Every channel is a potential source for leads, all of us know this in business. Some channels are more crowded and less productive than others.
Online channels for lead generation give businesses a number of advantages that can’t be found in other traditional mainstream marketing channels.
Here are 9 reasons you should be generating leads online, extracted from the Online Lead Generation Cheat Sheets:
A GLOBAL AUDIENCE – UK population 61.5 million, 41.7 million online. US population 347 million, 272 million online. Europe population 816 million with around 476 million online. China population 1.3 billion, 481 million online. The Internet has fundamentally changed the way in which people find, discover, share, shop, & connect all over the world whether it’s on a local, national or international basis.
SHIFTING MARKETING TRENDS – Conventional outbound marketing budgets like public relations, telemarketing, direct mail, trade shows and print advertising are shrinking against increases in social media, virtual events like webinars, seo and social media. 61% of marketers plan to invest more in earned media during 2011 whilst the average budget spent on company blogs & social media has nearly doubled in the last two years.
ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS – 57% of Internet users are searching the web every day. Worldwide, participants conduct 88,000,000,000 searches per month using Google. 70% of the links search users click on are organic—not paid. 46% of daily searches are for information on products or services. 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
YOUR OWN STORY CORNER – The US has a lead on blogging and nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes. In the UK it’s estimated to be around 12% which is a third of the US. B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those who do not. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. 2/3 of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business. It helps with SEO, social media and public relations.
LIVE CONVERSATIONS TO ENGAGE – Social media is a place where people gather with similar values to explore an interest. It’s also where people with a specific problem go looking for help by asking questions within a social community. These people could be potential customers or market influencers which presents an opportunity to influence the buying process early on.
PROFILING AND FOLLOW UP AUTOMATION – It takes multiple touches to influence an outcome with countless references to multiple “key” touches, which in B2B are said to be around 7 to 12. Although it varies with each business and market. Once a lead has been generated online it can be profiled depending on how it was generated and automatically added to a follow up sequence or campaign which can respond immediately and continue building a relationship through relevant content and offers based on interest and behaviour.
OPTIMISED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS – According to an MIT study done with InsideSales.com, 78% of sales that start with a web inquiry go to the company that responds FIRST!. DemandGens report, showed nurtured leads produce – on average – a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. Forrester Research uncovered that 50% more sales-ready leads can be produce at 33% lower cost per lead by companies who excel at lead nurturing.
FLEXIBLE TESTING AND SCALING – Online lead generation is a cost optimised environment for testing new ideas and strategies. Once an idea or concept has been proven to work through meaningful analytics, time and effort can be focused onto those areas which yield the highest return in leads, sales and loyalty.
LEVERAGE AND COMPOUNDING – Everything you do online adds up over time, so gains are continually compounded. Each online or digital asset can be reused in smart ways giving you much greater leverage from the same investment.
To learn more about where these statistics came from along with additional tips, best practices and terminology, download your copy of the Online Lead Generation Guide.
