All Leads Are Not Created Equal

There is value to every lead. Even a simple download or follow that includes a specific request not to be contacted is at least a validation of the value your marketing is bringing to your target audience.  It’s also a reaffirmation that you still hold that prospect’s attention and will get future opportunities to convert them to a proper lead.  Having said that, this is an example of a low level lead that can turn into something but doesn’t warrant a lot of time spent in immediate conversion.  It’s important to be honest about the quality of a lead so that they can be prioritized into categories for appropriate next steps.

The most common way to categorize leads is through a temperature system from cold to hot. Below are some basic descriptions and an example of appropriate next steps.

Quality

Description

Next Step

Cold A simple download, newsletter sign up, or follow that requests no follow up.
  1. Make sure that the prospect receives what they requested.
  2. Include the prospect in your marketing communications matrix.
Cool A simple download, newsletter sign up, or follow that is neutral to a follow up.
  1. Make sure that the prospect receives what they requested.
  2. Respond with a systematized and/or individual email or call.
Warm A download, sign up, or social follow that specifically requests a follow up (Priority given if it includes some potential problem indicators that your product or service can solve).
  1. Make sure that the prospect receives what they requested.
  2. Respond with a systematized and/or individual email or call (Unless the prospect can buy directly online, then a individualized email or call should be placed even if a systematized response is available).
Hot Attendance at an event or registration for a tool / trial account (Especially if it includes some potential problem indicators that your product or service can solve).
  1. Make sure that the prospect receives what they requested.
  2. Complete any systematized communication that the request requires.
  3. Respond with an individualized phone call or email (Even if the product or service can be bought online it’s prudent to make an individualized connection).

 

Now that we have a gauge of quality, why does it matter? In a perfect world, with unlimited resources, it wouldn’t.  Every marketing lead could be treated with the same priority.  However, most trainers, consultant, and professional coaches don’t have the luxury of infinite resources.

Ranking the quality lets you design responses, either in person or systematized, that a lead warrants. This prevents wasting too much time or effort on a low quality lead and ensures that high quality opportunities are addressed in a timely manner. It can also help prioritize calls to action if your marketing matrix can only support a limited number of offers.

Of course, quality is often a bit of a judgment call. Some leads might blur the lines a bit.  However, it’s important to let the prospect’s request gauge the quality rather than how we perceive the person.  For example, many times trainers, consultants, or professional coaches place a priority on a person from a big name company with not much stated interest over a person from a smaller company who is expressing more need because they perceive greater potential opportunity.  It’s impossible to know that before engaging a lead so it’s best to prioritize by what we know rather than what we hope/suspect.

Lead quality forms an important bridge between marketing and sales and having a realistic interpretation with suitable responses helps both function better.

Calls-to-Action Dilution

Every digital marketing campaign should drive toward a call-to-action.  Even communications that are primarily educational or informational should have some method of pointing people to a next step.  There’s often a fear that a call to action will get stale. That can be a valid fear if your audience no longer values what is being offered. However, that fear can drive digital marketers to over-produce and under-promote their calls-to-action. Focus on making a quality call-to-action and promoting it thoroughly so that your target audience is given a sufficient opportunity to take advantage of the offer.

Technology keeps accelerating the pace of digital marketing.  This rapid pace often shifts focus to what’s new rather than what’s good.   Something new will often get attention but something good will get a conversion. Effective digital marketing is built on quality calls-to-action not just something new.

We work with a client that has had success offering whitepapers.  Their conversion rates were so good in fact that it encouraged them to create more whitepapers.  After all if one whitepaper can create dozens of leads, then two whitepapers can produce hundreds, right?

When conversion rates started to slip on subsequent whitepapers they sped up production.  Producing the whitepapers strained their ability to research and analyze data on the featured topic so the depth of the content within the whitepaper eroded.  To combat that they started producing short reports based on presentations or articles they had previously released.

The reports were not well received so they started creating them more frequently hoping to cover specific topics that would appeal to their different target audiences.  But since the content was not robust and the segments within their list found little value in them. This led to the middle of last year when they were releasing a report every 2 to 4 weeks, doing a blitz promotion of it for several weeks, and then moving on to the next one.

Trying to keep that breakneck pace was exhausting their resources and killing conversion rates. It was a lot more work to offer something new with very few extra leads to show for it.

So why weren’t leads increasing as they offered more calls-to-action? Unfortunately direct scaling doesn’t often happen on calls-to-action unless the call to action is as strong as the first and appeals to an equal number of non-duplicated people. Instead of scaling there is a dilution effect where the same people convert repetitively, poorer quality offerings drop the overall conversion rate, or both. This is further compounded when the call-to-action is not given sufficient time for promotion.

If you find that you’re rapidly releasing calls-to-action but are not getting sufficient leads or sales to justify the effort, then you have either misidentified what has value to your audience or you are suffering from over-production and the call-to-action dilution effect.