Henry Jones
Investment in lead generation for both marketing and sales is growing, as businesses realise they can’t wait for revenue to come to them. But it’s important to invest in the right places for your building products business.
Going into 2020 a global survey by Hubspot research concluded that, ‘’the top priority for marketers in 2020 is generating leads”. Now we’re nearly halfway through 2021 and this hasn’t changed, if anything it’s even more of a priority.
The 7 Pillars of Lead Generation layout a clear plot of how to build a winning lead generation strategy. However, this final pillar in the series will describe how to make the whole strategy economically viable. There’s no point in having an effective content plan, or a great CRM system if you’re going over budget and don’t see a return on investment (ROI).
Managing ROI
Having a good ROI is an objective of any business, department or individual. It’s how we define a successful business practice, whether it be a long term strategy or a shorter campaign.
In Pillar 6 the importance of recording data was emphasized and it should be here as well. You can’t just assume something is working because of a gut feeling. It has to be proven using data.
Examples of metrics you can track to determine a good investment are:
- Cost per lead
- Leads per month
- Conversion rates
These types of metrics move away from vanity metrics, such as the number of followers or page views. Which look good on paper but don’t help you to determine actual successes, such as closing deals and converting leads into customers.
Tracking and understanding your Roi allows you to increase your budgets with confidence. Knowing what is working with your market means you increase the budget in the right areas to increase the number of leads you can generate.
Even if you have a small or even a decreasing budget, understanding ROI is vital to ensuring lead generation isn’t underfunded.
Strategic Partners
We can often fall into a trap of looking for the cheapest way of doing something. We can also look to take on too much responsibility ourselves, believing we can get by on our own.
But the truth is a mature and effective lead generation strategy can’t be done for free. You need personnel, tools and sometimes the help of experts to guide your hand. This is why the ROI is so important. Investments must be made but they have to be intelligent. Don’t waste your valuable time and money when you can focus on the things that will be a success for your building products business.
This is where employing a strategic partner comes into its own and gives you an edge over the competition. The State of B2B Lead Generation from London Research determined that only 22% of businesses polled use a lead generation partner, whilst for companies defined as lead generation leaders, this number rose to 35%.
Strategic partners can assist in areas such as analytics, lead scoring and content production.
Hubspot is a comprehensive CRM that stores all your sales and marketing team’s data and create reports to show opportunities and areas to improve.
Project Prospecta uses lead scoring, email marketing and automation. To monitor the interest of Barbour ABI contacts to automatically create sales leads for your team.
Conclusion
60% of businesses said they’re going to increase their spending on online lead generation (The State of B2B Lead Generation from London Research). But doing this in an informed way is the key to maximising your ROI and increase the number of quality leads that are generated for your business.
You should look to track your spending on software, channels, content creation, data management and personnel. But don’t be afraid to look for 3rd party help and reach out to strategic partners who can give you an edge over the competition.
If you do this and follow the other steps laid out by The 7 Pillars of Lead Generation, you’ll see a consistent increase in the quality and quantity of leads which will naturally increase the number of conversions your business makes.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.