If you are not from a traditional marketing or digital background there may be some skepticism that marketing automation using digital channels and content can actually work. Companies who invest marketing dollars in digital content marketing and specifically using a leading marketing automation platform such as Hubspot does help generate more qualified leads. Higher ROI for lead generation can be achieved using inbound marketing and sales methodology than traditional methods like telemarketing.
This article from Marketing Mag: Is Australia ready for inbound marketing? highlights an good example of the kind of results it can help a professional services business increase their sales and marketing leads with prospect engagement.
"The best part about inbound? Customers love it. Look at a business like CFO On-Call, an Australian-based company comprised of skilled CFOs that offer insights to struggling businesses. Just six months after implementing inbound marketing, they saw nearly 10 times as many leads, a 200% increase in traffic, and 153% increase in sales-qualified leads." - Ryan Bonnici, Hubspot APJ Marketing Leader
If you asked me twelve months ago about the digital marketing approach as a sales person, I would still assume that many of our sales opportunities are still developed through the traditional channels of network referrals, direct sales engagement and picking up the phone to talk to prospects.
Now, if I fast forward twelve months later now, the first step was shifting my mindset to using content driven Digital Marketing channels with the concept of Hubspot inbound sales methodology. The second step was understanding how using the Buyers Journey can drive quality leads and data capture to help filter your prospects and find your more compatible prospective clients.
Source: Hubspot
See below how using the Hubspot CRM, Marketing Automation and lead data captured helped us sign a new client deal in just 10 days ( which would normally take about 30 days)
This was demonstrable proof of how it helps lead generation, lead nurturing using marketing automation to generate quality leads. An important point to note is this is only one method out of the multichannel approach. This doesn't replace other lead generation strategies which are still working, however an integrated approach has been proven to work best.
It starts with a visitor to the website, then a getting a lead conversion via a landing page, the relevant published content and form triggers the prospect buying stage to a marketing qualified lead. Once this can be seen, the prompt for a sales representative to initiate a follow up call can be made. Lead scoring or qualified can be verification has been made from their digital interaction with us and associated reporting available.
Summary of how marketing automation helped qualify and close our new client deal in 10 days
So how did the inbound process help with the automation flow and visibility of the marketing lead progress?
- Hubspot Marketing Automation was setup over a period of one month and content developed tailored to a persona of a Business Owner.
- We increased web site visits organically through release of relevant blogs.
- The blog content published were attracting visitors through the landing page, form and Call to Action offer – in this case was an E-book download for 7 profit multipliers.
- The form was filled out and registration noted for the prospect contact history
- Statistical data provided visibility of when and how the prospect interacted with our web site, digital assets and content offers
- Track the MQL to SQL activities history and details with all online engagement tracked from Awareness to Consideration and Decision.
- Helped engage the prospect at the right buyers’ journey stage.
- Had an initial phone call with qualification and MQL ( Marketing Qualified Lead) then progressing to SQL ( Sales Qualified Lead) information handy which the marketing automation system provided depth of insight, timing and details on areas of interest.
- Arranged first face to face meeting for discussion
- Proposal/ Quote sent after understanding the requirements.
- Received sign off from first meeting 1 month since prospect all within 10 days.
- In contrasting this with a traditional sales approach, it may have taken at least 30 days to reach an agreed contract and required multiple interactions from first contact with no validated knowlege when or if the prospective buyer was actually ready to purchase.
The Inbound Marketing Outcome achieved in 10 days from Visitor to Contact to New Customer
Firstly the impact of the buyers journey for those who aren’t familiar is best summarized by the simple illustration below for the inbound process
Source: Hubspot
The impact of Marketing Automation and the creation of a landing page, form and call to action offer demonstrated in the first 3 months of using Hubspot.
This can be illustrated below from our first 90 days statistics which was generated from the Hubspot marketing automation platform.
First 90 days of using Hubspot - Visits, Contacts and Customers Report
All reports (screenshots) can be viewed on a mobile Hubspot client for Android or iPhone.
1. Visits
With the release of about 10 blogs articles, an E-book offer and form were published organically via social media channels of Linkedin, Google + and Facebook. This organically generated a 100% month on month increase in page visits.
2. Contacts
From the website visitors, we could see who filled in the registration form for the purpose of accessing our E-Book offer.
The registered contacts can be used for lead nurturing, lead scoring or subscription for newsletters or updates depending on the content offer shared.
3. Conversions
We attracted our first conversion via this process and converted in the first quarter of implementation of marketing automation.
Our hope is that upon regular content driving leads, further conversion will be more effective than outbound lead generation alone.
I hope this shows that unlike the traditional demand generation process, lead generation with digital content inbound marketing does work to generate a higher return and potentially a shorter sales cycle if you can identify where the prospect is at in terms of their buyers’ journey stage and they are looking for assistance.
To find out how using the Hubspot Marketing Automation System and lead data captured can also help your business find and close your more deals, just click below to register for more information.
