to You, Our Customers

• Increase response rates by leveraging data
• Determine where and how to most effectively market
• Minimize campaign time-to-market
• Reduce costs with more effective customer targeting
• Achieve superior return on marketing investment

One of the segmentation of the data involves Grouping Customers.

Cluster analysis helps organize customers into groups, each with unique characteristics that can be marketed to. The analysis identifies:

• Group size and potential profitability
• Characteristics of each segment, e.g. wealthy, educated, single, etc.
• Differences in the average response between each segment
• What is important to each segment to determine what to offer

Channel Management and Execution

Customers follow direct mail or click through e-mail and text messaging to visit PURLs that increase likelihood of purchase. Our customers have access to performance analysis through the campaign as well as reporting, so ROI can be tracked. Managed Campaign Services can provide real-time response data, as well as provide post-campaign performance results.

For more information on how segmented marketing can deliver value for your company, click here.

I would love to talk with you about our managed campaign solution and data mining. I hope to hear from you soon!

Until next time...Elizabeth

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