There are many reasons why leads languish in your CRM. It could be that they are low quality leads, for instance they've shown some vague interest in one of your downloadable guides, but aren't interested in buying or having a relationship with you. It could also be because:
they have since left the company.
they have moved into a different role and your solution is no longer of interest to them.
their email address has changed (mergers/acquisitions/rebrands).
your emails are going straight to junk.
your lead nurturing creative and/or messaging is not landing with them.
All marketing leads are not equal
So, what can you do about a large amount of leads that have not progressed anywhere? Look at the quality of your leads. Are they really decent quality marketing leads? If you're getting lots of leads that aren't a fit with your ICP, focus your marketing efforts elsewhere.
Review the quality of your marketing leads in your CRM on a regular basis. If leads from certain sectors are unlikely to be a good fit for your solution, mark them as unsuitable and move on. Determine which leads are worth spending time on. Look at recency first – recent leads will always win over old leads.
Upgrade and improve your lead data. Check what their initial interest was e.g. what they interacted with originally, and tag them so you can send them tailored communications. If you know someone is interested in better reporting, you can then send them updates on that theme. Communications that are relevant get far higher open and click through rates. If there's missing information like their first name, see if you can add that in from their email address. If someone's keyed in their email address slightly wrong, correct it if you can. You would be surprised how many people type in their email address slightly wrong on forms when requesting a demo. Time spent here on 'upgrading' the data you have is time well spent.
It would also be a good idea to check the contacts are still in role (use LinkedIn). And check these email addresses where:
they hard bounced - find out if they have moved role and/or research the new contact and their new company/email address if they are still within your ICP.
where a personal email address (like gmails, yahoos and hotmails) has been given - you can often find their work email if you have the company name and domain (use Hunter.io or Apollo.io or similar systems).
Once you're happy with the data quality, it's time to nurture the leads properly until they are in market for your solution.
Segment your data (based on what matters to you e.g. industry sector, interest area, job role, lifecycle stage) and create succinct messaging for each segment, with a series of content that includes useful educational info, updates about your product/solution and its benefits and stories that will enhance brand awareness.
Create a multi-touch, personalised outreach/nurture sequence using a variety of channels: email, LinkedIn messaging, follow up phone calls, LinkedIn ads. The key here is to show up on the recipient's radar from time to time without bombarding them, to keep your company forefront in mind when they have a requirement for your services.
Be creative with your email sequences and test different subject lines to see what gets your emails opened more often. Emails that feel personal will always get higher open rates. Don't be afraid to try a quirky subject line. Test different approaches with personalisation too. Many people feel compelled to open an email with their first name in the subject line.
Cold outreach emails: when emailing cold data, consider using something other than your main lead nurturing email software to send the emails. Also, set up a separate email domain so that you don't harm your email deliverability by getting your domain blacklisted. You could test different approaches - using Outlook where you send emails 1:1. And a 1: many email approach using something like Apollo to manage bulk email sequences. The advantage of the latter is that you can often integrate with CRMs like HubSpot. Any replies can then be seen directly in your CRM and it reduces the risk of your Sales Reps accidentally emailing each other's contacts.
Experiment with the design. Often ‘plainer’ looking emails lead to increased deliverability and open rates, so trial non-html, plain text emails and ensure your subject lines aren’t too salesy, but do grab attention. Remove any excessive exclamation marks, avoid using ‘free’ or other words that tend to get picked up by spam bots and ideally keep any links to a minimum. In certain sectors like Charity and Not for Profit, html emails with fewer images and graphics always perform better than the more sophisticated designs.
Message the contacts on LinkedIn with something related to what their interest might be. If they previously downloaded a guide to improving reporting, send them a follow up along the same lines. Invite them to a webinar on a similar topic with an expert speaker.
Retargeting leads with LinkedIn ads, can be cost effective and productive - you could retarget with a latest guide, case study ad, webinar invite or product demo for example. Upload the contacts into your LinkedIn ads account as a third party list (ask one of the team to look up the LinkedIn URLs for each contact to ensure success in the matching process) alternatively, retarget your website visitors with LinkedIn ads - you can select the web visitors that have been on your key commercial pages e.g. demo page, case studies and services pages and select the time period e.g. last 180 days as well as overlay your ICP criteria.
Reach out by phone (you could use a telemarketing freelancer or agency to help with this) and offer something of value like a latest research report that they might find useful in their role. You can also find out when they are likely to be making any decisions or when contracts are likely to be reviewed.
Ongoing leads data administration
This could amount to quite a lot of work if you haven’t been doing any data hygiene tasks all year and you have a large number of leads that haven't gone anywhere. Make it someone’s regular responsibility to check all the email bounces every week and research 'leavers' reply messages and role changers on LinkedIn.
Too much lead admin?
Invest in software such as Zoominfo, Apollo.io or Cognism where you can upload your marketing leads lists and the software can enhance your data for you, with correct email addresses and phone numbers.
Better quality marketing leads
Let us work with you on a strategy to acquire better marketing leads and to reduce your cost per acquisition. Get in touch below for a free consultation.
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