B-to-B lead generation is a balancing act that requires marketers to:
- Balance lead quality with lead quantity
- Manage competing demands for website real estate
- Reconcile corporate branding guidelines with campaign performance goals.
In this white paper, we outline practical approaches for addressing these three challenges. It is only through testing and optimization that marketers can begin to understand the trade-offs associated with their decisions. Why? Because testing and optimization is the most practical way to be certain of your customers' preferences.
Get ready to embrace the differences between your colleagues and yourself and adopt the maxim "Let's test it!" Your customers (and your executives) will be glad you did.
INTRODUCTION
Every marketer faces unique challenges, but ultimately, marketers' goals are the same: 1) to improve sales performance by generating customer interest, and 2) to maintain or enhance perception of the company's brand. Oftentimes these goals seem at odds with one another, resulting in internal conflict and debate.
Members of B-to-B customer acquisition teams traditionally focus on improving "bottom line" metrics like return on investment (ROI), cost per lead, or cost per sale. Their counterparts in brand marketing teams typically focus on goals that are inherently more difficult to quantify like brand awareness, brand perception, and brand recall.
With increasing pressure to prove the value of marketing activities, it is crucial to understand the trade-offs between different tactics. Only by understanding trade-offs can businesses make informed decisions about where to focus marketing resources.
CHALLENGES FACING THE B-TO-B MARKETER
B-to-B lead generation is a balancing act that requires a keen understanding of user behavior, extensive knowledge in one's field, and sharp quantitative skills to accurately identify and measure promising opportunities. But, even the most talented direct marketer must come to terms with real obstacles to succeed. While the obstacles are numerous and often complicated by internal politics, three common challenges facing B-to-B marketers include:
- Lead quality versus quantity: How to balance "high-volume, low-quality" lead activities with "low-volume, high-quality" lead activities.
- Website real-estate allocation: How to create the optimal balance in website real estate between different products and/or services.
- Corporate or campaign approach: How to respect corporate guidelines while still testing bold steps to improve campaign performance.
In this white paper, we propose three practical approaches for addressing the above challenges. While the final decision on how to resolve these challenges rests with your organization, it is critical that you understand the benefits and costs associated with your decision. Testing and optimization allows marketers to deliver the best content and creative to meet business goals. (See page 3 for more on testing and optimization.)
Applying testing and optimization to decision-making allows your target audience to tell you what it prefers. With testing and optimization, you can begin to answer these (and many other) questions:
- Would a significant increase in raw (i.e., unqualified) lead volume help or hurt my organization?
- How do we decide whether website real estate is allocated based upon sales contribution, thought leadership goals, or forecasted revenue expectations?
- How important are our corporate brand elements at driving leads and sales? Is it better to focus messaging on product features or campaign elements?
PRACTICAL WAYS TO ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES FACING A B-TO-B MARKETER
Let's explore, in detail, three practical ways that B-to-B marketers can face and conquer the three challenges outlined above.
Goal #1: Strike a Balance between Lead Quality and Lead Quantity Solution: Find balance by testing lead generation forms
B-to-B direct marketers often describe the lead generation process using the analogy of a funnel. Lead generation funnels have different shapes: when they're wide at the top but narrow at the bottom, it indicates that a company is casting a wide but unfocused net, pulling in unqualified leads that do not convert well. A funnel that is narrow at the top but remains relatively open at the bottom shows that a company is targeting the right group of prospects who convert well, but may not be reaching enough of them.
