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Jennifer Foster Marketing

marketing ideas

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“I’ve got leads, now what?”

As you kick off your 2021 sales initiatives your prospecting activity probably looks a lot different than it did a year ago.

COVID sent us online for connection like never before. We attended classes, seminars, meetings and likely even a couple happy hours. A lot of sales professionals who had tremendous success with more traditional methods of meeting and even direct mail were forced into a new world of outreach because no one was meeting in person and very few were even in their office to receive the phone calls and mail.

  • Dedicated time can help you connect!

Enter Online Networking.

LinkedIn and other digital mediums became the main way to connect with sales prospects. And there are literally dozens of lead generation tools hitting the market every day. So you’ve got leads, you’ve made connections. Now what?

  1. Stop the social spiral but keep your consistency We all know social media is a time suck personally, so it seems logical that it can quickly become a time suck professionally. I suggest setting aside 30-45 mins per day to keep you within your limits. Set a timer, create your post, interact with your followers, comment on and share posts you follow, and when the timer goes off – you’re done for the day.
  2. Automate your marketing messages but only where it makes sense.
    Marketing automation allows you to communicate, evaluate and accelerate your leads through your sales funnel. Email and printed communications help reach your audiences with customized, relevant information, triggered by THEIR behaviors. As a general rule I do not suggest automating your social media, its just not authentic and more importantly the algorithms will generally deprioritize them.
  3. Qualify the connections and identify which are viable leads.
    You will have far more connections than will ever become worthwhile prospects. It’s the nature of the beast. So if you don’t qualify them you’re going to be out of the social spiral and into the outreach one. Bucket your leads by a few key criteria such as titles, region or whether or not you have spoken with them. The more you know about your leads, the more personalized your automated messaging and nurturing can be.
  4. Augment what you know about your lead.
    If you don’t have a lot of information about your qualified leads you can easily find more. An email address is the perfect place to start. You can then create additional content to get more information from them or simply reach out to them via email and start a conversation.

Finally, it will take both your patience and your persistence to effectively following-up with your new connections. It is a near certainty that it will take several calls and emails — research says up to 12! — at different times of the day to finally reach your prospect. A structured lead follow-up system will prepare and aid you to connect more effectively with those hard-to-reach leads that suddenly drop off the ether the moment they hit your sales funnel.

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Put a Little Scare Into Your 2016 Marketing

With big risk can come some pretty big rewards. While there's still some wiggle room in your 2016 budget let's consider putting some SPOOK in your plan!
With big risk can come some pretty big rewards. While there’s still some wiggle room in your 2016 budget let’s consider putting some SPOOK in your plan!

So let’s call it this a post-Halloween bog: ideally we’d have talked about scary things LAST week, right? Well, bear with me, have another one of your kiddo’s Reese’s PB Cups and read on.

We hear the sentiment all the time:

Do one thing each day that scares you.

Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

Your fear is boring. (My personal favorite.)

And as small businesses and startups, we’re inherently brave right? We can’t live paycheck to paycheck because, well sometimes those are pretty few and far between. We’re disrupting technologies as SOP. We write checks then hope our talents and the bank can back them up.

But how risky are you planning to be with your 2016 marketing? Just like most things: with big risk can come some pretty big rewards. While there’s still some wiggle room in your 2016 budget let’s consider the following:

  1. Diversify your channels. “Marketing, like any business deal, is an investment; with any investment there is risk. You can alleviate some of the risk in marketing by diversifying your marketing campaigns while staying under the umbrella of your brand. Your messaging should be centralized, but the delivery of that messaging can be diversified,” says said Karen Robinson, executive vice president who oversees marketing for Norcross-based NanoLumens.
  2. Give Things Away. I’m a big fan of Jose Vasquez and in his Huffington Post article he says “Giveaways are risky for startups, especially as you try to control your costs. Give your subscription or product away for free for a limited time — if you can handle the financial liability.”
  3. Trust the Data: Kill off a Bad Project. We all have them. The projects that just won’t go away because they’re someone’s  pet project (ahem… usually a non marketing executive).  Of course, hindsight is 20/20; it’s easy after the fact to criticize bold bets that didn’t pay off. But too often marketing leaders continue to sink resources into projects in the face of mounting evidence that a marketing initiative isn’t working. Be brave, cut them off.
  4. Throw a Party: Everyone loves a celebration and parties are one of the best ways to expand your client network. So consider throwing yourself an office warming party, a 7th Anniversary party or other celebration. Invite your clients and prospects to mingle and get to know one another. As the common denominator at the event, you (and your products and services) will likely be the focus of conversation.

Most businesses (and people) benefit greatly from incorporating a little fear into their planning. I’d love to hear how you’re planning to change things up in 2016!