Last week Fire Enterprises (FEI) Sales Tribe Leader Zoot gave apprentice salesperson Ganymede some tips on how to differentiate FEI by positioning the company as a secondary provider. This week, FEI Marketing Tribe Leader Marka introduces the concept of demand generation to the tribe and explains how these activities can help FEI capture, qualify, and convert new leads. Remember, fire = print.
As FEI’s morning marketing meeting began. Zoot stood up and turned his grog mug upside down to show it was empty.
“What does this remind you of?” Zoot asked.
“It’s completely empty,” Marka said.
“Correct,” Zoot said. “Just like our lead pipeline. We need more leads from our marketing activities! And we need a way to turn these leads into new customers.”
“I hear you, Zoot,” Marka said. “A demand generation program can help solve our lead-gen challenges.”
“Tell me more,” Zoot said.
“Demand generation is a marketing system that involves optimizing our O-site and social media properties in order to acquire new leads, then converting these leads into qualified leads or customers using highly-targeted, automated streams of nurturing communications,” Marka said.
“I see,” Zoot said, a little uncertainly.
“Today many of our prospects use search engines like Oogle to research fire-buying decisions,” Marka said. “And many use social media channels like O-Facebook to get recommendations from peers. We want to get FEI on these prospects’ radar screens and guide them toward making purchases.”
“Optimizing our O-site and social media profiles to attract interested prospects is the first step of demand generation,” Marka continued. “Engaging in ongoing SEO (search-engine optimization) activities and PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns will help ensure our O-site shows up prominently in the right searches. Posting useful, engaging content and driving traffic to our O-site will help us turn social media followers into new leads.”
“What happens once these prospects arrive on our O-site?” Zoot asked.
“Then, we must get their O-mail addresses so we can continue marketing to them on an ongoing basis,” Marka answered.
“How do we do that?” Org asked.
“Simple,” Marka said. “We offer these prospects something of value in return. For example, we might create a tips sheet called Eight Tips for Increasing Your Kiln Efficiency and give prospects a free download...if they fill out a short registration form with their name, company, and, of course, O-mail address.”
“Then what?” Zoot asked.
“At this point, we’re still not sure how interested these prospects are in FEI,” Marka said. “Some may be very interested, some may be curious but need more information, some maybe aren’t interested at all and just want the free tips. Our next step is to weed out the weak leads, convince the decent leads, and get the strong leads to sign on the dotted line. We do this by sending these prospects ongoing streams of O-mail communications. These communications will include information relevant to the prospects’ expressed needs and include prominent calls-to-action. Targeted O-mail nurturing will help convert a good chunk of these leads into qualified leads ready to talk to our sales staff.”
“This all sounds nice,” Zoot said. “What kind of results can we expect from demand generation campaigns?”
“Typically, we can expect to convert 30 to 40 percent of all O-site leads into highly-qualified leads,” Marka said.
“Very nice!” Zoot exclaimed.
“I love it!” Org said.
“Glad to hear,” Marka said. “But we’ve only covered the basics so far. I’d like to go over specific tactics for SEO, social media, and targeted O-mail programs. Why don’t we take a 10-minute break and then reconvene?”
“Sounds good,” Zoot said. “Now, I’ve got to get some more grog!”
Next week: Demand generation conversations continue with a focus on SEO.
Today’s FIRE! Point
Demand generation is a marketing system that involves optimizing your Website and social media properties in order to acquire new leads, then converting these leads into qualified leads or customers using highly-targeted, automated streams of nurturing communications.
FIRE! In Action: SEO Drives Leads and Sales for White Hat Holsters
The gun holsters supplier rewrote their Website copy to include more SEO-friendly terms their prospects would be likely to search for. The result? The company experienced a 400 percent increase in site traffic and a 100 percent increase in sales.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
- People:
- T.J. TEDESCO
Very much alive and now officially an industry curmudgeon, strategic growth expert T. J. Tedesco can be reached at tj@tjtedesco.com or 301-404-2244.