No matter how good your lead generation strategies may be and how much statistical information you gather about sales patterns and click to purchase ratios you simply cannot sell products to a statistic and knowing all you can about your visitors and leads can make all the difference in turning potential customers into actual customers. Let’s take a look at just what we mean by lead identification as well as the ways in which you can begin to paint a valuable picture of who your website’s visitors really are as well as track them.
What is lead identification?
Lead identification, also known as prospect identification, involves the use of software that is designed specifically to facilitate the tracking of individual visitors to specific websites.
Why are such tools so useful?
Perhaps a simple example of lead identification in action is the easiest way to get across its vital role in lead generation. Let’s say at present your company is relying on the information gleaned from a contact form to paint a picture of your prospective client. This only gives you rather scant information. If you take advantage of a lead tracking tool, however, you should benefit from such additional knowledge as:
- Specific search terms used by your prospect to find your site
- How the prospect found your website
- The pages they spent time on while browsing your site
- If you have any other prospects from the same location / area
- Where your website visitors work
- Details of the business sector, size, head office location
In terms of practical application these pieces of the prospect puzzle provide a vital starting point for a follow-up call or email, allowing you to tailor your service to better suit your prospect’s needs. You can pre-emptively make calls to a potential lead’s office armed with this valuable information and attempt to make a conversion with a proactive approach or, if you prefer the waiting game then you can wait, retaining the lead information in order to better approach meetings and communications in the future.
Lateral thinking
Of course, armed with information like which search terms prospects used to find your website you can simply take that information and apply it to dialogue with the lead, but that would be missing a trick. Such information can be clustered and used to help shape the content of your site. For instance, you can collate the most popular search terms and ensure that your site is populated with a decent sprinkling of articles or other content that includes said terms. This is a great example how lead generation strategy must be malleable and each tool can enhance the efficacy of the other.
How do these tools work?
Taking Lead Forensics as an example, their tool utilises a system that tracks works IP addresses, by taking advantage of an incredibly accurate and constantly modified and updated database, which sets it apart from the competition. It doesn’t go quite as far as revealing the identification of the specific individual within a company who accessed your site (that would be taking the spy game one step too far!) but it is incredibly revealing nonetheless. You even have the option to set up triggers that will mean you are alerted by email when you receive a visit from someone from within a specific company.
Social Media
It would be naïve to assume that all searches and research surrounding your company happens on your website, or on search engines. Twitter, for instance is increasingly used as a source of information about prospective services and their reputations. This is interesting especially in the light of the findings Google and CEB research, which illustrated that a prospect will conduct around 57% of their research before ever talking to a sales rep. Thus, social media targeting (especially Twitter) can be vital. Twitter actually benefits from an unbelievably exacting advanced search tool. You can tailor any search to become location specific and matching a precise phrase, which can be absolutely key in finding leads that require your services. The real win however comes from the fact that you can ask Twitter to find tweets matching a desired tone! For example you can search only for tweets that are questions; only for positive comments or only for negative comments. There are of course certain teething problems for what is a remarkably futuristic feature, but for a FREE piece of software it is phenomenally informative. AND, of course, you have the option to follow and interact with potential leads on the spot.
In closing…
There are so many tools available for the company looking to track its leads but these tools really come into their own as part of a comprehensive and responsible lead generation strategy. Nobody likes to feel hounded and so it makes great sense from a PR and business perspective to use this information with the sensitivity you would like to be afforded yourself.