How to Gather and Better Use Lead Intelligence
A few years ago, “Big Data” was one of the top queries in Google search.
The funny thing is, most people understood what big data was, but didn’t do anything about it.
It’s time B2B companies start leaning on both primary and third-party data to better understand who's interested in them and get more proactive in using that newfound intelligence.
Here are some tools that will help give you and your team a better glimpse into the users on your website. And what you can do about it.
Lead Insight Tools for B2B Companies
There are a number of lead insight tools available on the market today.
The main point of the software is simple: to detect the companies that are visiting your website. It leans on a combination of website tracking, IP address information, and third-party data.
A lead insights tool should be an essential piece of any business’ marketing software stack.
The reason is that other reporting tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, etc., only show aggregate, anonymous data. They’ll prevent you from seeing anything that might even hint at the identification of an individual user. Thus, the reason why lead insight tools exist.
A lead insight tool should be meant to complement other website reporting tools and other marketing software that you’re already using.
Here’s What Lead Intelligence Lets You See
In Google, you can see a lot of valuable information.
This includes source/medium (where users are coming from), events (different types of clicks or actions visitors perform), goals (conversions), and many other things in between.
But the fact of the matter is, even the really great websites of really great B2B brands still see conversion rates below 5%. That means marketers have no idea who the other 95% of companies are on their website!
Lead Insight tools fill in that gap and provide that data.
You’ll be able to see a whole bunch of information beyond what Google Analytics displays:
Okay. You have all this great data! Now what?
Data is just data unless you do something with it. That’s where marketing steps in.
There are a few ways to utilize this new lead information.
Heatmapping
You’re able to get more out of your heatmapping tool by pairing it up with a lead insight tool.
Heatmapping software analyzes visitors on your site and recognizes patterns - how they scroll, where they hover, and what they click on. Takeaways might be changing the length of your page, where content should be placed, how images should be showcased, what links should exist in navigation, etc.
These tools allow screen recordings too.
By looking at your lead insight tool, and lining it up against the date and timestamp of the screen recording, you'll have a full view of that visitors’ session on your site. You’ll know how they arrived, how they scrolled, what they read, and what page prompted them to exit.
Use this intel to improve your website and better prepare your lead outreach.
CRM Integration
Some lead insight tools allow you to integrate their information directly into your customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
The company info that’s identified will automatically open up a new opportunity and create and store all that company’s data in the system.
In doing so, when that sales process does officially begin, you’ll have a backlog of website activity that can help you better understand that buyer’s wants and needs.
Whether you’re using Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot, or Sugar, having this supported information stored directly in one database is incredibly beneficial.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
I imagine you’re using a sales prospecting tool like LinkedIn. By looking at the company/contact info identified in your lead insight tool, you can now research and make contact with highly relevant folks on LinkedIn.
Find the appropriate person or people who visited your site and draw up a connection request. Make sure it’s personalized. Let them know that you know who they are.
You might need LinkedIn Sales Navigator (paid service) to explore and drill down your search before finding the right match. But it’s helpful so you can get connecting to the right people.
This connection bridges the gap - human to human - and gets you one step closer towards the sale.
Email Automation
If the visitor came to your site but didn’t convert, that means they’re somewhat of a warm lead. Not cold - they clearly were in learning, researching, or maybe even in consideration mode. But they’re certainly not hot, as they didn’t complete a form or make a direct phone call.
It’s best to stay in touch with that contact and nurture them until they’re ready to buy.
Lead insight tools can integrate with marketing automation tools to automatically add customer/company data into those systems and enroll them into email or text message drip campaigns. That way, you can help your brand stay top of mind. It will ultimately encourage them - when ready - to pull the trigger on buying.
Remarketing
Remarketing ads are ads served on third-party websites to a particular group of people (i.e. folks who have visited your website). It’s a deliberate attempt to bring them back to close the deal.
Now, you can’t create an ad and expect ad platforms to serve that one ad to just one particular company. Google, Facebook, and other ad providers won't allow that.
However, you can lean on that lead insight data (like popular industries, or most visited pages, etc) to identify what these companies are like, what they are looking at, and why they might be abandoning the site before converting.
Analyze that data and create your remarketing display ads with creative (visuals) and messaging (copy) that will resonate best with them and bring them back to complete the sale.
Getting Started
Like anything in marketing, it’s always best to start with a plan.
What are your marketing and sales goals? Who is your target customer? What data are you interested in capturing, and what are you going to do with it?
Make sure a larger strategy is built first. In doing so, you’ll be able to better fit lead intelligence into the mix and properly allocate the right time, resources, and budget towards marketing activity that will help turn that loose, raw data into actual, real sales.
Site-Seeker has been a top digital marketing agency in Central New York for almost 20 years, specializing in custom online marketing solutions for clients all over the United States. We help businesses advance in the digital age using our tools, talent and technology. For more information, contact Tom Armitage, Senior Digital Marketing Team Lead at Site-Seeker.com.
The funny thing is, most people understood what big data was, but didn’t do anything about it.
It’s time B2B companies start leaning on both primary and third-party data to better understand who's interested in them and get more proactive in using that newfound intelligence.
Here are some tools that will help give you and your team a better glimpse into the users on your website. And what you can do about it.
Lead Insight Tools for B2B Companies
There are a number of lead insight tools available on the market today.
The main point of the software is simple: to detect the companies that are visiting your website. It leans on a combination of website tracking, IP address information, and third-party data.
A lead insights tool should be an essential piece of any business’ marketing software stack.
The reason is that other reporting tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, etc., only show aggregate, anonymous data. They’ll prevent you from seeing anything that might even hint at the identification of an individual user. Thus, the reason why lead insight tools exist.
A lead insight tool should be meant to complement other website reporting tools and other marketing software that you’re already using.
Here’s What Lead Intelligence Lets You See
In Google, you can see a lot of valuable information.
This includes source/medium (where users are coming from), events (different types of clicks or actions visitors perform), goals (conversions), and many other things in between.
But the fact of the matter is, even the really great websites of really great B2B brands still see conversion rates below 5%. That means marketers have no idea who the other 95% of companies are on their website!
Lead Insight tools fill in that gap and provide that data.
You’ll be able to see a whole bunch of information beyond what Google Analytics displays:
- Time/date of each session
- Company name
- Company location
- Company size
- Company description
- Company website
- The company’s industry
- # of pages visited
- # of total visits
- Individual URL/pages visited
- Source/medium
- And finally, a best guess at the actual individual(s) on the site!
Okay. You have all this great data! Now what?
Data is just data unless you do something with it. That’s where marketing steps in.
There are a few ways to utilize this new lead information.
Heatmapping
You’re able to get more out of your heatmapping tool by pairing it up with a lead insight tool.
Heatmapping software analyzes visitors on your site and recognizes patterns - how they scroll, where they hover, and what they click on. Takeaways might be changing the length of your page, where content should be placed, how images should be showcased, what links should exist in navigation, etc.
These tools allow screen recordings too.
By looking at your lead insight tool, and lining it up against the date and timestamp of the screen recording, you'll have a full view of that visitors’ session on your site. You’ll know how they arrived, how they scrolled, what they read, and what page prompted them to exit.
Use this intel to improve your website and better prepare your lead outreach.
CRM Integration
Some lead insight tools allow you to integrate their information directly into your customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
The company info that’s identified will automatically open up a new opportunity and create and store all that company’s data in the system.
In doing so, when that sales process does officially begin, you’ll have a backlog of website activity that can help you better understand that buyer’s wants and needs.
Whether you’re using Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot, or Sugar, having this supported information stored directly in one database is incredibly beneficial.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
I imagine you’re using a sales prospecting tool like LinkedIn. By looking at the company/contact info identified in your lead insight tool, you can now research and make contact with highly relevant folks on LinkedIn.
Find the appropriate person or people who visited your site and draw up a connection request. Make sure it’s personalized. Let them know that you know who they are.
You might need LinkedIn Sales Navigator (paid service) to explore and drill down your search before finding the right match. But it’s helpful so you can get connecting to the right people.
This connection bridges the gap - human to human - and gets you one step closer towards the sale.
Email Automation
If the visitor came to your site but didn’t convert, that means they’re somewhat of a warm lead. Not cold - they clearly were in learning, researching, or maybe even in consideration mode. But they’re certainly not hot, as they didn’t complete a form or make a direct phone call.
It’s best to stay in touch with that contact and nurture them until they’re ready to buy.
Lead insight tools can integrate with marketing automation tools to automatically add customer/company data into those systems and enroll them into email or text message drip campaigns. That way, you can help your brand stay top of mind. It will ultimately encourage them - when ready - to pull the trigger on buying.
Remarketing
Remarketing ads are ads served on third-party websites to a particular group of people (i.e. folks who have visited your website). It’s a deliberate attempt to bring them back to close the deal.
Now, you can’t create an ad and expect ad platforms to serve that one ad to just one particular company. Google, Facebook, and other ad providers won't allow that.
However, you can lean on that lead insight data (like popular industries, or most visited pages, etc) to identify what these companies are like, what they are looking at, and why they might be abandoning the site before converting.
Analyze that data and create your remarketing display ads with creative (visuals) and messaging (copy) that will resonate best with them and bring them back to complete the sale.
Getting Started
Like anything in marketing, it’s always best to start with a plan.
What are your marketing and sales goals? Who is your target customer? What data are you interested in capturing, and what are you going to do with it?
Make sure a larger strategy is built first. In doing so, you’ll be able to better fit lead intelligence into the mix and properly allocate the right time, resources, and budget towards marketing activity that will help turn that loose, raw data into actual, real sales.
Site-Seeker has been a top digital marketing agency in Central New York for almost 20 years, specializing in custom online marketing solutions for clients all over the United States. We help businesses advance in the digital age using our tools, talent and technology. For more information, contact Tom Armitage, Senior Digital Marketing Team Lead at Site-Seeker.com.