LEAD GENERATION
What are best practices to maximize lead conversion to close deals?
“For organizations to succeed and make optimal use of marketing dollars, it’s critical to break down the marketing and sales barriers,” says Angie Hirata, worldwide director of marketing and business development at Maximizer Software. Her advice is to nurture leads through multitouch campaigns that offer additional value and drive potential customers to take action — for example, seminars, whitepapers and webcasts — where you are notified when the prospect registers. Leads should be segmented by product interest, use of product and industry/vertical to send targeted communications in a specific timeframe.
“Assess the number of leads and ratio of qualified leads, the conversion ratio to forecasted opportunities and closed deals to get concrete ROI,” Hirata explains. “This will help determine where to spend money, which programs to drop and possible problem areas throughout the marketing and sales funnel.”
MOBILE
Why is multivariate testing important for the mobile Web?
To maximize the fact that 75% of the world’s mobile phone users have access to the Web, Kim Ann King, CMO of SiteSpect, says, “You’ll need to discover how to increase mobile conversion rates. In order to find which combination of elements delivers the optimal conversion rates, non-intrusively test multiple variations of every element on the third screen — image size, choice, specific words or phrases, placement, design, graphical elements, headlines, colors and variations in functionality.”
King warns, however, “While marketers use multivariate testing to find out what works or doesn’t on their regular Web sites, mobile devices do not support many of the technical requirements inherent in today’s testing solutions, such as JavaScript or cookies. When you’re evaluating solutions to conduct multivariate testing specifically for mobile, be sure to look at providers that offer flexible and non-intrusive solutions.”
DIGITAL
How can digital signage help my business?
“Digital signage can effectively reach consumers while they are out of home,” answers Brian Dusho, chief strategy officer of BroadSign International. “The ability to customize each message for audiences at any location provides unique targeting opportunities. Digital signage is proven to lift sales, and the relative CPM is lower than that of TV and print.”
Dusho continues, “If you have advertised in community newspapers, on cable TV and radio, you should try digital screens in retail stores or other public venues in your market.” He suggests, “Find out who is in charge of ad sales for the network and contact them directly, as very few agencies are equipped with tools to sell digital signage. Each professional network should have a detailed rate card and a full description of its audience.”
