7 Ways to Use Marketing Automation to Build Sales Leads

By JOHN FOLEY – March 3, 2017

Are you currently utilizing marketing automation to build the right sales leads?

The right leads keep your business thriving. A steady stream of well-qualified leads means a regular income stream and new avenues of income. Qualified leads are those who have a need for your product or service, the budget to purchase and the purchasing authority (if they work for an organization).

Finding the right leads is a must. It means that your effort and budget are being spent on the right people – those most likely to buy. Imagine there was an easy and effective way to find those qualified leads. Your number of qualified leads would jump up, and so would your sales.

That’s where marketing automation comes in. Check out these 7 ways you can use marketing automation to build sales leads:

1. Lead Scoring

When you choose a marketing automation tool, choose one that offers lead scoring. Lead scoring means you can rank leads by how likely they are to purchase, which in turn lets you laser-focus your efforts on the most profitable leads.

With lead scoring, you can assign scores based on a wide variety of criteria such as:

• Budget
• Purchasing power
• Attendance at live or online events (if they’re willing to give you their time, that’s a good sign!)
• Interest in your organization (did they request a call? Download an offer? Sign up for emails?)
• Buying signals
• Demographics such as location or industry

When you score your leads, you give yourself an insider’s guide to which leads are the most likely to become profitable clients.

2. Stay With Customers Throughout The Purchase Cycle

Making a purchase is not a one-time event. From the moment a customer first shows interest in your products to the moment they decide to purchase, you have multiple opportunities to get in touch and guide them towards buying. Marketing automation makes sure you never miss one of those opportunities.

Pre-set your marketing campaign based on the actions your leads take and make sure you keep in touch. Send out a drip campaign that builds your authority and answers their questions. The cycle doesn’t end with clicking the buy button, either. A fantastic post-purchase campaign will make your customers feel cared about. Following up two, six or twelve months down the line will keep you in touch and open the way for repeat purchases or upselling.

With marketing automation, you can pre-load all your content for each trigger point and make sure you are in touch with your customers throughout the purchase cycle.

3. Nurture The Most Promising Leads

Marketing automation helps you keep in touch with the most promising leads. Say for example you have a lead who:

• Scores highly in your lead scoring system
• Shows an active interest in your organization
• Downloads an opt-in offer or signs up for emails
• Requests a call back about your services
• Repeatedly visits your sales page

With marketing automation, you can set trigger points that match promising lead behavior, When a trigger point is reached, your software will automatically send an email, invite them to schedule a call, or whatever action you input. The result is that you’ll never miss out on the most qualified leads again. Marketing automation helps you identify and reach out to the best leads so your effort isn’t wasted on those that are unlikely to convert.

4. Offer Targeted Information

Your customers like targeted information. In fact, they need it. Information that isn’t useful or specific to them will quickly be discarded – and your organization along with it. Thankfully with marketing automation, you don’t have to worry about that.

With marketing automation, you can segment your customer list by any number of factors including purchase history, behavior on your website, downloads, social media engagement, demographics, and much more. That means you can carefully build a marketing campaign for each segment, making sure your customers only see the information that matters the most to them. The result? You position yourself as an organization that truly gets them, thus building trust and guiding them towards the sale.

5. Offer Webinars

Marketing automation makes it easy to collect sign-ups for webinars, and then send out information that builds excitement, answers questions, and of course, reminds your leads to attend.

Why is this such a good use of marketing automation? It’s simple: Leads who sign up for a webinar and then take time to attend it are demonstrating interest and investment in your business. They’ve made their interest clear. With marketing automation, you can build on that interest and maximize the chances of webinar attendance turning into a sale.

6. Reach The Right People On Social Media

Social media is the ideal place to meet new leads and start good conversations with them. Marketing automation helps you make the most of social media. With marketing automation you can set up timed social media posts that are designed to land in front of the right leads at just the right moment. No more hours spent sending out social media posts: With marketing automation, you can design your schedule, pre-populate your posts, and relax knowing it’s taken care of.

Use marketing automation to send out timed social media posts that encourage your leads to further interaction, such as links to downloads or online events, special offers and more.

7. Dig Deep Into Lead behavior

Marketing automation makes it easy to dig deep into your leads’ behavior and glean valuable information that you can use to further hone your marketing efforts. You can learn a lot from lead behavior such as:

• Click patterns
• Time spent browsing
• Post engagement
• Pages visited
• Sign-ups and downloads

Once you have the information to hand, you can use marketing automation to set a track for each kind of behavior. With marketing automation, you can send out information that is perfectly suited to each behavior and designed to nurture those customers.

 

Building sales leads are vital for the growth and future of your business. Marketing automation takes the hassle out of finding and cultivating the most profitable leads, helping you build a stronger customer base.