Some businesses have built a marketing infrastructure that constantly brings in new leads, follows them up, nurtures and converts them into customers who repeatedly purchase. Other businesses – in fact, I would say most businesses, do what we call “random acts of marketing.
They throw an Ad up here, an Ad there, perhaps a website or a brochure. Very few consider building a “lead ecosystem” where a cold lead enters one end and a customer comes out of the other.
These sporadic, one-shot, random acts of marketing usually end up costing more than they bring in, which is demoralising and sometimes leads business owners to say ridiculous things like, “marketing doesn’t work in our industry.”
To build a lead ecosystem, you need to think it through from start to end. You need to understand how it works and what resources are required to run it.
A critical component of your lead ecosystem is your database of customers and prospects. To manage your database effectively, you will need suitable sales & marketing automation software, one that ideally also acts as a CRM that can also manage your customers.
All of your leads and customer interactions should end up in your automation database. This is where things get exciting; immediately after you’ve captured a lead, they should go into your automation system, where repeated contacts are made over time. Contact does not mean obnoxiously trying to pester leads into buying your products or services. You build relationships, giving them value in advance of buying anything from you, building trust and demonstrating authority within your sector.
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