Tom Cruise isn’t the only one who feels the need for speed. For years, B2C marketers have understood the power of the speed of the lead.
Now, B2B marketers are realising they can no longer reside in the slow lane. With competition for the ears and eyes of B2B buyers increasingly fierce, capitalising on the time when a lead is most receptive has never been more important.
With many enterprises weighed down by cumbersome, inefficient systems for managing lead data, the need for speed is mounting. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen organisations who still rely on manual processes like spreadsheets to manage their lead data, and as a result, struggle to respond quickly enough to potential prospects – some taking weeks or even months. However, by automating and streamlining processes, and implementing interconnected systems, increasing the speed of a lead can take enterprises out of the ‘danger zone’ – whittling down follow-up to a matter of moments when the potential for engagement is at its highest. Businesses just need to know how to unlock this hidden marketing advantage.
Why speed is especially crucial today
According to the head of the IMF, the world faces an ever-increasing risk of a recession within the next 12 months. Alongside individuals taking a hard hit, enterprises are suffering too. On top of this, several countries, including the UK, have announced the withdrawal of fiscal support this year, relative to 2021.
With this in mind, the ability to capitalise on valid, high-quality leads is more important than ever before for marketers. Doubling down on the technology and processes that decrease the time it takes to follow up with a lead, will be critical in achieving business targets and turning what seems to be an uncertain future into a period of success.
The problem with speed in B2B
The issue with marketing operations now, is that many businesses are still relying on manual processes for data management. Despite the lengthy and inefficient process of using spreadsheets, many marketers still rely on these outdated methods. According to Salesmate, when employing marketing automation, 80% of marketers have witnessed an increase in leads, and 63% of companies outperformed their competitors. So why are manual processes still the norm? According to The Ultimate Marketing Automation statistics overview report by emailmonday, only 9% of professionals say they have invested enough time in all project phases of marketing tech, and 28% expressed they have a lack of understanding of the technology available. Consequently, resources are being wasted on manually processing leads, and with fluctuating and unpredictable trends and behaviours, this can be detrimental to company success.
How to make it better
Marketing Operations Managers (MOMs) need to start investing in their MarTech stacks in order to get ahead of their competition. According to Visitor Queue, 45% of organisations still don’t have a clearly defined digital marketing strategy. In addition to this, four-in-ten companies said that their top marketing objective was to increase lead generation. Instead of self-sabotaging and sticking with tools like Excel to manage lead data, marketers now have the option of using dedicated platforms to optimise their leads, improve lead flow and increase lead quality – all of which helps businesses achieve their marketing objectives.
A platform like Convertr can filter, enhance, normalise, and automatically route accurate and actionable prospect data. With Convertr, customer databases are protected from expensive, bad data and strengthened through the delivery of complete, high-value profiles that are accessible across the tech stack. Not only this, but solutions like Convertr means marketers are better able to scale their demand program. Instead of processing leads manually once a day, they’re now delivered automatically, meaning hotter leads to clients.
Security is also a key factor. Instead of managing data in spreadsheets, it’s processed and delivered securely via an API, which minimises any data security risks. Marketers’ time is consequently freed up from menial tasks and can be reassigned to focus on more strategic efforts like campaign optimisation and customer service. In turn, this helps to improve campaign performance and drive revenue growth.
Ultimately, whether it’s B2B or B2C marketing, the success of campaigns and conversion into leads comes down to the same thing: speed. In today’s economic climate, the length of time it takes from generating leads to seeing results needs to be accelerated. By deploying platforms that ensure quick, secure, and automated processing and delivery of leads, MOMs can meet their strategic goals, eradicate invalid data and refocus their efforts towards value-add tasks.
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