Lead Generation & Nurturing for Your Architectural Firm - Part Two

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This is the second installment in a four part series dedicated to lead generation and lead nurturing process. No architectural firm can be successful with new client development without a strong understanding of this phase in the sales cycle. You can also read  the initial installment by clicking here.

Obviously, trade shows are not the only venue for architects to generate suspects. Anyone that visits your website, or picks up one of your flyers, or holds a spot in your mailing list database is merely a suspect. A person walking in the door makes them a suspect. It is the conversion of those suspects to prospects, or leads, that are crucial to the sales process.

Suspects don’t turn into prospects until some form of communication occurs with a suspect and a member of your company. This sharing of information will let both parties mutually determine if there is genuine interest in your particular service, and that there is credibility in your promise to deliver it. Only then will they graduate to the position of lead. They are now at the top end of the sales funnel (see Figure 1, below).

Understanding the Lead Nurturing Concept

Lead nurturing is the approach marketers use to develop and “care for” individual relationships with these immature prospects – even while they’re not yet ready to purchase - in order to earn their particular business should they eventually ready themselves to purchase.

I’m sure you will notice that the sales funnel in figure 1 is specifically illustrated for inbound marketing, but the concept holds true for all approaches involving relationship or content marketing. The top of the funnel is where the suspects first convert into leads, and these leads make their way toward the sales end through lead nurturing. The process is the same regardless of what type of marketing you perform.

You begin finding suspects to turn into leads, to convert to customers. The further down the funnel improves their “qualification” rating, or rank if you will. This is where you provide the level of nurturing they require, by returning for additional information. They may either contact you or you may contact them. The choices are numerous, and they are yours to make. What is certain today is that today’s customer or decision maker, be it business to business or business to consumer, is performing a lot of online search prior to making a buying decision.

Your responsibility as a business professional is to provide individual leads an easy path to the information they require to reach a purchasing decision, to keep your brand name top of mind during this time, and to be there when they are eventually in a position to make a commitment.

Within this article, I will attempt to explain the fundamental actions your business should take to establish an efficient and effective lead nurturing system.

For instance, these aspects are important to the overall success of your lead nurturing system:

1. Knowing and understanding the fundamental principles associated with prospect nurturing
2. Creating an uncomplicated prospect nurturing process
3. Understanding how to perfect and broaden your current process
4. Evaluate the success of your company lead nurturing program
5. Understanding how to employ prospect nurturing to produce a greater, more productive connection involving the marketing and advertising and sales teams

 Suspects & Prospects

Figure 1.

People, especially those looking to select the right architect, often produce an extended buying cycle; they may take weeks or even months (up to eighteen months for one of our clients) to make major purchasing decisions. While this may not be true for all individuals, most people will still take their time on any major buying decision (and an architectural project usually falls into this thinking), unless of course, the issue is one of an emergency nature. When the clothes washer goes out, they may not perform all the research they would have like to because the pile of clothes keeps rapidly growing. But selecting a firm for a long term, capital-intensive project like building a home, a church, a school, or a commercial building... and capturing their vision for the project... requires a lot of research and evaluation.

Remember, lead nurturing is a lot like creating a pathway for prospective buyers, specifically where your company marketing and advertising group serves as the ever-attentive instructor.

You can learn more about what buyers are researching or looking to purchase, which is determined by their particular actions and patterns. If the prospect has visited (revisited?) your website; your analytics will tell you how much time they spent on a particular page, or what information they downloaded. If you use more traditional marketing strategies, by keeping a record of their inquiries, communications and/or visits, you can nurture them accordingly. In either process, you can produce engaging, well-timed information and facts, in relation to those needs and wants. It may be an eBook, white paper, brochure, flyer or product cut sheet.

Today’s architectual prospects also spend far more time performing online and offline research - a situation that often brings the prospective buyer to the attention of a firm's  sales and marketing teams, long before they are prepared to make a buying decision. A particular concern, naturally, is the ability to isolate these “warm” potential customers - the ones that aren’t prepared to purchase at this time - from your “hot” sales opportunities, which characterize instant sales and profits possibilities. This is precisely why prospect rating resources tend to be ever more popular these days.

Another challenge is knowing the way to interact with individuals that display a “maybe now-maybe later” attitude. Potential customers gradually make their way down the sales funnel, and you nurture them by providing with the information they require without disturbing or perhaps offending them. Performing a rush to judgment by pushing the lead toward a sale is not a good idea, despite the sales person’s need to make their quota. We will cover conversion chaos in another segment of the article.

Lead nurturing might be overwhelming, and it can become a complicated challenge. Getting started with lead nurturing, on the other hand, could be a straightforward process, provided an efficient strategy is developed, together with clearly defined objectives.

Quantify and qualify leads and lead data, merged with a marketing automation solution.

Automation presents your company with the opportunity to monitor and evaluate the process efficacy of your marketing endeavors.

NEXT - Part Three of this four part article will cover dissecting a lead nurturing program, and how it works.  See you next time.

Lead Generation & Nurturing for Your Accounting Firm

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This is the initial portion of a four part series dedicated to lead generation and lead nurturing process. No business can be successful with new client development without a strong understanding of this phase in the sales cycle.

Regardless of the methodology of lead generation you employ, in all probability your accounting firm will spend considerable time, energy and financial resources on lead generation. Some firms utilize direct mail, telemarketing, referral or customer-based marketing, trade shows, networking and a host of other strategies to generate leads and revenues. Others use their own particular formula for marketing and advertising. Lead generation and lead nurturing are top-of-the-funnel aspects of marketing and sales in every business; yours is no different.

This article is not about the strategy, it is about the process. As an inbound marketing agency our company, Zen Marketing, is in the business of teaching businesses how to generate more leads from their websites using content, but this is not a sales pitch today. Forget inbound marketing for the time being; let’s focus on the best approach to nurture the leads that you have generated.

One of the oldest clichés in the business world is “sales is a numbers game”. The number of customer sales transactions is the direct result of the number of “touches” the suspect experiences to convert to a prospect, to a qualified lead, to a sale. A touch might be an ad in the newspaper, meeting at a trade show, phone call, direct mail piece, or article found on the website. Every business is different; every marketing campaign is different. The sales cycle is what it is for your business; you know best the period of which we are referring to.

Those attempting to generate qualified leads, or prospects, if you will, will quickly learn precisely how long and what number of those suspects and prospects result in completed transactions (aka closed sales). In measuring this a hard truth is exposed: there is major difference concerning “qualified” as opposed to “ready to purchase.”

Here is another truth. There will always be a percentage of “qualified” leads in the lead nurturing process that simply fail to generate a sale, just as there are those that make it all the way through the sales funnel, having received all of the lead nurturing they could ever hope for, and yet fall completely out of the pool of “sales-ready” prospective purchasers.

Statistics reveal that any accounting firm can consider approximately eighty percent of qualified prospects will ultimately make a purchase; however, there is no guarantee the transaction will hit your revenue report.

Lead Generation

We won’t be spending a lot of time on lead generation, because there are so much varied approaches that there are hundreds of books on the subject available for download on Amazon. The trick is realizing the difference between a suspect from a prospect; between a “lead” and a “qualified lead.”

Successful business-to-business marketing tactics include a broad and diverse range of tactics. Some of the most widely utilized include:

• Relationship marketing
• Content or Inbound marketing
• Direct or outbound marketing
• Online marketing
• Events 
• Tradeshows
• Educational workshops

When it comes to lead generation each tactic yields some amount of leads; but at what cost? And how efficiently are the leads created? The graph below, courtesy of our partner Hubspot®, reflects the sliding scale of the costs per lead. I provide this for information only, and won’t be discussing the benefits of one over the other, as it is for your firm to decide what strategies will be effective.

That said, nearly every any business card collected at a trade show is nothing more than a link to a suspect. Chances are that the person providing the card had a fanciful notion to share it because he or she:

• Behaviorally averse to confrontation- it’s easier and safer for them to simply string you along
• Was too bashful to say that something about your product or service caught their eye and nothing more
• Something from their past was brought to mind as a result of seeing your booth
• They love collecting business cards (you wouldn’t believe the number of cards that are given out and then thrown away when the person gets home)
• They ask for more information, only to gather further information to compare with your competitors

IN OUR NEXT POST ..... we take a serious look at lead nurturing.

Hunterdon County Business Expo - How to Make the Most of Your Time

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Are you attending the upcoming Chamber of Commerce Expo and Restaurant Showcase on October 16? Would you like to insure you generate a return on your investment of time at this show, the only trade show of its kind in Hunterdon County?

You will get a more value if you have a game plan going in. Here are several tips for people who are planning to attend the Expo.

What Are Your Objectives?

Why attend the EXPO? Defining your objectives will help you prepare and you will find your time at the event more productive. Some of the things you might want to accomplish include:

• Looking for collaboration or partnership opportunities between your business and other companies
• Find a great service or product provider for your home or business
• Get some face time with local business people, important clients, prospective new clients, or even your neighbors
• Bringing back some best practices office so your execution at other similar events can improve

By setting objectives now, and developing a plan to accomplish them, you can not only streamline your approach accordingly but utilize your resources more efficiently.

Look at the EXPO Website Now

Every show publishes a list of exhibitors and the Chamber of Commerce has a great website for the EXPO. Just point your browser to www.hunterdonexpo.com and click on exhibitors. Take the time to identify the companies you know you want to meet (maybe a business partnership opportunity or a service you’d like to explore) or observe (maybe your competition is exhibiting there). Look for potential service providers that you want to speak with, perhaps even setting up an appointment with them in advance to get more of their time and attention.

Have a New Perspective on Your Business Cards

Have you ever considered bringing business cards with a different email address to a show? This works! There’s value in developing ongoing relationships with vendors and exhibitors relevant to your needs, but you also don’t want your primary email address flooded with spam or sales offers. If you complete the event registration and print a small supply of business cards with a different email address you’ll still get lots of great information but you can also redirect everything into a separate folder with Email Rules for reading later.

Jog the First Few Miles

I used to regularly attend three and four day trade shows. Las Vegas, Milan (Italy), Frankfurt (Germany) to name a few. I would always have a list of those booths or suppliers that I needed to meet with, but on the first day I would do a quick lap around the entire show–checking out booths, getting a sense for companies with something special  and taking notes of which booths I particularly wanted to come back to see. At any show, there will be vendors you didn’t know before, or established companies that do a particularly good job at educating and engaging their audience.

Don’t be Afraid to Say No… but Politely!

Exhibitors who really understand the sales process will train their booth staff to actively engage people in the aisle. If you’re interested by all means stop and have a conversation. But remember the importance of managing your time, and don’t be afraid to say “no thank you” and keep walking. Be polite and smile. The same goes for the uncomfortable situation where you suddenly realize the conversation has turned into an unwanted (or too early) sales pitch.

Think Again About all of the Giveaways

Do you really need it? It is probably not worth lugging around for the rest of the day.  If you are just going to throw it away later you’re just wasting someone’s money.

Visit Important Booths during the Lulls and You Will Get More Attention

Every show has an ebb and flow to it. Sometimes the activity level is fast and crowded, others, especially during meal times, seem quieter and slower. If your time on the show floor is mostly during the “busy” times booths will be chaotic and you may not get the time you need from the representatives. Instead, plan to come back when you can afford to miss something on the conference agenda (a talk, a celebrity appearance, or a workshop, for example). The booths will be far less busy, and reps will have more time to spend with you.

Look for the subject matter experts, and ask questions that will help you learn

Booths are usually staffed with sales reps, which can be a great source of information. A really good sales rep knows what is happening in their industry, and usually has a lot of great insider “gossip” about other companies. You can also seek out the real thought leaders and subject matter experts from each company. Do your homework in advance- find out who at each company is writing their blog posts, who is featured in their white papers, and who is quoted most often in their press releases. You might even check them out on their social media sites, and then ask for those people when you visit the booth.

All told, the time spent at the EXPO can be a fast and efficient way to build awareness of the many great local businesses, products, and services available to you.

There is Never a Penalty for Quality in Inbound Marketing.

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One of the questions Zen Marketing receive a lot relates to search engine optimization and website design.  Search engine optimization is really about driving the prominence of your website in a search, but seldom do you read about the website in its entirety. A good SEO plan should improve the search engine results plus the web visibility of each page contained within a website. Given that, is there a specific number of pages that a website should  to impact it's SEO? Can your website have too many pages?.

Since every business we work with is different, every business website we design and build is uniquely different as well. Obviously the size of a local automobile repair shop's website is going to be much smaller than an office products e-commerce website selling to customers on a national basis. So to answer the question from a design point of view, a business's website should have the number of pages that is right for them.

But how does this design-oriented approach relate to SEO?

It is important to keep a few things in mind. Today every major  search engine is motivated by the amount of new content. And while the search engines acknowledge (through their scoring) a website that is updated regularly they only truly reward websites that have lots of fresh, relevant, unique content. Thus, if you add pages just for the sake of affecting your SEO efforts the search engine spiders will actually rate you lower.

This is the very basis for the inbound marketing programs that we orchestrate for some of our clients. It impacts search results, improves lead conversion, and  drives additional revenue.

The key to good SEO is the same as good content creation-  keep your target audience in mind. If by creating one page that is nearly identical to another, and has similar information to another page, ruins the user experience then you must realize that it will also hurt you from an SEO perspective. The search engines will not know which page to rank for specific keywords, and in the end you will be simply competing with yourself. If the content is very similar it could even be considered duplicate content, which is also a negative to the search engines.

However, having too few pages can also negatively affect your SEO results. Why do people go to your website in the first place? Usually it is because they desire to learn more about a particular product or service that you offer. A website (just as any face to face meeting) must address questions or concerns that a prospective customer or existing client may have. If it doesn’t, you will fail to make an emotional  connection which is an important goal for your  website. Since the search engines want to provide users with the best possible results it is probable your site will not be considered a good result because your website content is lacking in scope.

When approaching website design and SEO we like to apply the KISS principal- Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Approach both design and search with a common sense direction and add or create what makes sense and do not force things or try to game the search engine process. Do not merely add pages for the sake of adding pages, there is not magic number of pages, and always remember that like your products or services it is the  quality of your content that will ultimately determine your search results.

If you want more customers remember, there is never a penalty for quality.

How to Explain Inbound Marketing to Professional Services Firms

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If you were to have the ability to deliver your very best, top ranked Keynote Presentation to each of your investors, strategic partners, your favorite customers and every competitor’s customer base, would you like to? What if you offered your best marketing information to grow your top and bottom line revenue targets, would you be willing to make the effort?  Of course you would.  That is exactly what an inbound marketing (content marketing) program allows you to do twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. 

Inbound marketing is nothing more than utilizing your best information about your business, your best customers and your strategic partner’s creativity and inspiration to draw potential consumers in your direction.  By feeding that group with consistent engaging and relation based information, they will make the transition to becoming a client.

In the old days, the customer would sit patiently and quietly listen patiently to the sales pitch.  Today's consumer knows that they manage the sales transaction now. Today's consumer is market wise, and knows it as well as your best sales person, and your competitors.  Inbound marketing provides an opportunity for you to create compelling, educational, engaging content that creates a relationship with that individual over time. By nurturing the potential client with worthwhile, inspiring information and compelling benefits, when it is time for the buying transaction to happen, the consumer you have created a relationship will choose you over your competitor.

Inbound (Content) Marketing is not a new concept.  What is new happens to be the way potential clients become actual ones.  They are certainly more informed and possess a better practical understanding than they ever have been, and their expectations are much higher than one might imagine. There is a huge amount of competition, and every one of your competitors is after their share.

Don’t just take my word for it, take a look at what Google and Jim Lecinski have to say:

“Google’s Zero Moment of Truth -  ZMOT is that moment when you grab your laptop, mobile phone or some other wired device and start learning about a product or service (or potential boyfriend) you’re thinking about trying or buying. I’m sure you know what I mean — you probably do web searches like this every day.

BUT

Would it surprise you to know that a full 70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews before making a purchase?

Or that 79% of consumers now say they use a smart¬phone to help with shopping?

Or that 83% of moms say they do online research after seeing TV commercials for products that interest them?

Try to see Inbound, or Content Marketing as:

• Content is storytelling, and there are many stories both within your firm and from your best clients.  Share the stories that make people’s lives better.
• Content is the pre-requisite to Brand Awareness.  It will build it if it is good.
• Content is easily communicated in multiple mediums, such as blogs, social media, video, reposts, Likes and Re-Tweets.
• Content is an investment in your brand, your future and that of your customer’s lives.
• Content separates you from your competition.  The one with the best content wins.

The marketing “game” is constantly evolving, and changes in marketing strategy must be capable of shifting along with the marketplace.  Technology being what it is, you can expect change at nearly every turn.  What is not changing, is the level of competition, and the knowledge of the consumer.  The responsibility of every professional services firm is to be nimble, quick to react, market focused and consumer friendly.  After all, it is about developing leads that can be converted to clients, and the way it is done today is through engaging, inspiring value propositions.  Your efforts to provide value and sincerity consistently will improve your market position.

Inbound marketing is about moving away from price related sales people, and toward “trusted advisor” or “alliance consultant” status.  If you were providing worthwhile information that makes his or her lives better, why would anyone move away from you?

There is no reason to fear inbound marketing, as it is the natural evolution of the marketing and advertising concept.  Traditional forms can supplement it, enhance it, but the conversion to online search is reaching critical mass.   Don’t be left wondering what happened.

5 Things Accountants don’t Understand about Social Media

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There are many things social media is and is not.  Although the popular belief among professional businesses is that social media may be a complete waste of time, or only for the young and restless, it can be a valuable tool for all financial services firms.

Here are five things to consider:

1. Social media is the vehicle that takes your potential consumers to your blog or web site.
2. Social media is not for selling, only for telling.
3. Social media enhances brands more so than any other technology medium or channel.
4. Lead generation and social media go hand in hand.
5. Social media is about two-way communication.

- Social media is the vehicle that takes your potential consumers to your blog or web site.  There is a specific use for social media as a way to direct people to your web site.  This can be accomplished in a number of ways; announcing a contest, conducting a survey, introducing a new blog entry, advertising a free resources such as an eBook, video or White Paper.  With succinct language, consumers can click an embedded link in the social media announcement and be directed to a landing page or home page of your site for sign up, download or answer a survey, etc.

- Social media is not for selling, only for telling.  Serious thought should be the forward to any publishing of messages on social media platforms.  People resist any type of blatant selling, and will punish you for it by negative commentary on your announcement.  Social media is all about developing a relationship among followers and those that follow them. Remember, a social media comment by one person also sends that comment to every one of their followers as well as you.  When you respond to a comment placed by one of your followers, a much larger audience receives what you have to say as well.  It is very easy to get maligned by any form of emotional knee-jerk reaction to what is in print in the social media world.  Ready-Fire-Aim has been the death knell for many a marketer.

- Social media enhances brands more so than any other technology medium.  Due to the sheer volume of platforms, a single announcement on a social media site can echo around the world in a matter of seconds.  With hundreds of social media sites today, and more added daily, people are connected in ways unimaginable just a decade or so ago.  What happens in California is read about in Borneo in a matter of the blink of an eye.  Remember Arab Spring?  The revolutions occurred because of the spread of information on social media.  The internet has made all this happen, and social media, especially Facebook, has forever changed the flow of information. 

- Lead generation and social media go hand in hand.  As part of an organized inbound marketing strategy, social media participation reinforces your marketing in a number of ways, particularly generating leads.  While one of your company followers may not be in immediate need of something you may be offering, say, an eBook on Tax Avoidance Strategies, one of their followers may notice that threaded comment and click on the link in your message.  This is the power of social media; your targeted audience is automatically expanded to whoever is connected with someone that is connected with you.  Take LinkedIn, for instance.  Direct Connects of an individual is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  A person may have 600 direct connects, but her/his second level and group level connections may be in the millions.  That is the power of social media.  You have a vast audience to market to indirectly with consistent social media participation.

- Social media is about two-way communication. Companies like Coke and Wal-Mart have figured out how valuable social media truly is; they openly communicate with their consumers through the social media platform.  With specific inbound marketing software, any time their topics on which are commented, a two-way communication can occur in real-time.  The great part about this is that you don’t have to be a behemoth corporation to communicate directly with your consumers in this fashion.  Software designed to comb the internet in real-time about specific keywords alerts you to the discussion, and provides an opportunity to respond.  It may sound like a lot of work, but the productivity of the two-way communication can minimize any negativity, or provide an opportunity to capitalize on the positive comments that are announced.  Celebrity Sports figures, actors, radio and television personalities stay connected with their fans through real-time social media conversations.  You can too.

CPAs and accountants are no different than any other business today.  Marketing has changed dramatically, and social media is a huge part of the marketing mix.  A professional inbound marketing expert can remove the mystery, set you up for success, and help you develop a comprehensive strategy and set of tactics to make things happen for you.  

Leadership for Consultants – the Client Expects to be Lead

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Your client or customer expects to be lead.

She/he is receiving so many market signals that it is difficult to make sense of all the traffic and noise.  Questions like:

• Where should I be investing my marketing and advertising dollars for the best return?
• How can I cut costs and still maintain my market share and sustainability?
• How can I improve the quality of the leads on which my sales people need to focus?
• What are we doing that works, and what needs to be added or adjusted?

Your clients look to you for leadership.  Lead them.

This digital revolution is not going away, and in fact, it is gaining momentum. The small business is competing on a global stage, and the playing field is growing more level with each passing day.  The role of leadership is one that cannot be marginalized, your client is depending on you to advise, counsel, befriend and show sincere concern for their betterment, as that is the reason for which you were hired.

Clients expect to be lead for a number of reasons, so leadership must become close to their clients in a way that was perhaps unheard of in decades past.  The days of blasting out advertising and marketing strategies and tactics are gone, and have been replaced by the new model of inbound or internet marketing.  Clients are searching online for nearly everything, so if, and when, they find you, your team had better be ready to greet them with every courtesy.  The cost of client acquisition is nearly 80% more than that of maintaining a long-term client.  The most cost effective client is an existing client.  They need nurturing, care, advice and attention more so than ever before.  They may not know it, but your client is expecting leadership at every turn.

Several client-centric behaviors must be present to be successful in maintaining and growing your clientele.  It is up to leadership to instill the leadership ownership to each member of the company, so that single-minded purpose results in client satisfaction.

Adapt and embrace.  Embracing the client’s needs through every step of the lead identification, lead nurturing and close, are instrumental in growing the sustainability of clients in general.  Adaptability lends itself toward that action.

Analytics in real-time.  Real-time application of resources drives the relationship.  Clients need focus and attention, and the use of analytics to monitor, advise and adjust the marketing efforts of said company is how clients remain clients.  Data systems must be cohesive to the group, accessible by anyone involved in the acquisition, nurturing or ongoing monitoring of the client so that when they call, there is information readily available as a response.

Cross-trained staff.  The accessibility of information alone is not sufficient, however, the data mining, analysis and resulting observations must be “ready on the lips” for immediate reply to a client’s request.  The manager is not in his office, is not a satisfactory response any longer.  The competition is too fierce, and the client too costly to replace.

Single-purposed mentality.  The alignment of a team is not always easy, and therefore significant effort must be placed on this area above all.  With each team member marching lock step toward the common mission, the client will benefit.  This mentality cannot be demanded, rather the encouragement of experiments toward reaching the afore-stated outcomes.  When the leadership truly believes that the Client is King (or Queen) and that nothing else matters, the transmission of that philosophy shapes the entire organization over time. Believing is seeing. 

Encourage and support.  These are critical when mistakes happen, regardless of how hard we try. Leadership must encourage not only experimentation, but also creative displays of problem solving.  Not every attempt will turn out right, so supporting the effort without chastisement of the negative outcome assures a team loyalty that is hard to come by.

Clients expect to be lead through your everyday actions and activities.  Their world is full of uncertainties, and like most, is sometimes dazed by the number of signals that they are receiving from those around them.  It is your job to lead them on the path to success, peace of mind and security.

As the person(s) they have selected with who to do business, lead them.