Lead Gen: Where's the Conversion?
By: Nick Burke
When it comes to lead generation it, of course, all boils down to conversion. You may gain leads from any number of media sources, but how many do you convert, and how do the sources stack up against each other?
In a recent conversation with one of our Demand Generation friends, I had this exact conversation:
"I have never used your site before, and have had some bad experiences", she relayed, "For instance 'BroadTechBullseye' (we hide the name to protect the innocent?) had a trade event that they promised was very high-level and we got there and met a great number of high-level prospects. We thought 'This is great. They came through.' We had VPs, CIO's etc. All very high-level. What we found out after talking to these prospects was that they did not have the slightest interest in our product, and we were left wondering why they came to the event in the first place."
She went on to say, in reference to conversion, that it was a total bust, and her group wasted a significant amount of money.
This is not the first I had heard of a situation like this, and it won't be the last. I am sure many of you have run into this issue where leads were of less than stellar quality.
What's the solution?
Well, first, there is no silver bullet. As we all know, there are many factors involved in effective conversion, and we don't claim to know the perfect answer. But we know through experience that it helps to:
START WITH THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
A couple of thoughts toward reaching this goal:
¢ Reach prospects in their community. Steve Katz, the purported 1st CISO, said in a recent interview that new information security professionals should be aware of not only the technology involved in a project, but also the people and the business process to be effective. Banks want vendor partners that know banking and the roles within banking, as well as technology. Lead Generation within the target community lets the prospect know you are involved in their industry.
¢ Reach prospects in context. Make sure that the medium you use is familiar with the current concerns of the industry. Are they talking about what is of greatest concern to banking information security decision makers? Do they know the challenges these particular executives face? What regulations affect this group? Are they focused or all over the place? Lead Generation along side deep contextual editorial that addresses these questions lends credibility to your brand and will enhance your response rate.
