How to Create an Integrated, Brand-Savvy Lead Generation Campaign

By Sally Roffman

During the height of the Internet boom, a technology company needed to look like a player, the edgier and the more innovative the better. Success had to do with a sophisticated brand and flashy marketing to capture the imagination of the marketplace and the attention of investors. After the dot com implosion, the high tech focus shifted to the short-term reality of getting leads in the pipeline. The key criterion for success was not in selling the vision, but proving that you could sell.

But generating leads should never mean sacrificing brand. The most effective lead generation program integrates brand with the sales process; sales is where the rubber meets the road. The best lead generation effort should make the brand relevant to the marketplace. In the short-term, a lead generation program will be more effective when it grows from a brand that is both organic to the company and differentiated from the competition. In the long-term, lead generation provides the opportunity to reinforce your brand with highly focused target audiences.

Start with your sales process
A successful direct marketing campaign supports, defines, and directs the sales process. It can ensure that messaging is consistent in the marketplace. It generates leads that are qualified. And it can ease the way for the sales force by making sure that prospects raise their hands based on a problem that only your company can solve.

An effective strategy cannot be developed in a marketing vacuum, the strategy begins by talking to sales. As your front line to the marketplace, your in-house telemarketing and direct sales representatives can tell you what makes your prospective customers tick. Here are just some of the questions to ask…(and what to do with the answers).

• What are the hot buttons—what keeps your prospects up at night? Your lead generation creative strategy should be built around your company’s unique solution to your prospect’s most pressing concern.

• What are their objections to your product or service? The content of your messaging should anticipate these objections…clarify the misconceptions and overcome the real obstacles.

• What are your strengths and weaknesses relative to the competition? This is where your differentiators come into play. It’s important to use your lead generation campaign to establish the grounds for competition…and to do it on your terms. If you get to a prospect first with a list of “Six Keys to Success”…and those six keys knock off the competition…your competitor will have a very hard time trying to convince the prospect that any of those keys are unimportant.

• What are the points in the sale where marketing can provide the greatest leverage? Suppose your sales force says, I know that my chance to make the sale increases dramatically if I can only get prospects to download and install the demo. Your lead generation strategy should include an offer that provides leverage at that point in the sales process. Offer a free premium or special deal to motivate the prospect to install the software.

Make it relevant
A one-size-fits-all lead generation strategy may well fit none. To be successful, the campaign must be multi-tiered and customized on a number of fronts.

• By title: Reaching executive decision makers is very different from reaching technical evaluators. The format is different, the creative hook is different, and the discussion of benefits is different. In direct mail, for instance, a letter package might be the best for an executive. An informational premium discussing industry trends or ROI considerations might be highly motivational. Product benefits must be translated into corporate business terms. For the technical evaluator, a post card or self-mailer could work best. The premium might be something they post on the wall of their cubicle…and humor could play a part. And product “benefits” might turn the technical prospect off if the copy sounds promotional; for this audience, benefits may need to be “disguised” as features!

• By industry: Even if your product or service works pretty much the same no matter what industry your customer is in, everyone likes to think that their situation is unique, that their industry presents problems that other industries do not face. The slightest nod to the complexities of a vertical industry and demonstration of your specialized knowledge can make a tremendous
difference in your success.

• By where they are in the sales process: A first-touch is very different from a “warming” nudge. A lost sale is very different than a lost customer. You must think about your sales and information delivery process as a continuum, and you need to take into consideration where that person is along that continuum.

Make it integrated
A lead generation campaign must be integrated three ways: by promotion vehicle, by prospect group, and by brand.

• By promotion vehicle: The campaign whole is always greater than the sum of the parts. A campaign that uses consistent creative and messaging in direct mail, online marketing, microsites or other website support, advertising, and trade show promotion will not only get more bang for the buck but will also be more effective in supporting the sales process.

• By prospect group: Even though messages change as they’re being adapted to various titles within an organization, the integrated campaign must consider how those messages mesh when brought together. You must develop creative so that the executives are “pre-wired” when the technical evaluators come to them for approval. And the technical person is pre-sold when the executives ask them to evaluate your product.

• By brand: The creative must grow out of the brand platform, support it through copy and design, and add value as a new proof point for your key positioning. If a promotion goes “against brand,” it must be to achieve a specific branding objective, such as distancing itself intentionally from the brand in order to reach a distinctly different market.

Done right, a lead generation campaign can serve as the robotics of sales—automating much of the sales process and making sales more efficient. Marketing must understand and support the sales process, know the target markets and their drivers, and carefully match relevant product or service differentiators with prospect needs. With an eye to using the brand as a foundation — and using the marketing vehicles as an opportunity to build the brand –- an integrated, brand-savvy lead generation campaign can establish powerful market leadership.

Sally Roffman is founder and president of Creative Strategy, Inc. For more than 20 years, she has worked with a wide spectrum of clients on generating leads and building brand. She can be reached at sally@creativestrategy.com or by phone: 301-718-4550.

Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 – March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA – Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org

© 2005, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.