Red Star Digital

Top Ten Lead Generation Tips

When asked to think about any tips for lead generation, here at Red Star Digital, notepads were filled of ideas and tips. We managed to narrow our top tips down to just ten handy ones for you.

1. Set A Budget
The budget you set for your marketing campaign will determine not just how many leads you may receive but also the quality. When it comes to lead generation, quantity is not always a winning factor, quality is often the most important. Having a budget that gives you the ability to source quality leads will ensure higher conversion rates and a better ROI.
2. Set Your Lead’s Expectations
It’s important to understand what the prospective customers were told when they were giving their details. Were they promised a service or were they expecting a free assessment when they agreed to allow their information to be used? It’s important to know what the potential customer is expecting, and form a strategy based on the information when making the initial contact. Setting the expectations early can ensure that when you come to use their data, they are not angered or upset by a phone call they were not expecting or a call at a door.

3. Check For Duplicates and Un-Verified Leads
When you are paying for leads, the last thing you want to do is pay for the same information a second or third time. There are several software applications available that allow you to check for duplicates and strip them out (dedupe) of your data for future use. Data that cannot be verified is also something you should check for, emails such as spam@spam.com do not count as valid data and should not be paid for.

4. Test Different Marketing Channels
It’s a good idea to try different types of marketing strategies to know which will yield the best results for your product or service. While some customers will prefer a more personal contact like a telephone call, others will prefer to keep a certain distance through emails, etc. It’s good to test different marketing channels on your leads to see which work best for you and give the best results.

5. Focus Your Campaign
You should make sure your campaign as clear objectives that can be met through your lead generation. Make sure the criteria you put in place on your forms meet those objectives to ensure your leads are giving you the information you want. The leads should include specific information on potential customers; names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers or any other information you may require.

6. Honesty Is Important
Your marketing campaign is only as good as your word and the effort you’re willing to put forth. Whether it’s a contact you’ve promised to make or a promise made about your product or service, remain reliable throughout all your business dealings.

7. Be Realistic
Be realistic about your marketing strategy and the time for frame, you set, for it to reach your expectations. A good solid marketing strategy will be based on the budget you’ve set, the leads you purchase, and the energy and time you put forth.

8. Clarity Of Your Message
Make sure that your marketing message is clear and concise. If you are generating leads through an offer, have a think about what you might put – for example if it’s a free trial but card details are required – you should mention this somewhere t ensure the leads you get are less likely to complain.

9. Keep It Simple
An overload of information can render fewer leads and complicate the process. The average person might be willing to fill out three to four forms, but a continual stream of forms will turn the customer away, and the information becomes confused creating a greater work load for you.

10. Focus Your Efforts
If you only have a small budget to begin with, make sure you focus your efforts and concentrate on driving decent leads, when those leads convert to sales, you’ll have more budget to widen your lead generation campaign. Getting lot’s of leads to begin with may seem great, but if the quality is not there – it can be a waste of money and effort.

Red Star Digital offer comprehensive lead generation packages including advice and strategy. For more information, get in touch today and see how RSD can help you.

Top Tips For Setting Up Your Data Collection Campaigns

Many clients that we advise with their online data collection have already had some experience with generating leads in this way; however, these experiences are not always positive. Quite a few of the issues clients experience with online lead generation centre around how the campaign was set up at the beginning – which is often caused by miscommunication with suppliers.

To make things a little clearer in the foggy world of online data collection, Red Star Digital have put a few tips together designed to assist with the setting up online lead generation campaigns and also to ensure you get the most from them.

Specify Your Exact Requirements

Ask yourself what data you require. If you have exclusions based on gender, age , annual income or something else appropriate to your needs, ensure you state this at the set up stage of the data generation.
It’s also important to specify your data delivery needs from the outset too. Do you require data to be delivered through a live data feed or through a CSV file? When would you like the data to be delivered to you, daily, weekly or monthly and would a certain time suit your needs? These are the key questions you need to answer before you set up any data capture campaign with a data supplier. The more questions you ask yourself at the beginning, the less time you will have to spend stripping out useless information or chasing the data to be delivered.
Make sure you also specify what constitutes a valid lead not only to your supplier, but also on any paperwork you draw up with them. By setting these parameters in place at the start, you can ensure you do not have to pay for invalid data.

Specify A Test Budget And Cap It

Don’t blow your entire budget on one day with one supplier. Try using a variety of suppliers and cap their leads on a daily basis – this avoids being flooded with leads and burning the budget too quickly. If you spread your data capture requirements with a number of suppliers, this will assist in optimising your campaign in the future with the best converting data.

Specify Your Reasons For Returning Data With An Accurate Returns Timeframe

By specifying your reasons for returning data that did not meet your needs or standards, you can work more closely with your suppliers to optimise your campaign. If you fully explain the reasons for returns, you and your supplier will be able to draw up some ideas of improving your data sources in a prompt and efficient timescale. You should also make sure that your paperwork includes a deadline for when returns will be provided, for example the 5th working days after month end.

Read And Re-Read Your Paperwork

It seems too many organisations do not read their paperwork properly. To avoid any issues further down the line, make sure you read your paperwork not once, but twice. This way you will fully understand exactly what you will be receiving, in what format and on what days, as well as the policies for returning data. Make sure you keep your paper work in a safe place and do not be afraid to ask questions if you do not understand any terminology on it. It is better to have a clear and defined picture at the outset rather than find difficulties later on.

Shameless plug:
Red Star Digital offers a range of service to assist clients with their current online data collection campaigns or designing and collating new prospect lists – if this is of interest or you’d like to chat further with a member of our team, please feel free to get in touch.