Web Analytics for Generating Sales Leads
It's one thing to get more leads that fit your criteria of an ideal buyer. It's another to know when that prospect is most ready to engage.
Website Visitor and Lead-Tracking Services
One of the most exciting developments in sales tools is the ability to discover who is visiting your site and when. With traditional Web tracking software such as Google Analytics, Website visitors are anonymous. You can learn how many visitors you had and what percentage are new vs. returning visitors. But visitors remain anonymous.
Enter software services that identify the company names of your visitors as well as their viewing habits.
These services from Active Conversion, Genius.com, LeadGenesys, DemandBase, and others act as a caller-ID for your Website visitors.
Studies show that only 1-3% of Website visitors disclose their identity by registering. This means a whopping 97-99% of your traffic comes and goes without any ability for your sales team to engage them
Website visitor tracking vendors provide you with a small piece of html code that you then insert into your Website pages. That code allows them to grab crucial visitor information.
Each vendor uses their own proprietary algorithms to determine what company the visitor is from and which pages they visit. Learning that someone from a prospect's company downloaded a report or visited the site for a fifth time is a good indicator that it's time to engage. Website visitor tracking software can tell you this. Some can even capture the clickstream so you know the order your pages were viewed by each visitor and how much time they spent on each page.
Active Conversion
Active Conversion's service includes the ability to create Web sign-up forms that you post on your Website. Once a person completes the form, it's possible to track their individual visit activity. Now the sales rep knows not only what company visited but who the person is from that company. And this data can be integrated into your CRM system so you have the latest information on your prospect.
Active Conversion also includes lead scoring and lead routing. Lead scoring is a way to automatically assign a score that indicates how qualified a lead is. You set up the parameters according to what makes sense for your business. Parameters may include number of pages visited, pages viewed, whether the link was tracked from e-mail, and more. On the other hand, lead routing defines how you want leads to be disseminated to your sales reps. You may designate that leads be automatically routed based on geography, lead score and other terms included in your Web forms.
Sales professionals can send trackable e-mails as well. When a recipient opens the e-mail and visits the Website, the statistics are recorded under that prospect's name. Automatic notification is also possible which lets the sales rep know about the visit and, if desired, click through to view an instant replay of the visit. Using this information, the sales rep can assess prospect interest and prepare the best follow-up. Marketing can also set up conversion events, which will result in Sales notification and suspension of workflow activities. For example, if a prospect visits the "how to buy" page on the Website, a conversion event may be set up to alert Sales to that prospect's interests, present the visit replay to the appropriate sales rep and cause suspension of further workflow e-mails to that prospect (to prevent any duplication of effort between Sales and Marketing). Prices start at $299 per month.
Genius Pro
Genius lets marketers easily create, schedule and send personalized e-mails either on behalf of the appropriate sales team member or from the appropriate marketing or executive alias. It's simple to personalize e-mail content by inserting the prospects name and by using the sales reps name as the "sender" of the e-mail even though it was sent from marketing. Genius also provides full support for individual communications sent by Sales Reps and others on the team, both through easyto- use e-mail templates and through the Genius Plug-In for Microsoft Outlook.
Genius lets anyone on the team send fully trackable e-mails from Outlook without requiring any Website tagging or server changes.
Beyond the inbox, Genius delivers much more insight for your email marketing programs by deep-tracking -- without any Website instrumentation or IT intervention -- the entire visit. Website visit replays help sales see exactly what the prospect is interested in. By combining e-mail marketing with Website analytics, Genius turns e-mail into an instant response system for prospect qualification. This lets you:
- Know instantly who's most interested in what you're selling
- Better understand specific prospect/customer needs
- Increase e-mail campaign conversion rates
- Improve close rates
- Reduce sales cycle time
- Optimize sales productivity
With Genius Pro, marketers can initiate powerful e-mail marketing campaigns that deliver instant e-mail open and Website visit results directly to Sales, so Sales can quickly prioritize lead follow-up, calling on the most interested prospects first. Genius does not make their pricing available publically.
