LeadJen LLC

Description

Jenny recently contributed to Directnewsline Newsletter . Think you know just about everything there is to know about using business-to-business lists to generate new customers? Maybe you do. But some marketers, in their enthusiasm for implementing the most cutting-edge tactics, might be overlooking the basics. With that in mind, here are seven elements essential to successful use of b-to-b lists: 1) Segment contacts for more relevancy. Evaluate your list to determine how contacts can be grouped into smaller lists making them easier to target and providing meaningful tracking. You can group contacts by industry, title, revenue range, location, or other factors. This allows you to develop messages that are meaningful to specific segments, instead of sending one generic message to the entire list. Smaller lists also make campaigns more manageable. When it comes time to assess the results of your campaign, segmented lists will provide valuable information, such as whether you’re targeting the right individuals or industries, that would be difficult to discern with one large list. 2) Clean up the details. No list is perfect. Data become outdated quickly, and some may not even be accurate to begin with. The cost of direct mail and email targeted to a poor list will add up quickly in hard costs, reputation damage with ISPs, and wasted time. Likewise, sales reps aren’t likely to delve too deeply into a prospecting list once they find that the data haven’t been updated recently. 3) Create list-specific messages. Reference selling—using customer testimonials, references, and the like—is very effective. Make sure you develop messages with references that are relevant to your list segments. For example, if your segment your list into subsets targeting teachers, school counselors, and school administrators, make sure your messages to teachers include referrals from other teachers and your messages to administrators feature testimonials from administrators. If you’re including company or personal references in a direct mail or an email, make sure you have permission to use their names. When making a phone call, you can take more liberties by mentioning peer companies with whom you’re also talking. 4) Determine the proper campaign cadence. Will your contacts respond best to an email or direct mail prior to a phone call? Or should you call first, then follow up with an email if you are not successful after a few calls? Should you call every day or stick with the best practice of adding a business day between each subsequent call? One company marketing to the healthcare industry decided on a different cadence for different job titles. The CIO cadence included four touches, while the vice president of IT and director of clinical applications received eight touches. 5) Measure what’s important. Determine the best system to measure success and capture important information. Results you want to capture include activity volume, connect rates (such as what percentage of calls reached a live person), and conversion rates. Also look beyond these measurements to gather value-added information about why someone is not interested.

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