You have a marketing automation platform in place, but the ROI you expected isn’t there. You’re continually reaching out to the same leads and struggling to get new ones into the pipeline.
If this scenario reads all-too-familiar, here are three ways to optimize the effectiveness of your marketing automation platform by having steady sources of inbound leads.
- Place high-quality content behind lead capture forms.
Build pieces of industry-leading content – such as a white papers and case studies – and place each behind a form on the website, allowing you to capture the information of leads who download the content. Once the website form is submitted, the lead’s information gets fed into the marketing automation platform, as well as a CRM (customer relationship management system) if integrated.
- Acquire attendee lists from events.
Beyond an email signup sheet at your booth or table, make the most of the trade shows and conferences you’re attending where there are qualified leads. Dependent upon your participation level, event organizers will often provide attendee contact information upon request, including first and last name, company, position, and email address.
Following the event, enter those individuals into your CRM or marketing automation database, and follow up with attendees easily through an “It was nice meeting you at <insert event name here>!” campaign.
- Hold virtual webinars.
Webinars are an easy, cost effective way to reach prospects, especially if your target audience is geographically dispersed. Hold webinars for leads with an aligned interest. For example, if your company manufactures red, white, and blue widgets, hold separate webinars for each vertical – ensuring that content is focused solely on what the audience cares about, common pain points and solutions, etc.
When a lead submits the web form to register, contact information automatically gets fed into the marketing automation platform, as well as the CRM if applicable. Beyond webinar-specific campaigns, future drips can be targeted since you’ll know which vertical the lead is interested in.