Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

What kind of leads do you want? The kind of leads that seem qualified or the kind of leads that actually turn into buyers? 

Inbound Out Marketing combines inbound marketing with targeted outreach. It is the one, two punch your business needs. When you combine inbound marketing with targeted outreach, you reach more prospects, find more leads, and close more deals.

How do you know what will generate leads for your business? Keep reading and I will help you. If you still have questions, schedule a Lead Boost Review. 

Inbound Out Marketing is not about getting likes or followers. It is a methodology to start conversations with qualified prospects and generate more leads.

Let's get started!

1. Plan your strategy.

If you haven't already, look at your ideal clients and develop a persona for them. Make sure you know the company size, type, job title, etc. that you want to target.

If you want to really develop your personas, use the Precise Prospect Profile Kit. The worksheet and template will help you discover everything you need to know about the ideal personas for your business. 

2. Develop marketing content.

If you don't have it already, develop content for each segment of your sales funnel. Create content that builds awareness--pulling your audience towards you, and content that compels your audience to act--building trust.

For top of the funnel prospects, write list posts. For middle of the funnel prospects, write "how to" posts. For bottom of the funnel prospects write posts that help answer your top sales questions.

3. Put together a targeted prospect list.

Find the appropriate prospects for your business. If you are not talking to qualified prospects, the chances of anyone turning into a customer are very minimal. 

Do an Advanced Search on LinkedIn by job title, location, company size, etc. to find your target prospects. Tag these prospects in LinkedIn and add them to your CRM.

4. Establish a meaningful connection.

Building meaningful relationships takes time. However, there are definitely some things you can do to save time. 

Once you have your list of target prospects created, and you are certain you want to connect with them, there are a few things you can do to make a good first impression:

1. Look at which LinkedIn Groups they are a part of, join these groups and join in on the discussion. Be helpful by answering any questions you can or commenting on posts in those groups. This will help make you known to this prospect, and others as well.
2. Most people that use LinkedIn will have a link to their website and Twitter profile. If they have a Twitter account, follow them and retweet some of their content. If they write a blog, share some of their content. 

Once you have done this a few times, send them a message through a group you share and let them know you are interested in connecting on LinkedIn.

5. Reach out to those prospects.

Once you have a list of prospects put together, and your prospect has accepted your connection request,  it is time to reach out. Targeted outreach gets your quality content directly to the right audience.

Send your new prospect helpful information and you will build the relationship. You will become a trusted advisor before they are ready to buy.

Send emails with links to content you have created--things they would find educational and helpful. Use your CRM and automate follow up tasks to stay top of mind. Remember, persistence pays off!

Still have questions? We love a good marketing challenge. Schedule a Lead Boost Review.

Takeaways:

• Inbound Out Marketing generates leads faster and reduces the cost per lead.

• Combining inbound marketing with targeted outreach helps your team reach more prospects, find more leads, and close more deals.

Good leads are essential to grow your business. The kind of leads that will actually turn into buyers. But how do you find these leads?

Inbound Out Marketing combines the best of Inbound Marketing with Targeted Outreach. It gets your quality content directly in front of the right audience and is one of the most cost-effective ways to get more leads for your company. 

Most companies know how many leads they need to reach their revenue goals. But don't know how much it will cost and if they can afford it.

Every company is different and each market is different. So to give you an idea for your specific company and market, let's calculate what you should be investing for each lead using the Lead Cost Calcuator.

For a more complete evaluation of your situation, schedule a Free Lead Boost Review.

Your digital marketing strategy probably looks something like this:

• You take out pay-per-click ads to drive traffic from search engines and social media

• You write guest articles on other sites to get more exposure

• You invest in SEO and try to rank for important keywords in your industry

• You drive traffic and increase conversions on your website

This is great. You’re doing what you’re supposed to do.

However, you might be missing out on a buyer-focused marketing process that could exponentially increase your leads. It’s called Inbound Out Marketing, and you might actually be closer to it than you think.

Inbound Out Marketing combines inbound marketing with targeted outreach. This outreach is laser-focused to your ideal prospects. It fills the gap that other digital marketing strategies may miss, because many prospects do not hang out in the traditional online channels.

Here’s the thing:

Your sales team is probably already doing targeted outreach. Your marketing team is probably creating content and finding prospects.

But they’re not combining their efforts as effectively as they could be. That’s why you’re close to Inbound Out Marketing, but you’re not quite there yet.

Let me show you why:

How Your Sales Team is Close to Inbound Out Marketing

Salespeople are masters of converting leads into customers. They reach out, they identify wants/needs, and they close the deal.

Your sales team is conducting targeted outreach. They get a list of potential customers and contact each one to weed out the tire kickers from the devoted customers.

Their outreach is effective, but it’s not as effective as it could be. You see, these leads don’t have a strong connection to your business yet. Your customers will eventually have this connection, but your leads don’t.

This lack of trust makes it more difficult for your sales team to close. It’s a snag in the marketing/sales funnel.

But you can remedy this by moving some of that targeted outreach over to marketing. This will make your sales team even better at what they do, and your marketing team will become a stronger asset to your business.

How Your Marketing Team is Close to Inbound Out Marketing

Marketing has one primary job: Generate leads.

But they also have many secondary jobs:

• Get your business in front of potential buyers

• Execute various online marketing strategies

• Interact with potential customers after they find your business

• And much more.

To do this, they probably create valuable content in the form of blog posts, videos, infographics, webinars, etc. This content is one of the best ways to attract prospects.

But they’re missing one key ingredient.

Your marketing team is only engaging prospects once they have found your business. They lack the targeted outreach to find potential customers who are not actively seeking you out.

These prospects aren’t on social media, they aren’t Googling your services, and they’re not trying to find you. Heck, they may not even know your service exists. (This is especially the case in specialized markets.)

You can fill this hole in your lead generation by adding targeted outreach to your marketing strategy. In other words, Inbound Out Marketing.

It involves reaching out to prospects with useful content, establishing a connection with your business, building micro-rapport, and ultimately developing a relationship with your company.

Then these leads are sent over to Sales, where they are much warmer than they ever would have been before.

Your sales team is more effective. Your marketing team is more effective. And your business grows at an astounding rate because of it.

What To Do Next

To find out more about how Inbound Out Marketing can grow your business, here are a few resources to check out:

• The Inbound Out Marketing Methodology

• The Lead Investment Calculator (to discover your exact cost-per-lead)

• 3 Ways Targeted Outreach Boosts Your Sales Team

Takeaways

• You might be missing out on a buyer-focused marketing process that could drastically increase your leads -- Inbound Out Marketing.

• Both your sales and marketing teams could benefit from adding this process to your strategy.

• This helps your business grow faster and more efficiently.

Targeted outreach is part of a new inbound marketing philosophy — Inbound Out marketing. 

This philosophy takes the best parts of sales and incorporates them into marketing for a more effective approach.

Why is this approach more effective? Well, that’s what you’re going to learn in this article.

Specifically, you’ll learn how targeted outreach through inbound marketing helps your sales team become more effective.

Here we go:

1) Leads Are Warmer When They Reach Sales

Targeted outreach involves your marketing team reaching out to prospects and establishing initial contact. The goals of this contact are to:

• Establish trust

• Build a relationship

• Develop micro-rapport

• Introduce your content

Through this process, these prospects become accustomed to interacting with your business. They get to know your expertise and what you can do for them.

They also get introduced to your products and services, while building an interpersonal relationship with someone at your company.

By the time these prospects reach your sales team, they already know, like, and trust your business. Your sales team doesn’t have to shoulder the burden of achieving this anymore. It’s taken care of before a representative even picks up the phone.

2) Your Sales Team Becomes a Guide

Targeted outreach leads to warmer prospects interacting with your sales team. This means your sales team doesn’t have to “sell” and pitch your services as hard as they used to.

(Hint: Today’s prospects aren’t as receptive to this anymore, anyway.)

Your sales team is still an expert on your products and services. This is where their true selling power lies.

They become a guide. When speaking to prospects, their job is to uncover problems that your leads are having. They then use their expertise to determine how your products and services can help.

Your sales team doesn’t have to pitch. They can become guides who show prospects the best path for them to take.

3) Prospects Already Know What They Want

One of the goals of targeted outreach is to introduce your products and services. Prospects trust your authority through the content you produce, and they get introduced to your services naturally through calls-to-action on your website.

This process helps them decide which of your products/services could be right for them. They typically decide on one (or a few) that they might be interested in.

When they reach your sales team, they already have this list prepared. All they need is more information to help them make the best decision possible.

This makes your sales team’s job much easier (and more effective). People don’t want to be sold to. They want to be helped.

The most effective route for your sales team to take is to help prospects as much as they can. And it all begins with a targeted outreach campaign that warms prospects and introduces them to your business.

Wrap Up

Targeted outreach is one of the most effective ways to introduce prospects to your business. But it also provides benefits further down the marketing/sales funnel.

These prospects are warmer when they reach your sales team. Your sales team’s job now becomes that of a guide rather than a salesperson.

Why does this work?

Because today’s prospects are more receptive to being helped than to being sold to.

Takeaways

• Targeted outreach is part of a new inbound marketing philosophy — Inbound Out marketing.

• Through targeted outreach, leads are warmer when they reach sales.

• Your sales team guides prospects, rather than sells to them.

• Prospects already know, like, and trust your business. This is what leads to a more effective sales process.

Inbound marketing is about producing relevant, helpful content and placing it on the web where your ideal prospect can discover it. Inbound marketing is not just about getting traffic to your website, it’s about drawing people in who are actually interested in what you’re selling.

Inbound marketing will help you attract the right people through the use of blogs, keywords, and social media that feature content relevant to your target audience. And if you create the right content, the right people will come.

Before creating any piece of content, you must have a clear picture of the following:  

1. Who your buyer personas are.
2. The characteristics, demographic attributes and personal interests that influence their buying behavior.

If you have not done so already, create a precise prospect profile for your persona(s). Use the Precise Prospect Profile Kit to help clearly define who your ideal prospects are so your marketing will have success.

Let’s take a look at the top three strategies that will help your inbound marketing to be successful:

Blogging

Inbound marketing is a strategy that is most successful when done consistently. The most important part of that strategy is your blog.

With your blog, you decide what information you provide your readers and how often you distribute it. The information you provide needs to address your prospects frustrations with the clear solution being your product or service.

You need to blog for two reasons:

1. To get readers who learn to seek you out for your expertise.
2. To get others to link to your material…thereby bringing more readers who will learn to seek you out for your expertise.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral part of inbound marketing. You don’t have to know everything about SEO, but you do need to know what the right keywords are for your market and how to use them effectively.

The goal is to increase your search rank. You want to be on the first page of search results when internet users type your keywords.

SEO can be tweaked and worked on to help your visibility. Over time, you will be able to determine what your effective keywords are, the words that are bringing visitors to your site.

Social Networking Platforms

There are many social media platforms out there. Start with two or three and build from there. Don’t assume more is better.

You should only have as many social media profiles as you can manage. Your main goal needs to be to promote your brand and distribute content, but don’t forget that these platforms are interactive.

They invite a conversation with the internet visitor. That’s something you never want to lose sight of.

In my next post, I will talk about the next steps you need to take to convert the visitors to your site into leads.

Takeaways:

• Know as much as you can about your ideal prospect before you write.

• Use blogging to provide answers and to become the expert in your field.

• Use keywords to help visitors find your site.

• Promote your content on only as many social media channels as you can manage.

The buying process has changed. Prospects don’t want to be pitched to by sales people anymore.

They do their own research. They weigh their own choices. They already know what they want before they talk to your sales team.

This calls for a new type of selling. It involves guiding prospects down the path they’re already on, rather than showing them the path.

It’s inbound selling -- a focus on educating the buyer through the sales process. Your sales team needs to adopt this methodology to be an effective asset as the sales landscape continues to change.

Here’s how to get your sales team to use inbound selling:

Teach Your Sales Team How to do Pre-Contact Research

Know your buyer as well as they know themselves. In fact, get to know them better than they know themselves.

This type of knowledge gives your sales team the power to help prospects. That’s one of the key differences between inbound selling and traditional sales. You’re not trying to convince prospects to become customers. You’re trying to help them make the best decision possible.

How do you do this? With pre-contact research.

Teach your sales team how to research prospect’s wants, needs, and pain points before getting in contact with them. This could involve scouring online forums for information. It could involve paying attention to discussions on social media. It could mean looking up a prospect’s LinkedIn profile to gather specific knowledge about their background.

Every piece of information your team can gather helps the sales process become a much better experience for your prospects (and leads to better results for your bottom line).

Know the Right Time to Call Prospects

In a previous article, I discovered that it’s best to contact a lead within 5 minutes after lead generation.

• After they’ve downloaded an ebook

• After they’ve started their free trial

• After they’ve opted in to your blog

If you can’t contact a lead within 5 minutes, you want to get in touch sometime within that first hour. This also gives your sales team time to conduct pre-contact research.

However, during these calls, your sales team needs to act in an inbound way rather than a sales way. What do I mean by that?

In general, it’s about the types of questions that are asked and the ultimate goal of these calls. For example, inbound questions usually contain the word “help.”

“I see you downloaded our lead generation ebook. Do you need help with anything?”

The focus is on identifying your prospect’s biggest challenges and showing them how your business can be of service. It’s less about the products/services and more about the prospects.

The key is to really know your prospects. If you need help putting that together, download the Precise Prospect Profile Kit. 

Have your salespeople keep in mind that they are advisors who happen to know a lot about your products/services. If they can identify problems that your products/services can solve, that’s when they start discussing them.

Don’t Try to Force Sales

Here’s the thing:

Getting the sale is always a good thing. But there’s also an opportunity cost involved.

When your sales team tries to force sales on bad leads, these interactions usually last abnormally long. Even if they do get the sale, that time could have been spent on higher quality leads, meaning they could have gotten multiple sales in that same time frame.

If the lead doesn’t have problems your business can help them with, or they’re simply not ready to buy right now, make sure your sales team knows to postpone the interaction and move on to warmer leads.

Create a Seamless Buying Process for Prospects

What’s the ultimate goal? To make sales.

Who ends up buying your products and services? Your prospects.

Therefore, it makes sense to make the entire process as smooth and painless for these people as possible. No hassles. No gimmicks. Just a smooth ride to their destination.

Put yourself into a prospect’s shoes. What is this person expecting? What would make their life easier?

As you think about the process from your prospects’ perspective, you’ll discover different ways to make the buyer experience a more pleasant one.

Inadvertently, this also leads a more effective sales funnel.

Focus on the Buyer

Finally, it’s crucial to communicate to your sales team the importance of having a buyer-focused mentality.

It used to be that salespeople mastered the ins and outs of your products/services and that’s what gave them the power to make sales.

Not anymore.

Buyers already know about your business. They’ve done their research. Now they need a trusted advisor to help them along the way.

They need sales people who have their best interests at heart and can lead them to the right decision.

That’s inbound selling at it’s finest.

Takeaways

• The buying process has changed. Prospects don’t want to be pitched to by sales people anymore.

• Inbound selling is a focus on educating the buyer through the sales process.

• To get your sales team to use inbound selling, teach them how to do it and why it’s so important in this era of sales and the buying process.

"Inbound Marketing will get you leads," they said.

"Start a blog and the leads will pour in," they said.

"This is a waste of time!" you said.

What should leads cost?

Lead cost depends on your market and on what your company has in place. There’s no definitive answer. Still, I know you’re looking for some guidance, so let’s consider some scenarios.

Trade Show Lead Cost

For most companies, an online lead costs less than a lead from traditional offline marketing. To see why, let’s look at trade shows for comparison.

I’ve seen estimates that it can cost $10K for each person you bring to a trade show.  An average sales rep makes at least $1,600 per week. Add another $1,500 for travel to the show and entertainment. If you send some senior people, it’s likely the costs are even higher. Then, you’ve got the cost of the booth, booth transportation, collateral materials, and the show itself. $6K per participant seems like a conservative estimate, and the cost may well be closer to $10K.

Let’s say four people go to the show, and your total cost is $24K, and you get 60 leads from your booth. That’s a cost of $400 per lead—before adjusting for the visitors that just wanted a free t-shirt or coffee mug. 

Trade shows can be fun, and there may be other reasons to attend. Still, they have a number of important disadvantages:

• Many companies fail to follow-up effectively on trade show leads. This is just a waste.

• Trade shows happen infrequently. What if a prospect needs to buy one month after the show? They’re not going to wait eleven months.

• Going to a show and coming back can disrupt your business rhythm.

Google AdWords Lead Cost

For digital lead generation, there’s a quick way to estimate the cost. Use Google’s keyword planner. For this scenario, assume you are an accountant looking for more business.

For $9, Google will sell you a click from a person who searched Google for “accountant.” Below is an example of the data you can get directly from Google’s keyword planner.

It costs $9 to get a person to your website, but will they become a lead? You'll need to invest in a good website page with a good offer. If so, 10% might respond and become leads.

• 100 clicks x $9 = $900
• $900 to develop or maintain your offer and website page
• $500 to manage a simple AdWords campaign

A total of $2,300 for 10 leads, or $230 per lead.

Of course, some of these are fixed or partially fixed costs. So, you might be able to drive down your cost per lead by buying more clicks. 

At least it’s less expensive than our trade show scenario. There was a time you could get inexpensive clicks from Google, but today, more and more companies use Google AdWords. The competition has run up the cost, and it looks like this tactic will continue to get more expensive.

The good thing is that searchers on Google are actively looking for help or a solution to their problems. This means they are very qualified prospects. And Google AdWords can be a very useful way to discover search terms that prospects are using in Google.

Inbound Out Marketing Lead Investment

Trade shows, AdWords, and many other types of traditional marketing and advertising are time-based. You go to a trade show for a week. You run AdWords or other advertising for a month. You can turn these on or off and your results will go up or down.

Inbound Out Marketing is a strategy. You have some ability to adjust the ongoing costs, but you can’t dabble without destroying its effectiveness.

A minimum investment is $6K per month. Depending on your growth goals and situation, you may want to do more inbound marketing, more targeted outreach, or both. In either case, you have to regularly publish useful information that your prospects value.

A good blog post costs $200—more for specialized technical topics. I know, you’ve heard about somebody who bought blog posts off eLance for $20. But were they any good? I’ve tried a lot of these “writers,” and I can confidently tell you that it doesn’t work.

It’s not easy to write well enough to impress your customers. 3 posts per week is a good target. That’s $2,400 per month.

Blog posts will attract readers, but you want leads. Premium content along with a landing page form is what converts readers to leads. Premium content means longer pieces like special reports, infographics, training courses, and videos. For good premium content, typical costs are $2K and up. Plan to create a premium offer every two months, so budget for $1K per month.

You’ll want to do good follow-up with leads and customers, so plan on $1K per month to write and manage the emails.

Add $1K per month for a marketing system like HubSpot. That leaves a few hundred dollars for website maintenance and other special activities in our $6K per month budget.

At 2,000 monthly visitors per month, let’s say 3% of these visitors provide their contact information. You get 60 leads from 2,000 visitors at a cost of $100 per lead.

If you’re starting from scratch, it may take several months to ramp up to 2,000 visitors. This disadvantage is offset by the fact that inbound out marketing builds over time. Each month you’re adding new prospects to your database. As you keep going, expect your monthly visits will grow too.

That's the big benefit of Inbound Out marketing. Keep going and your traffic will keep growing. This drives down your lead investment over time. 

Summary

Each of these scenarios depends heavily on your market, your competitors, and what your company already has in place. Still, most companies should consider inbound out marketing. Traditional marketing and advertising is becoming more difficult each year. Don’t risk letting your competitors get the jump on you. It’s both difficult and more expensive to catch up.

Use our Lead Estimator to calculate the expected investment for your specific situation.

Takeaways

• Most companies will lower their cost and improve their positioning by using inbound out marketing.
  

• The Internet has changed the buying process forever. If you are not doing inbound out marketing, there’s a big risk your company will be left behind.
  

• Lead cost will vary for each market and each company. There is no single answer on what a lead should cost.

Smart copywriters will tell you the headline is the most important part of an article, because if it falls short, no one will read your content. We know headline-writing is crucial, but why do some headlines fail, while others go viral?

Today, I’m going to pull back the curtains and reveal a process for creating headlines that entice visitors to click and read your content. Not only that, but you will get exact, plug-n-play formulas for creating headlines that are proven to get results.

Let’s get started.

What is The Ultimate Purpose of The Headline?

Whether it’s an article, an ad, or a sales page, the headline has a distinct purpose--to get the first sentence read. And the purpose of the first sentence is to get the second sentence read, then the third, and the fourth; all the way to the end of the article or sales page.

But it starts with the headline, so the better the headline, the more people will read the article. Not only that, but the headline shows up on social media and search engines, so its effects extend much further than just your website.

So when writing headlines, keep in mind that you’re trying to get people to read the first sentence.

How to Master the Subtle Art of Headline Writing

Mastery of any skill takes one thing--practice. Those who achieve mastery deserve it because of the amount of blood, sweat, and tears they put into practicing that skill.

The same is true of writing enticing headlines, as our president, Clarke Bishop, discusses in this video on effective headline writing:

At Inbound Team, we suggest coming up with 10-20 headlines per article before picking a winner. This ensures that you have gone through enough permutations of the headline to pick the best one.

If you publish 5 articles per month and come up with 20 headlines for each one, you’re already practicing 100 headlines a month (or 1,200 a year). At that level, you’re well on your way to headline mastery, but here’s the kicker:

As your headlines improve, you’ll see concrete changes in how people interact with your articles — in the form of clicks, social shares, and traffic. That’s where the true fruits of your labor lie.

A Sneaky Trick to Write Viral Headlines

The importance of headline writing is relatively new to the blogging and inbound marketing world. However, it has been vital to the success of newspapers and magazines for as long as they have been around.

In all those years, they’ve gotten pretty good at writing headlines for articles that go viral. So what we’re going to do is mimic them.

Here’s how:

Head over to a popular magazine or online newspaper. How about BuzzFeed?

Here are a few headlines from the home page:

Let’s see if we can make some viral marketing headlines out of these.

BuzzFeed:

13 Times We Wished Computer Shortcuts Existed in Real Life

Inbound Team:

13 Times You Wished People Clicked Your Headlines

BuzzFeed:

9 Bizarrely Specific Myths That Every Culture Seems to Have

Inbound Team:

9 Bizarre Marketing Myths Everyone Seems to Believe

BuzzFeed:

23 Things You Never Noticed in “Zoolander”

Inbound Team:

23 Things You Never Noticed About Blogging

I can see the social shares pouring in now. That’s how you can create powerful headlines by simply piggy-backing off the publications that have been creating these forever.

Now, let’s break down some headline formulas, so all you have to do is plug in your subject matter and you’re good to go.

7 Proven Headline Formulas That Work

1.  7 Proven [BLANKS] That Work

Everyone wants proven strategies that actually work. If you’ve got case studies and evidence to back up your claims, this is a great headline formula.

2.  How to [BENEFIT] and [BENEFIT]

“How to Win Friends and Influence People”

That book, by Dale Carnegie, has sold 15 million copies since 1936 and is one of the best-selling self-help books — ever.

One of the reasons why? If I had to guess, I would say it’s because he combined a “How to” headline with two benefits that almost everyone in the world wants to achieve:

1. Make friends

2. Influence people

Simple yet powerful.

3.  The Secret of [BLANK]

Everyone wants to know secrets. They involve hidden treasures that in business, can help you get a leg up on your competitors.

If you have a relatively unknown tactic or strategy to share, this headline could help it go viral.

4. The List Post

“15 Reasons Why Kale is Good For You”

“8 Ways to Cure a Hangover (Without Taking Pills)”

“32 Smart Inbound Marketing Strategies Your Competitors Aren’t Using”

List posts are great because they provide the reader a specific number of items they’re going to read. This prepares them for the length of the article before they even click it.

They might also click just because they’re curious about what each item is. List posts are, and always will be, effective pieces of content.

5. [DESIRED OUTCOME]: Get [BENEFIT] in [TIME PERIOD]

“More Customers: Get 20 Prospects Knocking on Your Door in 2 Days”

“Lose Weight: Shave Off 10 Pounds in 1 Week”

People want a specific benefit in a specific time period. This headline delivers both.

6. Why [BLANK] is [BLANK]

“Why Inbound Marketing is So Effective”

“Why Playing Basketball Makes You Taller (On Average)”

If you have something interesting to say, the “Why” headline is one of the best ways to get people to read it.

7. Announcing…

“Announcing a New Product That Reverses Wrinkles and Smoothes Skin”

“Announcing The Best Thing in SEO: No More Google Penalties”

People are naturally attracted to novelty and news. If you’ve just launched a new product or service, this headline will help you get it in front of people’s eyes.

Just make sure not to say “Announcing [PRODUCT NAME]” but rather “Announcing [PRODUCT BENEFIT]”.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it!

You know that the purpose of the headline is to get the first sentence read. You also know that practice will help you master headline writing, and that you can use news sites and magazines to help you come up with viral headline ideas.

Finally, you’ve got 7 proven headline formulas to use whenever you get stuck. You’re on your way to writing enticing headlines that attract readers, get clicked, and get shared on social media.

Takeaways

• The ultimate purpose of a headline is to get the first sentence read.

• To write viral headlines, head over to online magazines or newspapers and use their headlines as templates.

• When you're stuck, use headline formulas that are already proven to be effective.

 

Lead transition from marketing to sales often poses many questions.

How long until these leads are warm enough? What should happen before they’re introduced to sales? When is the right time for sales to engage with leads to maximize customer acquisition?

These are big questions that affect your bottom line.

Today, I’ve put together two distinct processes to help you determine the right time for your specific sales team to engage with leads. Here they are:

1. A lead response management study (to break down exact numbers)

2. The inbound marketing methodology

Let’s get started.

Lead Response Study -- The Exact Days/Times to Engage Leads

LeadResponseManagement.org published a study to determine the best day, time of day, and response time to contact leads to get the highest qualification ratios.

Their mission was to “fill the knowledge gap that exists between marketing and sales, where companies are using intuition and experience to manage lead response timing rather than science.”

They used data from InsideSales.com, which generates and stores call data linked directly with lead process and flow information. They examined three years of data from six companies (that generate and respond to web leads). The study included over 15,000 leads and 100,000 call attempts.

Here are the results:

Day of the Week

The study found that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call to make contact with a lead (with Thursday being the top day).

Wednesdays and Thursdays are also the best days to call to qualify a lead (with Wednesday being the top day).

Time of Day

Between 4PM and 6PM is the best time to call to make contact with a lead.

8-9AM and 4-5PM are the best times to call to qualify a lead (with 8-9AM at a slight advantage).

Response Time After Lead Generation (Hours)

The odds of making contact with a lead drop 10 times after the first hour.

The odds of qualifying a lead drop 6 times after the first hour.

After 20 hours, every additional dial to contact a lead hurts your chances of qualifying that lead.

Response Time After Lead Generation (5 Minute Intervals)

The odds of making contact with a lead decrease by over 10 times in the first hour.

The odds of qualifying a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. From 5 minutes to 10 minutes, the odds drop 4 times.

What does all of this mean?

Here are the takeaways from the study:

1. Wednesdays and Thursdays will provide the highest response rate when making initial contact with a lead.

2. When qualifying leads to nurture them into the sales process, they’re most receptive on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

3. 4-6PM (end of the work day) is the best time to make initial contact with a lead.

4. 8-9AM and 4-5PM are the best times to nurture leads into the sales process.

5. It’s best to contact a lead within the first 5 minutes after lead generation, regardless of day or time.

6. If you cannot make contact within the first 5 minutes, it’s best to make contact within the first hour.

7. After 20 hours, each additional contact attempt hurts your chances of qualifying that lead.

How to Apply These Results to Your Business

These results are not universal. They come from 3 years of data and 6 companies.

However, it does show that tweaking your response times can have a significant impact on your sales team’s ability to get in contact with leads and nurture them into the sales funnel. (Just look at the discrepancies in the data between different days/times/response times.)

Use these results to test different contact strategies. For example, for one month, have your sales team make contact within the first hour of lead generation. Then analyze your sales.

Change that variable back to its original, and have your sales team attempt to qualify leads between 4-5PM every day for one month. Then analyze your sales.

Continue this process by leaving everything equal except for one variable (so you can determine that variable’s impact). After 6 months, you could have an entirely redefined sales strategy that has grown your sales by a vast percentage.

This is one way you can optimize the exact day, time, and response time for your sales team to engage with leads.

Let’s try another.

Using The Inbound Methodology To Determine Correct Response Time

Inbound marketing typically follows a 4-step process:

1. Attract

2. Convert

3. Close

4. Delight

To use this methodology to determine the right time for sales to engage with leads, focus on Attract, Convert, and Close.

The primary lead generator and nurturer in inbound marketing is content. Content is how you:

1. Introduce prospects to your business in a non-intrusive way.

2. Build your trust and authority in the space.

3. Convert prospects into leads.

Make sure #1 and #2 have been accomplished before sales talks to your leads (the Attract and Convert steps). This is the “warming” process where prospects and leads become accustomed to your business’s presence in their lives.

They’ve already been introduced to your products and services. They know what you offer and the role you play as a provider. Now they just need a small push to become buyers and brand advocates.

That’s when it’s the right time for sales to engage with leads.

To Wrap It Up

We looked at two processes to determine when sales should start working its magic:

1. A lead response management study

2. The inbound marketing methodology

At Inbound Team, we advise combining both processes.

• Test different times, days, and response times after lead generation.

• Analyze your sales after each test and determine which time is best.

• Make sure your leads are primed with valuable content that builds trust and authority before they talk to sales.

This creates a one-two punch marketing and sales strategy that grows your business.

Takeaways

• The exact time for sales to engage with leads is different for every business.

• It’s crucially important to test different response times, to make sure you’re not allowing valuable sales to slip away.

• Before sales talks to leads, make sure your leads have been primed with useful content (by following the inbound methodology).

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