Archive for Lead Generation
The Quick And Easy Way To Build A Great Mailing List
Posted by: | Comments
Lead generation can take on many faces. Many very sophisticated programs exist to capture qualified leads based upon things like trade show marketing, seminar training, creating white papers, telemarketing and web marketing. However, sometimes for many businesses the fastest path to having a responsive mailing list is to purchase or rent it from a world class direct mail marketing company.
Who is your ideal customer? What is their age? What is their sex? What interests do they have? Do they live in a specific geographical location? What is their income level? More importantly where are your customers hanging out right now at this moment? A world class direct mailing marketing company can collate, organized and deliver a mailing list of very targeted prospective customers to you based upon the criteria you provide them with. This is referred to as marketing demographics in the direct marketing industry.
One of the most used words in the marketing arsenal is FREE. However, as a business consumer it can also be the most costly. Many times businesses think that they can economize on their lead generation strategies. By doing this it can take them months or years to develop a responsive list. The smarter alternative is to contact an experienced professional who can access and acquire a list of very targeted prospective customers for you to start communicating with.
The Mailing List business has become as sophisticated and targeted as any industry. It is possible today for you to collate, target and segment a list based upon demographics of your ideal client profile. Acquiring such a mailing list is fast, easy and very affordable.
Mailing lists are often rented. When a mailing list is rented, the renter agrees to use the mailing list based upon only contractually agreed upon terms. Usually the mailing list owner will enforce this by peppering the list with fake names and addresses that can be tracked for each time the list is rented. Occasionally unscrupulous business will try to bypass this by renting multiple lists, merging them in an attempt to find the common valid addresses.
A good mailing list broker is worth their weight in gold to your company. They can locate hard to find information quickly and test the responsiveness of your offer quickly and affordably. Often times these mailing list brokers are the unsung heroes for organizations such as charitable groups, niche publications and many small businesses. Often times it is the mailing list broker than can offer powerful and profitable advice on how to maximize the value of the targeted list.
What many very successful marketers do is test their copy online and when the test have proven to be successful they roll it out offline. This makes it much more difficult for the campaign to be copied by competitors.
Lead generation needs to be an ongoing part of your marketing strategy.
Sometimes lead generation can be as easy as purchasing a qualified mailing list of prospects and having a strategy in place to follow up with them.
Some of the most successful customer acquisition campaigns in history have been initiated through the rental or purchase of targeted mailing lists. Why not make your company the next giant success story?
About the Author:
Carlos A. Correo is the webmaster for www.NorconMarketing.com a world class Direct Mail Marketing Company located in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has been helping business with their lead generation needs for over eighteen years.
Trade Show Lead Generation, What’s Next
Posted by: | CommentsOk so you say you did your part and generated lots of leads at your last show, now what should you do with them so they are the most effective.
For starters lets hope you collected your leads the right way with an electronic lead scanner. The other most common way is collecting business cards in a fish bowl. Did you offer a prize for those business cards? If so you probably have a mix of qualified leads, people that are actually interested in your product and want to learn more along with the others that are just trying to win that iPod you were raffling off.
Take my advice and go the electronic way, you will save yourself a lot of grief and extra expense in the long run if you just collect up business cards. Don’t forget you still have to pay for somebody’s time to type or scan all of that information into your database and more often than not it never gets done.
The main thing is that you have to follow up on those leads as fast as you can, preferably within a week or two after the show or better yet even while the show is still running. If you plan in advance, have a personalized marketing piece ready to send out and you can export your leads daily there is no excuse for not thanking people for visiting your booth the same day they stopped by. Imagine the power of that!
We can be an outsourced arm of your trade show marketing department, train your staff on lead generation best practices and follow up procedures.
You know you spent so much money on getting to the show, in this economy can you really afford to not make sure you get the most return on investment out of it? Take a look at our pricing plans and tell us that our system is not an affordable way to turn your leads into cash compared to the rest of the money you spent going to the show.
New CEIR Report: Top Tips for Retaining Exhibitors
Posted by: | CommentsNew CEIR Report: Top Tips for Retaining Exhibitors
Meeting professionals who plan trade shows know that when a key exhibitor pulls out of an exhibition, the impact can be significant. A new study from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research examines why some market leaders are being lured away from exhibiting and provides best practices for managing key exhibitor relationships.
The study, funded by the Professional Convention Management Association Education Foundation, stresses the need for meeting professionals to “make a fundamental shift in thinking in order to preserve relationships with key exhibitors and market leaders and advance the exhibition industry into the next decade.”
“No matter where you hold your show, what industry you’re in, or how small or large your event is, this report shows that everyone is seeing bigger exhibitors looking for more influence,” said Doug Ducate, CEIR president and CEO in a statement. “Our goal was to show how some exhibition organizers have dealt with this—both successfully and unsuccessfully—and provide a roadmap for addressing the issue.”
Tips and best practices for managing exhibitor relationships under this changing landscape include:
Allowing market leaders to invest in trade shows without exhibiting,
Collaborating with exhibitors on corporate exhibitions, and
Aligning goals of exhibitors with goals of exhibition organizers, among others.
For a full copy of the study Managing the Special Needs of Key Exhibitors and Market Leaders, click here. The report is free to PCMA and CEIR members and available at a cost of $160 for non-members.
The PCMA Education Foundation’s next research endeavor will be a study from CEIR on the development of a return on investment calculator for meetings and trade shows. The report is due out by the end of this year.
Why You Have to Urgently Follow Up Your Trade Show Leads
Posted by: | CommentsPost trade show evaluation and trade show leads follow-up are two of the most overlooked aspects of trade show participation. These activities are where many exhibitors fail usually because of a couple of reasons. You return to the office to find your voicemail is overflowing; your inbox full of emails and you need check on your current projects and sales.
There’s an assumption that all the show leads you met at the show will phone you because you gave them a brochure and they are certain to remember you. Therefore, it’s suggested that you first follow-up with all urgent issues immediately and deal with existing client matters that have arisen while you’ve been away. Then put aside all other non-critical matters and start your leads follow-up.
By following up on your trade show leads right after the event tells your customers and prospects that your company cares about them and is responsive. According to the CEIR (Center for Exhibition Industry Research) over 80% of all leads never receive post-event sales follow-up, so take your competitors’ customers and increase your show’s ROI -follow-up on your leads!
Just to reinforce this point, an astounding 43% of prospective buyers receive materials after they have made a buying decision with another vendor, while 18% report never receiving materials at all. You must have a plan for immediate, post trade show leads follow-up.
The day after the show, your pile of leads is worth 100 percent of its value. A month after the show, the leads are worth half of that, yet it still costs 100 percent in company time and resources to follow them up. Prepare all follow-up materials before the show. Identify necessary codes; write cover letters, order materials and postage.
Hot prospects cool quickly. One way to prevent them from becoming lukewarm is to send follow-up information during the show. Prior to the show, prepare product information packages at your office, and either leave them with an assistant or transport them to the show. At each day’s end, address your packages to those hot prospects and drop them in the mail. Most trade shows do not end when the doors are closed and the key to success is to prioritize your post show leads activities.
In order to achieve maximum results, the period after the exhibition is the most important phase of the whole exhibition project. First of all, you have to be quick to follow up contacts made during the trade show and you have to be consistent and methodical in your approach. Sort your leads either by their business potential (A, B, or C leads) or the information requested.
Steps to an effective follow-up are:
1. Trade show sales leads should be prioritized according to urgency.
2. Leads should be followed up immediately.
3. On an ongoing basis pursue leads.
4. Track leads to provide some measure of return on investment.
Post trade show follow-up is essential to making the most of your investment. As soon as you return from them, (or certainly within 48 hours) you should phone or email all serious leads and prospects to say “thank you” for stopping by at your booth; extend any offers made at the trade show and offer any product/service solutions.
Ken MacKenzie is a former Senior Consultant with International Public Relations and Marketing Manager with a U.S. Trade Center. He is the author of “The Trade Show Edge”. For additional information on trade show leads, pre trade show training, sales and marketing techniques, please visit: The Trade Show Edge
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_MacKenzie