Social Improving Small Business Lead Gen

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Turnaround Time on Web-Based Leads Impacts Conversion

Remember the days when all you had to do was respond to a web-based lead in less than 2 hours and your prospect was impressed with your turnaround time? The sales force was thrilled that the marketing department had integrated a lead capture tool that delivered leads directly to your inbox during the day. That was then, however this is the era of NOW. It’s no longer good enough to wait several hours in the current real-time marketing climate when you have literally minutes or even seconds to capitalize on a lead. A recent survey from MIT and InsideSales.com reveals that odds of qualifying web-based leads are 21 times greater if the lead is responded to in 5 minutes vs. 30 minutes. Luckily with the latest real-time software, the capability marketers need is only a click-away. Some of the latest software can capture information about your leads, including their behavior on your website, pages they’ve viewed, marketing or media that drove them there as well as any materials that may have been downloaded in one snapshot. Armed with this collective information, you can rank and profile your leads in seconds and respond in minutes. Check out Salesforce.com’s CRM tool which has been shown to improve inbound lead conversion by 400%; www.salesforce.com or products like LeadCaster, which allows you to connect with visitors while they are still on your site; www.leadcaster.com

In this highly competitive climate, it’s never too late to consider integrating a real-time data tool to improve your online lead conversion.

Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of  Gilchrist + Partners,  dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs . http://www.gilchristpartners.com

Keep Your Digital Marketing Current

Interesting article in Chief Marketer today- four tips to keep your digital marketing initiatives on the right track. Read more…

Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, a marketing services firm dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs. http://www.gilchristpartners.com

CEOs Aggressively Use Social Media for Business

A recent study conducted by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that social media usage by companies on the Inc. 500 has grown in the past year, with 91 percent of companies reporting that they use at least one social media tool.*

Many corporate executives are using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook as a means of doing anything they can to grow faster and keep up with the latest trends. However, they will need to carefully consider how best to use these new tools and not just add them to the toolbox. Seth Godin, bestselling author and leading blogger, argues the need for firms to strike a balance between using social media as a way of keeping up in today’s marketplace and using it for innovation.

Analysts suggest that social media is now considered to be an innovative tool that provides competitive advantage.

Do you agree? Tell me how you think social media can provide a competitive advantage for business.

* Read the full article about the UMass study in Inc. Magazine here…

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Will Social Media Replace Email?

Many research firms are starting to think so and the media has caught wind of this. The Wall Street Journal recently published a story with a headline that reads, The End of the Email Era citing, “it’s reign as king of communication is over”.

A recent survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa concludes that “social media won’t kill the medium, but it will definitely affect it”. I’m not so sure. Send me your comments and tell me if you think social media will replace email. You can read more about the research here and the full story from WSJ here.

Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, a marketing services firm dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs. http://www.gilchristpartners.com

A World Without Borders

The role of offline and online worlds is quickly disappearing. The proliferation of technology and business gives us access to information that is only a search away. What will the world look like in 25 years time?

Jeffrey Sachs recently spoke at The World Business Forum in NYC last week, telling the audience that the expanding population, the impact of climate change, and a growing water shortage will likely lead to declines in economic growth.

What will this mean for US business? Will business need to be more innovative, more efficient or more collaborative? I think we will need to be all of these, and probably more. How can we maintain competitive advantage when the world as we know it is changing?

We all talk about social media, online collaboration and innovation- but that’s just the beginning.

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www.gilchristpartners.com

Build Customer Share In A Down Economy

Given the growing skepticism that an economic recovery is close at hand, for business, that skepticism breeds uncertainty and uncertainty breeds paralysis.

This classic knee jerk reaction does not necessarily mean survival. It’s important to remember that we’ve been through many lean years before and there will be many more to come. And those firms that survived considered their investment decisions carefully.

For example, one of my insurance clients took a direction not many are taking. They are investing in digital solutions that consider their online customers. While most firms have the misperception that online customer experiences do not necessarily impact business, others realize that online customers are an important revenue stream for recurring business. According to a Forrester Research e-Commerce Forecast, “online shoppers are less sensitive to adverse economic conditions than the average US consumer“. This means it is important for firms to not take the online experience for granted.

For firms that recognize this, they are building Customer Experience Management [CEM] capabilities. They are taking a proactive approach to recognizing customer value by investing in resources and tools that create more positive online experiences. While there are many barriers for improving online customer experiences, there are things firms can do NOW to get on the right track.

For example:
• Organizations can make an effort to understand the current customer experience online. You’d be surprised how many executives take this for granted. According to a recent study by BusinessWeek, executives think that customers are less likely to be bothered by online problems, or believe that online problems have a negative impact for the firm.* While executives say that it’s important to maintain an online customer base, they also are allowing improvement projects to take a back seat during the recession. This type of shortsighted thinking puts a firm at risk. Today’s online customers are more in control, leading the charge and influencing their peers about their experiences with your brand.

Organizations that make an effort to understand and resolve the online experience are likely to lead the path of survival.

*Source BusinessWeek Research Services

Sheri Taylor Gilchrist is President of Gilchrist + Partners, a marketing services firm dedicated to applying behavioral and neuromarketing practices to improve the performance of marketing programs. http://www.gilchristpartners.com
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