Effective techniques to get ‘leads’

The term lead is fashionable. You hear almost every day in the areas of marketing, communication and sales of companies. It should get many leads, which is nothing but information about users: name, phone, if VAT is a business, emails … the more data, the better.

The easiest way to get this data is to offer some kind of “gift” and at this point almost everything is invented. The most effective techniques are…

• A contest or sweepstakes with the incentive of a gift. “Only by completing the form, you will participate in the draw for 100 tickets to the X concert.” There are various tools online to launch contests, as Easy promos, Social Tools, Cool-Tabs …
• Complete a survey with prizes including by participating in it.
• Possibility to download an eBook, a guide, a tutorial. The user completes the form and in return, you can download the guide for free.
• Possibility to try a product or service free of charge, for a certain time.
• Free subscription to a magazine, a game online or something similar.
• Discount on a product or service.

They all have a common denominator: it offers something free in exchange for user data and we know that “when something is free, the product is you.”

The most common means in which we find these actions are:

• The email through a campaign of email marketing.
• The social networks, with free messages or promoting content (Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Linkedin Ads, for example). Pay campaigns we reach many more users and may even target action by age, sex, geographic area, etc. In the case of the free campaign, the number of followers on social networks is key: the more, the more likely are taken leads will be.
• A blog or a website, through an article or even a landing page specific to the action or campaign. This happens as with social networks: the more traffic have a website or blog more user data will be achieved.
• Examples offline, classical urn have a booth at a trade show where circumvent a gift and the user only has to fill out a ballot with their data and place it in the ballot box and participate in the draw. Or the same, but in a conference, congress or any other event.

You may be interested to read another article on LifeStyleQA: Three reasons that keep you from connecting with your customers.

Conversion and cost per lead

Obviously this is not to get user data any purpose. The ultimate goal is to sell. Therefore, you should check your number of leads you get and how many of them end up for sale. It is the famous conversion. If a hundred leads obtained (one hundred users who filled out a form), three finish in sales, it is said that there is a 3% conversion.

Another point to be measured is the cost per lead (CPL) or what is the same, the result of dividing the budget we have invested in the action between the numbers of leads received. For example, if we have launched a contest that has cost 900 dollars, and we have ensured that 300 forms are completed, the CPL would be $3 per lead. Before starting an action of this kind, we must “run the numbers” and see what it seems reasonable to invest money for a lead. Depending on what you sell, $3 per lead may be an exorbitant price or bargain. At the end of the day, the lead is only information about the user, not a sale.

Confidentiality and big data

One factor to always consider all these actions is the confidentiality of the information obtained and compliance with the Data Protection Act.

You may be interested to read another article on LifeStyleQA:  What is the real objective of the ‘Big Data’?

Finally, once you have obtained the data and know how to protect them, we must know how to use them to get the most out of them. And here comes in big data. Companies have a lot of information, obtained through different channels, but few crossing these databases to exploit to the fullest. Sometimes there is no interaction between the various departments involved: information systems, marketing, sales; in others, such a volume of information that is not clear how to handle is obtained. In fact, much of that information is not even qualified: there are false, uncatalogued or segment, are mixed companies and individuals, etc.

Therefore, have an area that analyzes and classifies 100% of the available information, and the offer already segmented to each department of the company, depending on what each one required; it could cause the company to increase its profits by 60%.