Quality over quantity is the mantra of many marketing departments. After all, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) — potential customers deemed worthy of passing along to your sales team — are attractive for many reasons.
Not only is it easier to sell to leads who have shown an interest in your product or service, understanding your target market increases your chances of attracting them to your organization in the first place.
You can, of course, buy high-quality leads from a lead aggregator, but that’s not always in the budget. Not to mention the leads don’t always align perfectly with your business offering. Here are some better ways your marketing team can increase MQLs.
READ MORE: 15 Ideas for Using Rewards and Incentives to Optimize the Entire Customer Journey
Your first order of business should be to determine the type of customer you want to attract so you can begin establishing a relationship. Complete a buyer persona and outline the steps of the buyer journey, noting where you can engage with prospective buyers along the way.
Research the terms your buyers use to find solutions to their problems and incorporate those terms into your content. Pain points, industry trends, thought leadership — these are often good topics to cover when engaging potential buyers.
Next, you’ll want to use a multi-channel lead generation strategy for the industry-specific content you create. A combination of the following types of content is a good starting place.
As your leads move through the buyer journey, be sure to incorporate rewards for when they complete actions that move them along to the next part of the sales process. For example, incentivize them to attend a sales demo by offering them a digital gift card or prepaid card of their choice. The key is to pick a reward that matches the time and effort your MQLs spend on the task.
Referrals can also be a terrific source of MQLs, but it’s not enough to ask your current customers, prospects, or employees to make them. You need a well-thought-out incentive program to entice them to give you the high-quality lead you’re looking for. Again, your referral program should offer rewards that match the time and effort it takes to get the referral. Depending on the size of the product or service you’re selling, a referral reward could be for a substantial amount.
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