That integrated marketing is currently the best approach to IT lead generation is beyond question. However, there are certain factors that could keep you from effectively implementing an integrated or multi-channel marketing approach into your IT lead generation platform.
According to the 2013 Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing conducted by Econsultancy and Adobe last November 2013, the top 3 main obstacles to effective integrated marketing are:
- Organizational Structure
- Company Culture
- Disparate Data Resources
The results are not surprising. First, let’s talk about structure. Every company is built on a certain structure which facilitates communication and processes across different departments. Some organizations however are structured in a way that makes telemarketing, email, online, and social media marketing separate and isolated functions, each one to its own. In order to implement an effective multi-channel campaign to generate IT sales leads, there has to be some realignment made to allow everyone to work together.
Another factor which makes it difficult to effectively implement a multi-channel B2B lead generation campaign is company culture. This includes ingrained legacy practices which make some B2B marketers refuse to welcome new marketing practices due to fear of the unknown. So instead of adopting new strategies, they choose to stick with older tools that are more “proven”.
Lastly, differing results, opinions, and feedback about the effectiveness of combining various tools gives marketers another reason to doubt their decision to shift to multi-channel marketing.
Too many management layers, unclear accountability, and wrongly incentivized behaviors – all of this prevent organizations from creating a multi-channel lead generation and appointment setting strategy and improve customer experience. As a forward-thinking marketer, you must address these issues one-by-one in order to generate better results from your IT lead generation campaigns.
