Effective Lead Generation

As the holiday season approaches, more marketers are getting prepared to capture orders through effective customer acquisition processes.   Santa is no exception.

As more savvy business people use multi-channel marketing to communicate their message, more unique ways to touch the customer are generated.  By creating community through subscribers (email), fans (Facebook) and Followers (Twitter), businesses can reach out to prospects they had never thought of and encourage them to interact through a "Call to Action", CTA.   A CTA is an effective lead generation tool.  It may be in the form of a coupon offer, a subscription to a newsletter or a download of a white paper. 

In the webstory of "Santa Claus and the Lost Dog", Santa uses a post card as his CTA.   This is no ordinary post card as it includes a magic ticket with a personalized URL (PURL) and a QR (quick response) code to get immediate action from a child with the help of a grown up that may have a grown up toy like a smartphone equipped with a camera. 

Yes, Santa has gone hi-touch and hi-tech and has joined the social media world.  The days of traditional Santa calls over the phone are going to be replaced by tweets, likes, comments and good little girls and boys will get badges.  Will Santa's updates on FourSquare take the place of NORAD's tracking of jolly old St. Nick on Christmas Eve?

You can visit http://www.mychristmasbook.com to order the webstory book.   It makes a great stocking stuffer and can play on mobile devices on your way to Grandma's house.





 

• Make sure you’ve set up a series of informational emails or a website for support staff and presenters. They should know what is expected of them; where to be at what time on the day of event, deadline for submitting, tech requirements for laptops and presentations, etc.
• If it is a large event like a conference, let attendees set their schedules early to establish presentation expectations and to cut down on people asking questions.
• Delegate the compartmentalized or smaller tasks, like catering and registration, to someone with fewer things to worry about on the DOE.
• Delegate the updates of social network applications during the event such as Twitter, blogging and Facebook updates.

• To ensure attendees walk away with the information/material they came looking for.
• Make sure messages, observations and news from the event are captured for post-event newsletter/follow-up or to share with those who could not attend.
• Facilitate smooth running presentations to ensure everyone gets to present and/or learn.
• Help make networking as easy as possible for attendees and vendors alike. Assign a QR code to every attendee so they can simply scan to exchange information. Or, offer team with a local print shop to offer discounts on business cards so they have something exchange.

• Use SMS to send attendees a link to their event schedule on the morning of the event.
• Consider a live webcast or recorded podcast to share the event with those who weren’t able to attend. Webinar replays can be used as a review for those who attended as well as a customer acquisition process in your grand lead generation conference strategy.
• Place QR codes or Microsoft tags on presentations, collateral or exhibition displays to enhance attendee’s interaction with content.

• Why have an event, what are your goals? What do you want to get for your efforts? Develop objectives that are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Based) and align with the current or future needs of the organization.
• Having an educational event provides a reason to talk to customers and prospects. It gives you something to buzz about beyond your capabilities and need for business. It could give your customers reasons to invest in new ideas and new products and services to help them grow.

• Content: strategic, operational, sales, business processes? The content is what will be advertised and why people will attend. Theming your event and tying it to actionable outcomes changes an informative event to a results event. Types of businesses and the role of the attendee will be influenced by the content you choose.
• Type of Event: Face to Face or Webinar. Each presents its own benefits and shortcomings. Consider your content and audience along with your budget and resources as part of your thought process.
• Timing: Early in the quarter? At the beginning, middle or late in the week? Morning, afternoon or all day? What time works best for those you are looking to reach?
• Location: If face to face do you host it at your company, at a local hotel, a customers business? To feed or not to feed? Is the location part of your message? If you choose to have a web conference what are the needs of the solution? Browser, OS, phone, voice over IP, Presentation technology, presentation style, ability to interact with attendees.

The elves at Webinar Resources spent time last night blogging about our holiday offering, MyChristmasBook.com.   We included a lot of information about re-purposing Brainshark presentations and creating an effective lead generation campaign using ExactTarget, Vontoo, Brainshark and Compendium Blogware.

We did an organic search this evening and were very pleased to see that MyChristmasBook.com is at the top of the organic search.  We were also delighted to see the tracking results of our email campaign where many of our subscribers visited their own personal North Pole webpage to see a 2 minute demonstration.  Over 25% of the recipients selected the personalized link that included their email address.   Here is a sample personalized URL (PURL), that we call the North Pole web address - http://helper.mychristmasbook.com/NorthPole/personalizemybook@gmail.com.

We also spent time tweeting, posting content on Facebook sites and updating a Brainshark presentation.  Of all the lead generation activities we engaged in, blogging received the fastest and most desired results.   

We don't have a long-tail keyword for this campaign, but MyChristmasBook.com is unique enough that it can be found in an organic search in Google.  We know as we blog about this subject this evening, we will keep our rating up and more customers will find us as they hear more about us.  So blogs are faster than Santa's reindeer Virginia and they rate high on Google's naughty and nice list. 

Everyday we are encountering more social media tools that allow you to quickly share information with others.   Today we launched an email campaign for one of our customers that contained a personalized video for the recipients.   Each customer received a PURL, a personalized URL, that embedded the customer's name in the video.   It was a pretty slick application.

Using ExactTarget, we launched the email movie clips through personalization strings that contained the PURLs.   This was an effective lead generation process for driving customer acquisition.   Through personalized marketing campaigns, you can capture your reader's interest and move them to take an action.

We are using Brainshark presentations to personalize on demand presentation content and further honing our abilities to deliver a Webinar for ONE.
 

It is amazing to witness how quickly blogging can drive activity.   One of my team recently blogged about the Discovery Light project that we supported at a recent trade show.   Using our webinar service, we posted a Brainshark presentation about how we marketed the show and our lead generation conference exhibit.

As we were using a combination of email and personalized landing pages to drive customer acquisition, our reference to the words "landing page" triggered a Google Alert for another company, ExactTarget.   Within one week of posting our blog, ExactTarget contacted us after visiting our post.   They had set up a Google alert for the words "landing page".   ExactTarget recently released their Landing Page feature and we have been putting it to good use for our demand generation marketing programs.   Make sure you opt-in to receive our next newsletter to see a great example of a personalized image marketing campaign.

Quite often we receive a Google alert after posting a blog as we also monitor keywords.    We have heard Chris Baggott, of Compendium Blogware, a number of times comment on how Google likes old content, recent content and frequent content.   We produce Webinar for ONE replays of their webinars and we hear these words in every presentaiton.  

Chris is right on target.   You can drive effective lead generation through frequent and relevant blogging.    We are witnesses to the process and we are becoming evangelists for compended blogging.    The combination of blogging and Google Alerts is another step to helping you achieve that "virtual knock" on the door and another step away from no more cold calls. 

Other people are watching and waiting for their Google Alerts to trigger a message about keywords they monitor.   The more you blog about a particular subject, the more chances you have of driving effective lead generation.

While I refused to fight the crowds to be on of the first through the door to pick up a brand new Blackberry Storm, I will be going this afternoon to make my purchase.

My boss, Mark, and I have a very un-official, un-scientific experiment (aka competition) we're conducting.  He has the new G1 (Google) phone from T-Mobile.  I'm getting the Blackberry Storm from Verizon Wireless.  We're putting the networks aside, and comparing the phones for how well they enhance our ability to conduct business.

Mark got his G1 about a month ago, and has been bragging ever since.  He L-O-V-E-S it.  Just for fun on the weekend, he creates a brainshark presentation from his phone, records the voice, and then sends a vontoo message over to us just to gloat.

I'm hoping that I will be able to return the favor with the Blackberry storm.  I know I won't have Windows mobile, but what will I be able to do?  At a minimum, I should be able to enjoy the latest and greatest in screen resolution and display options to view what our custoemrs view.  At most, will I be able to operate the Blackberry Storm as a miniature laptop, of sorts, the way that Mark has been able to do with his G1? 

Our whole business centers around effective lead generation and customer acquisition through managed services and internet marketing.  We drive personalized marketing campaigns through interactive technologies that may include any or all of the following:
  --Video Web Conferencing
  --Email Movie Clips
  --Variable Data embedded in html emails
  --Web Conferencing
  --On Demand Presentations

We are also heavy users of many interactive programs including but not limited to online calendars.

Over the next few weeks, we will be testing out these technologies with the G1 and Blackberry Storm.  Maybe we'll even keep a scorecard.  For now, I have to sign off to go place my order.

Stay tuned, and if YOU have a G1 or a piping hot new Blackberry Storm--please post and tell us about the SMS feats you've conquered.

• "Relationships with customers are one thing that competitors can't copy."
• "79% of customers buy from companies that they are in a relationship with, rather than just on price."
• "About 30% of email addresses go bad every year."
• "22% of Internet users are using social media instead of email."
• "Facebook - must be on it to understand what is going on."

Dale Carnegie's famous quote "Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language" is still a valid lesson when approaching people.   Everyone likes to be called by their name and have their name remembered.

Mr. Carnegie didn't realize the impact that today's technology could have in influencing people to take an action, especially when personalization is involved. 
We have all seen the personalized approach marketing campaigns have taken in addressing the recipient by their first name and including variable data in the communication that is related to the recipient.  Personalized communications are an open door to a conversation with a prospect, a partner or an existing customer.
The latest breakthrough technology for personalization is the ability to convert text into personalized images.  A recipient's name can now be an image emblazoned across a label on a wine bottle or carved into a piece of fine wood.   This approach takes personalization to a new level.

Imagine seeing your name embossed on a director's chair?   Would you be more likely to learn more about the message behind the link or in this case, your personal name on an image?

We recently modified a webinar replay follow up email and inserted a personalized director's chair in the body of the email.  We predicted that the personalized image would increase click-throughs to the Brainshark presentation (webinar replay) that was linked to the recipient's personalized chair.  The results of the campaign were significant with dramatic increases in:

It is almost 4:00 am and I have realized that I have not posted a blog lately.   The wonderful thing about blogging is that you can do it at anytime of the day.   It is best to blog when it quiet.

Now that I can get my thoughts together, I can start thnking about how I am going to put the presentation together on customer acquisition for my customer this week.   We just created a great HTML email with an embedded Brainshark presentation that was recorded by a guest speaker for our customer's event.   With this interactive web presentation we can quickly gain viewer's interest and launch a call to action for the viewer to register.   We have many types of examples we have created for the customer to create effective lead generation.   As I think more about it, the applications we have created are my presentation.

I will blog more as I travel this week and will be posting some interesting new technology that you might want to see and hear as you develop your marketing campaigns.   Is the pen mighter than the keyboard for blogging?  Stay tuned for the answer.

Two decades ago we used to let our fingers do the walking to find people, fast.  Now the power of the web offers many effective processes for lead generation and the telephone still plays a major role in customer acquisition.

We have customers who run a series of live training events.  The classes fill up fast, and always have a wait list, so every "no show" represents multiple lost opportunities.  In addition to the standard email reminders, we began sending Vontoo reminder calls to all class registrants the day before the training, and the customers love it.

The participants in the classes provide a preferred phone number for the reminder when they register for the class.  The director of the training series records her reminder, and through the beauty of Vontoo, we send her reminder to those specified numbers.  These calls provide another layer to your personalized marketing campaign.

So, while yes, the days of the 4-inch thick "yellow pages" are quietly slipping by, you can still ensure none of your participants have a chance to forget to attend your carefully planned event or even a web presentation by putting a ring in that ping using a Vontoo reminder call.