From Oversightsto Opportunities
6 Ways to Improve your Demand Generation Strategy NOW

Every company has the potential to generate high-quality leads quickly, inexpensively, and with very little effort. How? By identifying and then capitalizing on missed opportunities. At Nowspeed, we consistently find that the same areas are overlooked again and again. Below are six areas where a change of approach can add a significant lift to your current demand generation results. Our advice is to pick the top three that you know you can implement right away, and get started:

Oversight #1: Your website doesn’t speak to different types of buyers.

This is simple, yet often overlooked. The best way to really speak to your visitors is to understand them and their unique needs. Start by creating a “persona” for each of the people in your target market, then look at your website through their eyes. See if you are 1) giving them the information they need and 2) leading them to the offers they want. One client of ours simply put an area on their homepage for each target buyer that said “Solutions for: CIOs and CTOs; Software Architects; Developers. This area of the website gets the highest number of click throughs and conversions. (For more proven methods on how to optimize your website for lead generation, read “Turn Your Website into a Lean, Mean, Lead Gen Machine” on Nowspeed’s Resources Page.)

Oversight #2: You’ve got missing or irrelevant content/offers.

OK, so you’ve defined “who” comes to your website. Do you know what kind of information they want? Do you have it to give them? A thorough look at your content architecture will likely reveal missing “gaps” of information, or perhaps uncover web copy that is too general to be geared to any specific buyer. You’ve got to have content and offers (white papers, demos, webinars, podcasts, etc.) that speak to the needs of your key buyers and influencers, and you’ve got to have a clear path to get them there. Remember: Different personas will be attracted to different kinds of offers. Better-targeted offers will result in more quality leads.

Oversight #3: You’re losing conversions at your landing page.

A poorly designed landing page can sabotage the best demand generation efforts. Qualified leads can literally evaporate “into thin air” if they aren’t compelled at the landing page to respond. The good news is that usually by making just a few improvements to your landing page content, functionality and design, you can dramatically improve your conversion rate. A well-performing landing page should be clear, compelling, concise, and campaign-consistent. It should not include any extraneous links that can “lead a lead” away from the page. For in-house mailings, consider pre-filled or no registration pages to make the decision to respond even easier. (For a more detailed discussion of how you can improve your landing pages’ conversion rates, see the article "Landing More Leads".)

Oversight #4: Your PPC campaign is trying to “do it all.”

Pay per click offers the ability to generate leads through ads linked to your company’s specific keywords for a relatively low cost. The problem is that it’s not as easy as it may seem to design a PPC campaign that really works. Everything needs to line up smoothly for PPC to be effective. You’ve got to have the right offers, the right copy, competitive bids, and a compelling landing page to get a quality conversion. Narrow in on keywords that are high traffic, low competition, and are a good fit with your business. Then, make sure all the elements are in place to get more qualified people to your landing page, and ultimately, in your house list. Which leads us to the next oversight…

Oversight #5: You’re not inviting people to your house (list, that is).

House lists can make or break outbound demand generation campaigns. A good house list that is targeted, current and continuously being updated with new contacts can yield stellar results in campaigns. A stagnant list won’t perform, and will reflect badly on you. Give individuals multiple opportunities to add their name to your list through e-newsletter sign-ups, white paper registrations, product alerts, and more. Also, consider co-registration opportunities. This involves establishing a reciprocal relationship with another company that is targeting the same prospects for different products/services. As a prospect signs up online for an offer from one company, he or she is asked is they would also like the second company’s resource.

Oversight #6: Your press releases have no search muscle.

Yahoo News is the third largest news site behind CNN and AOL. Google News also is in the top 10 most visited news sites. Company press releases that are optimized for these sites have the ability to increase link popularity, as well as improve search engine rankings and drive people to your website. If you write your own releases, and need help in SEO-optimizing them, consider a tool like Newsforce. Then submit your releases directly to a service such as PR Newswire or PRWeb, or find “gateway” sites relevant to your business that Yahoo or Google frequently mine. You may also want to consider putting up a paid search ad for breaking news items to drive more traffic to your site.

Conclusion

These are only a few of the common oversights we see again and again. Rectifying these will make a significant difference in your demand generation strategy. But it’s just the beginning. There are many more strategies and tactics that simply cannot be covered in this white paper. And, while our goal is to focus on things that you can do internally to boost demand generation efforts, sometimes outside expertise is necessary – and in the end, cost effective.

Have any comments or suggestions regarding this topic? We’d love to hear them! 

Email your comments to info@nowspeed.com.