Marketers are constantly searching for an edge on the competition. New trends seem to come and go daily, and businesses often get caught up in finding the next big opportunity for market disruption. In this quest for innovation, some tried and true methods for effective digital marketing can get lost in the shuffle.
During Tuesday’s webinar titled, “Breathe New Life into the Top 3 Most Neglected Marketing Activities in B2B,” Kentico Marketing Evangelist Petr Passinger delved into these tactics. Hosted by Loyalty360, the webinar focused on three marketing strategies that are being overlooked and underutilized in companies around the world: A/B testing, lead scoring, and marketing automation.
A/B testing is a powerful and easily interpreted method of website design, yet often falls by the wayside. One example shared by Passinger involved a landing page that asks potential clients for an email address. The company tested several methods of making sure these email addresses were business accounts, rather than personal addresses. These business emails enabled easier lead tracking for Kentico, as Passinger noted: “We’re interested not only in lead conversion, but also the quality of data we get from them.”
Through A/B testing, the company found a solution that resulted in almost three times as many data-rich leads as before. In determining which leads to actively pursue, Kentico turned to lead scoring.
The company scores potential leads on two metrics: Fit of the Kentico product with needs, and engagement with the Kentico brand. For example, students conducting research on Kentico sites may have a high engagement score, but don’t have needs that would be solved with the Kentico product. On the other end, high-ranking business executives may have the means and desire for a solution from Kentico, but aren’t familiar with the company. By finding a sweet spot of hot leads with high scores in both categories, Kentico focused its marketing efforts on leads that were most likely to be converted.
To nurture additional “warm” leads, marketing automation was used to follow up with interested site visitors. By downloading the trial version of a Kentico product, users were placed into an automation process that followed up at regular intervals. The first, and certainly most impactful, email would be manually personalized according to factors like case study downloads, company name, and prospect partner. From there, users received a weekly email (up to five) until they replied or performed predetermined behaviors on the Kentico website.
Lead generation benefited from this automation, and account executives were able to save up to 25% more time on each account.
“We were able to eliminate a lot of work that our employees simply didn’t enjoy,” Passinger explained. “Our account executives didn’t sign up to send these form letter emails, and we’ve found that our employees are happier and more engaged with the new system that allows them to spend more time actively interacting with leads and doing what they love.”