Courtesy of. E-Book. 12 Steps. To Ensure You Are Marketing To The Right B2B Prospect Lead Database

Transcription

1 A Courtesy of E-Book 12 Steps To Ensure You Are Marketing To The Right B2B Prospect Lead Database

2 Executive Summary Marketing managers know that the best messaging, graphics and drip campaigns are doomed to fail if they don t reach the right person at the right company. But it has never been harder to ensure that a marketing campaign hits a target that seemingly is in perpetual motion. According to Gartner, 30 million of the 138 million American workers will change jobs over the next 12 months. That means workers, jobs, titles and companies are constantly being shuffled. Research from DemandGen Report found nearly half of all B2B organizations feel inaccurate data affected their ability to reach the right people in prospect organizations. Nevertheless, today s marketing managers are under increasing pressure to generate high-value leads that ultimately produce revenue. To do that, a marketer must start with a database fueled not only by well-performing information, but also the best B2B lead data available. The key to moving a prospect from a high quality lead to a paying customer is clean, accurate data. But it doesn t stop there. Each campaign is different, so marketers are constantly refreshing, augmenting and segmenting data. Combined with intelligence collected from channels such as streamlined web tracking, landing pages and social media, today s savvy marketer has multichannel tools to target a prospect like never before, shortening the sales cycle and increasing revenues. 2

3 Learning Objectives This E-book will provide lead data strategies and other critical components necessary to fuel high performance campaigns, starting with connecting with the right prospect. The E-book breaks down these actionable areas into the following steps: 1. Clarify the Unique Data Needs of Marketing and Sales 2. Give Your Data A Tune-Up 3. Augment & Enrich Your Database 4. Automate The Data Management Process 5. Segment Your Database 6. Target Campaigns to Narrower Audiences 7. Communicate Across Channels 8. Integrate Inbound Intelligence Into Outbound 9. Increase Landing Page Fill Rates 10. Improve Funnel Conversions 11. Use Data To Improve Sales & Marketing Alignment 12. Consistently Address Common Lead Database Issues 3

4 Step 1 Clarify The Unique Data Needs of Marketing and Sales Sales and marketing contacts are different creatures. When sales representatives are building their own contact database, they often settle for incomplete or inaccurate records that are passed along from events, purchased from third-party list providers or even crowd sourced. However, when sales is handed a lead from marketing their expectations increase dramatically. Many organizations subscribe to the holy grail of lead qualification based on traditional BANT criteria, which stands for Budget, Authority, Need and Timing. Following this model, the marketing team gathers qualifying information on whether the prospect attending a webinar or downloading a paper is a serious buyer with power to pull the trigger on a deal, or just someone doing initial research. In order to qualify leads and build out their profile, marketing needs deeper data and intelligence to effectively filter and nurture contacts into truly qualified leads. CRM systems provide powerful functionality to help marketers get this done if they re fed the right data. Thanks to the growing number of rich data sources now available, marketing teams have the ability to gather intelligence such as: Complete contact information, which includes specifics on title and role; Important company information and attributes; and Industry data to power micro-targeted campaigns. The need for more complete contact records has never been greater to drive high performance demand creation campaigns, explains Shawn Dyer, Director of Data Strategies for Televerde. Fortunately, there are also more opportunities than ever before to close data gaps. Marketing automation enables tracking of digital behavior on a lead-by-lead basis, and all that intelligence can then be embedded into the contact record. At the end of the day, a more complete contact record enables a more relevant set of touch points with each prospect, and relevance can improve conversion rate and accelerate lead movement through the pipeline. 4

5 Step 2 Give Your Data A Tune-Up Marketing campaigns are like Formula One racecars: both need the right fuel for optimal performance. In marketing, that means having the capability to quickly assess a database to ensure that it is delivering up-to-date, accurate information. Research conducted by marketing automation vendor Eloqua has shown that a high quality B2B prospect database can dramatically improve lead conversion by up to 260%. Yet for some marketers, data quality still remains a low priority. One of the first steps in the tune-up process is conducting a needs analysis to find out what your marketing database should look like in the future. Part of that exercise is clarifying how marketing s data will differ from the sales team. Once those structural steps are addressed, the harder work begins with digging into the existing data to determine the health of your existing database. A high-quality B2B prospect database can dramatically improve lead conversion by up to 260%. Many B2B marketing executives inherit a database that has been handed down from the company s CRM system, and is often filled with outdated, inaccurate and incomplete - Eloqua Research records. This makes it extremely challenging to effectively analyze campaign results and conversion rates. The longer an organization goes without addressing that quality, the worse it gets, continued Dyer. Our experience has proven that a deliberate focus on filling data gaps can dramatically improve lead performance. Many organizations that we work with come to us with their own data or data from other sources that typically falls below what SiriusDecisions says is a standard 25% rate of unusable records for organizations that deploy average data quality management practices. We re seeing 35% unusable records and in some cases even more. 5

6 Step 3 Augment & Enrich Your Database With a blend of strong data practices, including comprehensive and ongoing data diagnostics, that unusable record rate can improve significantly, which makes marketing programs much more targeted, improves conversion rates, and ultimately results in more closed-won deals. The process of identifying and analyzing those gaps typically reveals the problem areas of a marketing database, which often leads to the next necessary steps of cleansing, appending and refreshing. The cleansing phase identifies duplicate and incomplete records. Ideally, de-duping names, titles and companies repeated in inconsistent ways, such as spelling, abbreviations or initials, should result in a single record with current information matched to the contact s profile. Appending adds information from other areas of an organization s database, such as addresses or phone numbers. Refreshing helps to remove records that are outdated or invalid, and replaces old names with current information. Industry estimates show that data decays at a rate of 25% to 30% per year. Therefore, just to maintain a given database, marketers need to grow that database by that same percentage each year to replace the contacts whose information has become inaccurate. Marketing teams now need a strategy to augment and enrich their databases after the cleanup phase. Database augmentation becomes even more critical when companies are launching new products and expanding into new regions or vertical industries. In these cases, marketing teams are relied upon to support the sales team with fresh prospects, or new opportunities within existing leads. For example, if a company expands into Latin America for the first time, the sales team will need some initial prospects to pursue. 6

7 Case In Point: Eloqua Uses Role-Based Contacts To Support New Geographic Rollouts Marketing automation provider Eloqua worked with Reachforce to build a targeted custom database of role-based contacts focused on four key geographic locations. It used that information to fuel an automated, multi-touch, multimodal campaign. The fresh leads were scored and passed off to sales. Quality of data has been key in getting our new sales team ramped, said an Eloqua sales VP. We can directly correlate the role-based contacts to the people we want to talk to and efficiently target them to fill our sales pipeline. While the criteria for leads may be lowered initially, marketing s involvement is even more vital to help sales get up to speed in learning the needs and nuances of a new market. Industry estimates show that data decays at rate of 25% to 30% per year. Therefore, just to maintain a given database, marketers need to grow that database by that same percentage each year. Keeping databases campaign ready can have a significant impact on revenue. Working with a comprehensive B2B lead data enhancement service provider, marketing and sales teams can standardize all account and company information. These services also score addresses for deliverability and augment contacts and leads with more information to help power segmentation and targeting. A data enhancement service can also fill in the database s white space, replacing the missing addresses from outside industry sources. It also assesses the database to identify and quantify fill gaps, as well as calculate the financial opportunity in making a database campaign ready. 7

8 Step 4 Automate The Data Management Process Every month marketers lose about 3% of their leads, based on job switching alone. Depending on the size of the database, this attrition can quickly add up to a substantial loss in value from a financial standpoint, and contributes to labor drain when identifying and replacing those contacts. By implementing automated contact management solutions, B2B marketers are able to work inside their CRM systems to clean, grow and enrich their database with up-to-date and accurate information. In addition to increasing the completeness of their data and leads, marketers are using these services to purchase highly targeted and segmented net new leads to support upcoming campaigns and events. This automated approach to data enables marketers to monitor and manage the overall accuracy of information, as well as source new records in a very smart way that reports what blanks and gaps need filling relating to target markets and personas. Case In Point: ncircle Protects Data Investments Susan McCorriston, Director of Marketing Communications at ncircle, realized the financial drain on her organization. We spent so much of our budget on acquiring names, I couldn t stand to see so many of them simply `go dark when we couldn t make contact, she said. When someone hits the delete key, we flush $25 of marketing spend down the drain. It was gut wrenching for me. McCorriston stopped the bleeding by bringing in an automated system that did more than just standardize, de-duplicate, merge lists and append missing information prior to CRM implementation. It added missing attributes such as phone, mailing address, industry, company revenue and flagged the number of employees. Duplicate records were identified not just by names, but by addresses, titles and phone numbers. Standard industrial classification (SIC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes were appended and deliverability was scored. Overall, in the first quarter after working with ReachForce, ncircle was able to identify over a half million dollars in sales that grew out of lead records that were candidates for deletion. 8

9 Step 5 Segment Your Database In the current business climate, every marketer must demonstrate real value and show how marketing spend contributes to the top and bottom line in ways that are measurable. The days of batch and blast s where campaigns are tossed over the wall in hopes of landing leads are long gone. Best practices have shown one of the best ways to achieve these goals is by segmenting lead databases. The more a database is segmented into smaller, similar groups, the easier it is to target the marketing s message. Targeting your lead generation activities can improve your revenue outcomes by 781%, according to a recent study by Jupiter Research. Some of the segmentation criteria marketers are using to increase the intelligence and value of their data include: Targeting your lead generation activities can improve your revenue outcomes by 781%. Once a database is segmented, it becomes easier to create profiles of top customers and identify their similar characteristics. For instance, an organization may be more successful selling to larger - Jupiter Research companies, companies with several divisions or smaller businesses. After those common characteristics have been established, an organization can identify those companies with the highest propensity to buy. By matching those profiles to the database, the marketing team can determine where contacts are needed and fill in the blanks on empty fields or with additional contacts. Geography; Industry; Prospect title; Role (decision maker or end user); Special interest group; Company size or revenue; and/or Technology install base. 9

10 Step 6 Target Campaigns to Narrower Audiences To target more effectively, organizations can ask questions like: What is the need that the customer wants to address? Who is the customer s end user? What is the contact s role in the organization and are there other people you must consider? In addition to providing the answers to many of these questions, segmenting campaigns can also help companies better understand their prospect profile, based on their activity. By combining segmentation strategies into nurturing campaigns, marketing and sales teams have also developed deeper intelligence into typical buying cycles. Not every marketing campaign can be all things to all customers. In fact, the average response rate for a generic marketing campaign is less than 3%. To determine which customers should be included in a narrower campaign, start by asking who rather than how many, as in who are the most likely prospects. As marketing and sales teams become more sophisticated with their measurement and execution, SiriusDecisions Managing Director John Neeson recently pointed out that segmentation and targeting capabilities have emerged as key competitive differentiators. Neeson said segmentation and targeting are especially important as companies look to get into new segments, or consolidate existing verticals or product lines. Industry analysts have also cited an emerging trend around behaviorbased segmentation in driving personalized/customized content to distinct buyers. Progressive marketing organizations are now working more closely with sales to define campaigns for very targeted groups of prospects. 10

11 Using online prospect intelligence tools, marketing teams are able to build and execute campaigns for very refined groups with a specific call to action. These targeted prospect groups are often modeled based on the attributes of current customers. With access to profiles of similar prospects, sales and marketing are able to narrow their focus and deliver a targeted message that has a better chance of resonating with an audience. By reviewing recent pipeline activity and customer-win data, marketing and sales can map their campaigns around key qualifying characteristics and key questions such as: In which market segments am I closing the most deals? The average response rate for a generic marketing campaign is less than 3%. In which market segments are deals closing the fastest? What are the common characteristics of companies in those market segments? What other market segments share those common characteristics? This focus on narrower, more targeted audiences, augmented with more sophisticated demand generation and marketing automation tools, often results with a renewed appreciation for the quality of leads over quantity. By having relevant data on a targeted group of prospects, both marketing and sales can establish a digital dialogue and greatly increase their chances of progressing a contact to a customer. 11

12 Step 7 Connect Across Channels Step 8 Integrate Inbound Intelligence Into Outbound B2B sales and marketing strategies have historically focused their lead generation initiatives on traditional channels such as or telesales. However, the reality is most B2B buyers now start their research process with a Google search and continue across multiple channels. Therefore, it is essential that marketers develop databases that have complete records and enable them to communicate with prospects across media and channels. The good news, according to MarketingSherpa, is that knowing how customers want to obtain information on the web can increase average conversion rate by 21.6% or more. Looking at it another way, organizations can drive an extra 250 leads for every 1,000 that are paid for. Marketers need to develop a multi-touch contact strategy that works across multiple channels. For instance, some people like to get their information by listening rather than reading. For that audience a podcast would be appropriate. Other people are visual learners or like interacting with people. To get their attention try a webcast. Additionally, marketers can connect with prospective buyers via social networks or through partners and colleagues. In order to build a relevant conversation with prospects, it is critical to have a two-way dialogue that is able to identify the needs of buyers. For B2B marketers, this means building strategies that integrate both inbound and outbound intelligence. Inbound leads strategies can help prospects discover an organization organically. The trick, of course, is converting those inbound leads by having web site visitors voluntarily give their contact information. Inbound-generated marketing leads can deliver up to 10 times more revenue than outbound campaigns. In its 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report, MarketingSherpa found that using social media boosts leads by 30% and revenue by 114%. Additionally, revamped and optimized web content was found to double lead conversions. 12

13 Step 9 Increase Landing Page Form Fill Rates Of course, integrating inbound intelligence into outbound efforts assumes marketers have the appropriate level of contact data to fuel those campaigns. This level of needed data, as well as battling abandonment rates, requires landing page form best practices, including better designs, to make the experience fast and easy. Through the use of progressive profiling and intelligent database solutions, B2B marketers have dramatically improved their ability to convert anonymous visitors into named prospects by eliminating the need to ask peripheral firmographic questions, such as company revenue or number of employees. Industry best practices have recommended that marketers limit web forms to the following four fields: Name: Title: Company: Using social media boosts leads by 30% and revenue by 114% Search Marketing Benchmark, Marketing Sherpa These are the primary 4 categories to effectively profile and categorize site visitors. 13

14 Step 10 Improve Funnel Campaign Conversions With intelligent database solutions running behind the scenes on a landing page or web form, companies can append a wider set of attributes, such as: SIC Code; Employee Count; Annual Revenue; Company address; Phone; Country code; URL; and Headquarters or branch. These intelligent data solutions have proven to be an effective way to balance the need for shorter forms, while at the same time building complete and accurate profiles on inbound traffic. More complete and accurate inbound traffic profiles arm the sales team and accelerate the sales cycle. As B2B marketers increase their sophistication with demand generation campaigns, analysis and metrics associated with those campaigns have also evolved. Broad analysis has given way to a far more detailed examination of key stages within the sales and marketing funnel. Marketers and sales are now spending more time analyzing the progression of raw leads to qualified sales opportunities and, ultimately, closed deals. One of the best paths to increase conversion rates is having accurate and actionable data at each phase of the funnel. We have always recognized the critical role of accurate data in demand creation programs, said James H. Hooker, President and CEO, Televerde. Data impacts all stages of the sales pipeline, with the biggest impact at the early top of the funnel stages of demand discovery and lead generation. The data must be pristine at this stage in order to achieve the ultimate downstream objectives of top-line revenue growth and maximum marketing ROI. 14

15 Step 11 Use Data To Improve Sales and Marketing Alignment By having deeper intelligence into an early stage lead, marketers are able to send more targeted nurture messaging and accelerate conversion to the opportunity phase. This deeper intelligence also supports the closedloop process many B2B marketers are looking to achieve, where they can track what type of buyers are converting at various stages and then use that information to influence future campaigns. When marketing and sales are aligned, prospects move quickly from hearing about an organization online, to engaging with sales to, hopefully, taking the final step toward a purchase, according to David Thompson, CEO and Co-Founder of marketing automation vendor Genius, and author of Sales 2.0 for Dummies. Unfortunately, in many B2B organizations, marketing and sales teams plan separately, act separately and report separately, which contributes to the problem of inaccurate data. By aligning their data management processes, progressive organizations are building a shared sales and marketing funnel that delivers measurable results. These aligned organizations are seeing tangible benefits such as: Reducing the amount time wasted by sales on bad contacts; Unclogging the pipeline and directly affecting the conversion rates within the demand waterfall; and Decreasing opt-out rates due to irrelevant messaging. 15

16 Step 12 Plan For Data Consistency: Address Common Lead Database Issues The Data Warehouse Institute estimates that bad data costs American businesses $600 billion a year. The three most prevalent and economically damaging lead database issues are duplicate, incomplete or obsolete records. But the list doesn t end there. Bad data can include non-standard formats (VP for Vice President), inappropriate data (notes in the wrong field) and undeliverable s. DemandGen Report found that almost 2/3 of B2B organizations rely on data that is largely incomplete or inaccurate. This starts with CRM or SFA databases containing bad records and then continues into marketing. Almost 2/3 of B2B organizations rely on data that is largely incomplete or inaccurate. - DemandGen Report With people regularly changing jobs, titles and companies, reaching the correct person at the correct company has become a daunting challenge for marketers. With 3% of today s new information useless within a month, having the best B2B lead data is essential. 16

17 Conclusion There is a growing need for alignment and collaboration among marketing and sales in today s business environment, but it also is important to remember that marketing has unique needs for data and intelligence into prospects. With the continued adoption of automated systems and better processes, marketers are now expected to generate higher quality, more impactful leads. In order to continue to improve in this area, B2B marketers need deeper data and intelligence in order to effectively filter and nurture contacts into opportunities. As this E-book has outlined, data plays a key part in solving all of these challenges. In order to efficiently manage their valuable investment in building an accurate contact database, progressive marketers are automating the data management process. They are taking steps to clean and refresh their data, augment it to support key business initiatives and segment that data for more targeted messaging. Ultimately, by ensuring that they are marketing to the right contacts, marketers are seeing significant payoffs by generating more qualified leads and converting those leads into revenue. 17

18 About About Reachforce 9020-I Capital of TX Hwy N, Ste. 270 Austin, TX ReachForce delivers high-performance marketing lead data services that accelerate revenue for B2B companies. With the industry s largest (more than 100 million records) company and contact data set, ReachForce fuels inbound, outbound, and database marketing initiatives for revenue-driven marketers with powerful tools to assess, clean, append, and acquire the right data and increase their market reach to the right audience. About Televerde Televerde is the leading B2B provider of sales pipeline development solutions that drive increased 4636 E. University Dr Phoenix, AZ revenue for our clients by integrating contact data, marketing automation and world-class teleservices. We identify new customers, accelerate and convert sales opportunities, and discover fresh, actionable market insight. The outcomes we produce are improved performance of your sales pipeline, net new top-line sales revenue growth, measurable return on marketing investment, and sales & marketing alignment. We provide a sensible, integrated and disciplined approach to optimizing sales and marketing program performance. 411 State RT 17, Suite 410 Hasbrouck Heights, NJ About DemandGen Report DemandGen Report is a targeted e-media publication spotlighting the strategies and solutions that help companies better align their sales and marketing organizations, and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of our coverage focuses on the sales and marketing automation tools that enable companies to better measure and manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts. 18