New leads are great as long as they’re the ones who will buy your product or service. A lead that is very unlikely to buy is worthless and not having in a Content Marketing campaign.
Let me tell you about a fictitious company and the Content Marketing campaign it’s run for the last 2 years.
Better Electrical specializes in converting the lighting in the plants of medium sized manufacturing companies from traditional to LED lighting. The typical cost of such a conversion is about $60,000. By converting to LED a medium sized company can get a payback on the cost in 5 years.
Better Electrical wanted to increase its customer base. Their marketing director, Dan Smith, talked with the executive team about the benefits of a Content Marketing campaign and how they could see a spike in their sales in about 2 years. The stats Dan shared were impressive and the executive team approved the Content Marketing campaign Dan proposed.
An Overview of the Content Marketing Campaign
The campaign started in January of 2015. Dan and his marketing people followed each of the recommended steps in their marketing campaign.
- They developed a profile of their ideal client.
- They started generating leads matching this profile. Most came from the Internet.
- Within 2 months they had 600 names in their database.
- They started sending them emails and articles. The first emails gave them an overview of how much money the average manufacturing company could save by converting to LED lighting. Other emails and articles gave an overview of the company.
- 300 Companies raised their hands after they received the initial emails. To each of these they started sending more detailed information on LED lighting. This included white papers, case studies and articles.
- By the end of 2015, 200 of the 300 were more interested. Dan and his people sent them marketing information focused on what Better Electrical offered and why they were the company that a manufacturing company should use to make this conversion for them.
- By June of 2016, Dan and his staff felt then had 100 companies ready to buy. They turned these over to the sales department.
Sales reps jumped on this list immediately and started making contact.
Few Sales – Frustrated Sales Reps
By the middle of November, the sales reps were frustrated. They only made 4 sales to that point. The conclusion they reached was they had little chance of selling the other 96.
What happened? Dan and his staff in the Marketing Department had great results from their Content Marketing campaign. 100 hot leads out of an initial list of 600 initially. How come the sales reps could only sell 4?
A detailed study was done.
Better Electrical charges a minimum of $60,000 to convert a manufacturing company to LED lighting. They did not do less expensive jobs because these just were not profitable for them.
One Key Point Missed
Dan and his staff did a great job of developing the profile of the ideal customer for their product. However, they missed one key factor. Only medium sized companies could afford to pay $60,000 to convert their plants to LED lighting.
They didn’t screen the list of 600 to see how many medium sized companies they had. Actually 525 were small businesses. These were looking for ways to reduce their costs. LED would be one way they could do it.
Out of the 100 companies considered to be Hot Leads only 50 were medium sized businesses. 4 companies purchased. The conversion rate was 8%. That is actually very good.
True, this is a fictitious story. However, there are companies to which this happening on a lesser scale. In their Content Marketing campaigns, Marketing Departments target companies which will never buy the product or service their company sells. The companies may be too small or just not the right fit.
How Do You Prevent This
from Happening?
How do you avoid being like the marketing people at Better Electrical?
The first step is the marketing and sales departments have to work together. They cannot operate independently of one another.
Marketing should share with sales the names of all of the leads in every Content Marketing campaign which did not come from the sales force. The sales people should have the final say over which should be pursued and which should be removed.
On a regular basis, marketing should be giving sales an update of each lead and where they’re at in their marketing campaign. If sales has any information showing the lead is not worth pursuing the lead should be removed.
The sales people also should review every marketing piece used and recommend any changes which may be necessary.
The goal of marketing and sales is the same – to help the company make more sales and to reach its goals. Only by working closely together can they make this happen.
