Effective digital marketing is the driving force behind every successful Enterprise SaaS and Tech organization today. The industry is flooded with competition; and engaging, online marketing tactics are responsible for generating the new business opportunities that transform into sales, and ultimately drive revenue, further down the pipeline. So, in an entirely digital age of increased connectivity — where a simple Google search presents switched-on tech and SaaS buyers with more options than they could ever need — how do you ensure you’re consistently growing your Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)? And more importantly, how can you guarantee a genuine ROI from those leads at the bottom-of-the-funnel?
Website visitor visibility, integration, automation and nurture
“Every person that tries your product is a lead, even if they don’t become a user right away.” – Jim Belosic, CEO of ShortStack.com
Your online marketing strategy should be a direct driver to your website — and in turn, your site should be an engaging, informative and central hub for generated MQLs. It works both ways; your digital tactics should create relevant demand for your SaaS or tech site, and your website should be engaging enough to capture those visitors. Relying on website conversions, however — such as on-site demonstration requests, free trial requests, and lead capture forms — isn’t always enough anymore. Especially when we consider the buyer journey and research process of the digital-first B2B buyer. It’s unlikely they’ll even be in ‘buying mode’ on their first visit; let alone ready to make a genuine inquiry.
But they’re interested. They’re captivated. And just because they don’t inquire, doesn’t mean they’re not a potential customer, in the market for your product.
Embrace automation technology and enriched data sources to transform your website and present you with full visitor visibility. With intelligent two-way integration capabilities, website visitor automation software, like Web Insights for example, captures the identity of your unconverted website visitors, and automatically routes them to the relevant place within your business. This could be a sales representative; as a new lead in your CRM, or into your marketing automation stack for nurture.
Map out your MQL to SQL conversion-rate
“A good conversion-rate is one that’s better than it is now.” – Crazy Egg
For your leads to truly deliver ROI, they need to be responsible for business revenue. Even organizations that generate large quantities of leads and high volumes of traffic need to monitor and measure successes. To boost the impact of your MQLs, you must first identify what happens to them further down the pipeline. Analyze the data available to you; how many email marketing bursts, paid-for social adverts or influencer campaigns did you run this month? And, how many leads did they generate? Of the MQLs generated, how many went on to claim a free trial? And eventually make a purchase? According to PropelGrowth, the conversion-rates of MQLs to sales-accepted leads are around 60%; and just 50% of those make it to the SQL stage. And, only 30% of those SQLs lead to a sale. Don’t just measure the conversion-rate of your marketing campaigns — identify the percentage of MQLs that actually convert in sales.
Real-time engagement and personalization at the bottom-of-the-funnel
“Activate your fans. Don’t just collect them like baseball cards.” – Jim Baer, founder, author, keynote speaker and podcast host
It’s safe to say that generating more MQLs isn’t the only answer — instead, you should invest budget and resources to ensure they’re the highest quality, and they’re handled effectively as they make their way through that all-important buyer journey. As potential buyers make their way towards the bottom of the funnel, the need for exceptional customer relationship management is at its peak. That’s where real-time engagement and a humanized, personalized experience comes into play.
According to Harvard Business Review, firms that contact a lead within one hour are almost seven times more likely to close the sale. Hyperfast communication isn’t just for lead generation: it should be rooted firmly within your company culture, and you must implement the best systems to empower your team to engage effectively. Website visitor automation, for example, automatically identifies and routes opportunities to the relevant account manager, enabling them to reach out instantly to pipeline opportunities and bottom-of-the-funnel leads, with personalized communications to boost conversions.
Web Insights is a highly advanced website visitor automation solution that empowers technology and SaaS marketers to harness the power and potential of their website data. Using intelligent automation algorithms, the solution seamlessly routes website visitor intel across the business and integrates with any CRM system or marketing technology stack for nurture, while simultaneously identifying whether they are a lead, existing customer or lapsed customer.
The powerful solution integrates with all martech automation and CRM platforms, enabling B2B marketers to shorten sales cycles, create outstanding customer journeys, manage data, set up stakeholder alerts, and capitalize on every lead, every opportunity, and prospect – in real-time.
Close more business than ever before and drive results with Web Insights. Real-time engagement, and real-time success.
Meet the author
Rachel Dettmer
Content Marketing Manager
Rachel has over seven years of corporate and award-winning agency experience in marketing and content creation across multiple sectors.