Vishnu Prasad via Unsplash
It’s happening again. Your sales team is only focusing on closing deals that are in the pipeline and being super selective on which leads they pursue. (As in they only concentrate on leads they think they can close this year.) It’s all about the quick close that will bolster year-end numbers. So where does this leave you, Revenue Marketer?
Most likely in a reactive, incredibly busy state. There are plenty of end of year initiatives you should be doing to help out your friends in sales and ensure the organization finishes strong. AND you should be focused on positioning the organization for success in the coming year by refilling the top of the funnel. This is an extra sweet gift you can bestow your sales team for the start of the new year.
How? Here are four things to think about when filling the top of your funnel at this time of year. Chances are there’s something new for you to try.
Accelerate Leads
First and foremost don’t hold qualified leads. If you happen to attract a late-stage buyer who fits your ICP (ideal customer profile), make sure you get him or her into the sales journey pronto.
To ensure qualified leads, tighten up lead scoring so it weeds out early stage buyers and matches your ICP. This action alone may produce the deal that meets the quarter and the year. And you and your team get your full bonus just in time for the holidays.
Optimize Your Website
Despite all the hype around hyper-targeted, outbound marketing, your website is still the be all and end all when it comes to producing the best quality demand. With this in mind, make sure you have an optimized site to attract and harvest the leads who are visiting your site.
Try one of these today:
- Connecting a web offer to trigger a nurture stream,
- Shorten your forms (and finally implement progressive profiling),
- Team up with your SDR’s to implement a real-time chat on your website for the end of the year and/or fine-tune your existing Drift plays.
Shake Up Your Content
We all know that content is king (blah, blah), AND we also know that content takes time! And with your marketing, content, product and sales team maxed out, time is not your friend. Take a look at both your top and underperforming content. (Not sure how? Ask me via my email below.) Once you see what’s working and not working, make some quick decisions on how you can test the content over the next couple of weeks.
Look for quick ways to optimize your content. And don’t be afraid to shake it up: reposition it in your current nurture program or place it in a different nurture program, make it available in a different channel, and maybe most telling, mix up the format. Perhaps it’s a great asset, but the experience isn’t cutting it.
Think Omni Channel
Take a page out of the retailer playbook. Why not? The end of the year seems to be their time to shine. Here are two things to consider.
First, use all your (appropriate) channels. Email and web alone are not enough. Add SEM/PPC to the digital channel mix. Try a social campaign. Tap into your PR or customer support teams to spread the word.
Multi-channel. Check. Now, please promise you won’t waste your time with random messages across your channels. This won’t cut it. The second thing to consider is how you orchestrate your messages across channels to tell a consistent, supported story that will educate and guide your prospects through their buying journey. Ideally this journey ends with your sales team closing a first quarter deal.
TIP: Adbridge (Marketo) is your friend! (Again, not sure why, just ask us.)
Remember you can have the best MarTech stack, nurture programs, and best-looking website in the B2B world, but if you can’t fill the top of your funnel with the right leads to engage with, you will never meet your ever-increasing revenue targets. And all the joy of any type of holiday break will be gone in an instant.
Demand Spring’s team of Revenue Marketing experts ensure you have a predictable lead flow feeding your Revenue Marketing Programs. Reach out to see how we can help. We want to ensure that work isn’t one thing that’s keeping you from having a happy holiday.
The post Four tips for Revenue Marketers to start the new year with a full pipeline. appeared first on Demand Spring.
