Sales lead

Good sales leads are the foundation for any lead generation strategy, one of the most frequently used strategies in digital marketing, especially among B2B companies.

For a lead generation strategy to be successful, it makes sense for there to be clarity and alignment around the definition of sales lead.

Unfortunately, too many organizations lack a clear definition that can be used across marketing and sales. There are even differences among the experts.

So you decide best definition for your business, here are 10 experts that give their definition of a good sales lead.

1. “A lead is a person who has provided at least some basic information that suggests a potential interest in buying from you.” – Dan Purvis, Head of Marketing Communication, Planet
2. “A lead is an unqualified contact. Any potential client or customer you meet that hasn’t been qualified as a prospect, is a lead. A prospect is a potential customer that has been qualified as fitting certain criteria.” – Mindy Lilyquist, Founder, Epiphany Marketing Management
3. “Lead – An individual who has provided contact information and, in doing so, pointed toward a potential sales opportunity.” – Matt Leap, HIPB2B
4. “An individual or company with an actionable need for a service or solution.” – Dan McCade, President and CEO, PointClear
5. “A lead is usually a person who just entered your marketing funnel. He may have filled out your online form. Or signed up to your program. Or clicked on your ad. A lead’s engagement is usually minimal. They just showed interest, but they aren’t that invested in your product or service yet. A prospect, on the other hand, is a person who has been exhibiting interest or showing ability to make a purchase. A prospect has been qualified by your sales team or your segmentation process.” – Will Cannon, Founder at UpLead
6. “RULE No. 1: A good lead is pre-qualified. RULE No. 2: A good lead is easy to convert into a customer. RULE No. 3: A good lead is easy to close. RULE No. 4: A good lead includes quantitative data.RULE No. 5: A good lead is measurable and measured.” – Geoffrey James, CBS News, Moneywatch
7. “Most salespeople define a sales lead as a person or business who fits the perfect customer profile of their company.  A qualified sales lead is a lead that has been validated and checked manually within your organization (or by a third party) as meeting the minimum attribute level of the customer profile. This task is usually carried out by the marketing team. A prospect is a person or organization that has expressed an interest in your product or service.” – Liz Fulham, Sales Optimize 
8. “A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a lead who has been deemed more likely to become a customer compared to other leads. This qualification is based on what web pages a person has visited, what they’ve downloaded, and similar engagement with the business’s content.” – Sam Kusnitz, HubSpot
9. “A sales qualified lead (SQL) is when the buyer has a defined project with budget and timeline established.” – Craig Rosenberg, Chief Analyst, TOPO,
10. “The point is: a “Lead” isn’t a sure thing. One of the dictionary definitions states that a lead is, “a slight or indirect pointing to something”. – Justin McGill, LeadFuze

Before your organization jumps into a lead generation initiative, make sure you have agreement on how you define a good sales lead. Do these definition help your consideration? Are you ready to begin?

Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is the result of consistently positive emotional experiences that includes the product or services where both work together to deliver superior value.

How much value does a loyal customer represent to a company? How does a company secure loyal customers?

Here are 40 facts that explain customer loyalty worth and how to make it work for your company.

What’s a loyal customer worth

1. Loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase.
2. The probability of selling to a new customer is 5-20 percent, while selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent.
3. 1 in 3 customers will pay more to receive a higher level of service. 
4. After the original purchase, the likelihood of a customer making a second purchase is close to 30%, and after they make a second purchase the likelihood of a third jumps past 50%.
5. Increasing customer retention by 2% can have the same impact as reducing costs by 10%.
6. Majority of a customer’s 365-day CLV is realized within the first 30 days as a customer. 65% is realized on day 1, and that grows to 79% by the three-month mark. 
7. The cost of bringing a new customer to the same level of profitability as an existing one is up to 16 times more.
8. Consumers spend up to 17% more with companies with excellent service.
9. Millennials are willing to spend up to 21% more with companies for great service.

How to make it work – Give special status, surprise them, offer something exclusive with an experience that exceeds their expectations

1. 92% of loyal customers rank price and value as the top driver for loyalty to specific retailers, followed by product/quality at 79% and variety/selection at 71%.
2. 91% of consumers would reward a brand for its authenticity, and 62% say they would either purchase a product from a brand they deem to be authentic or express greater interest in buying from that brand in the future.
3. 86% of Gen Xers and 85% of Baby Boomers would switch retailers immediately if customer service is poor.
4. 81% of consumers agree that loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with a brand.
5. 81% of U.S. consumers feel loyal to brands that are there when they need them, but otherwise, respect their time and leave them alone.
6. 80% of companies spend less than 30% of their time and budget on customer retention-focused messaging.
7. 75% of companies see a return on investment from their customer loyalty program.
8. 74% of Millennials would switch to a different retailer if they had poor customer service.
9. 73% of customer loyalty club members are more likely to recommend and say good things about brands with good loyalty programs.
10. 71% of shoppers say they would be more likely to use their loyalty cards if they could access these cards and rewards from their mobile phone.
11. 66% of Millennials indicate that they are more likely to shop from stores where they are part of a loyalty program.
12. 63% of U.S. consumers say they’d share more personal information with a company that offers a great experience.
13. 62% don’t believe that the brands they’re most loyal to are doing enough to reward them.
14. 61% of online shoppers chose receiving surprise perks and discounts as their preferred personalized experience
15. 59% of US online adults who are members of a customer loyalty program say that getting special offers that aren’t available to other customers is important to them.
16. 58% of adults don’t trust a brand until they have seen real world proof
17. 58% of customers join loyalty programs to save money and 38% to receive rewards.
18. 57% spend more on brands or providers to which they are loyal.
19. 56% of high-income consumers feel less loyal to brands now than they previously did.
20. 54% say they would consider increasing the amount of business they do with a company for a loyalty reward.
21. 51% of U.S. consumers are loyal to brands that interact with them through their preferred channels of communication.
22. 50% of consumers said they were willing to give a retailer a second and third chance, with 50% abandoning brand loyalty only after the same mistake was made more than twice.
23. 50% of U.S. consumers said they switched companies they buy from this year because of poor customer experience.
24. 48% say that the most critical time for a company to gain their loyalty was when they make their first purchase or begin service.
25. 42% of consumers distrust brands.
26. 41% of U.S. consumers say they ditched a company because of poor personalization and lack of trust. 
27. 39% higher basket size of a customer in company’s loyalty program than a customer that isn’t.
28. 37% of consumers trust brands less than they used to, compared to only 7% who trust brands more than they used to.
29. 29% of customers shop around, but ultimately repurchase from the same brand.
30. 13% of customers are loyalists, who don’t shop around.
31. The average U.S. household has enrolled in more than 18 customer loyalty programs, but is only active in 8.4.

Do these facts explain what customer loyalty is worth to you? Do they give you an idea of what your company should do? Are you ready to get started?

Digital trust is going through a meltdown.

What started as an age of opportunities where social channels and open sources platforms opened up publishing, networking and business building possibilities with real, human connections has evolved into a new age of privacy concerns, fake news, fake accounts, bots, unwanted solicitations and spam.

What can brands do about it? Take a more active role in the context where their messaging and ads appear. Monitor the audience being built. Manage and measure customer experience and rely on first-party, not third-party, data.

Here are 30 facts to explain the breakdown in digital trust.

1. 583 million fake accounts were identified on Facebook last year. Facebook says they removed them in the 1st Quarter of 2018 to try to improve digital trust.
2. Nearly 48 million Twitter accounts are bots.
3. 89% of consumers now read businesses’ responses to reviews to see if they should trust the business.
4. 86% of consumers prefer security over convenience.
5. 81% of Facebook users say that they have little to no confidence in Facebook to protect their data and privacy.
6. Yet, 77% of Facebook’s US monthly active users access the app on a daily basis, and this daily habit of hundreds of millions of Americans will be a difficult one to break. 
7. 77% of Americans believe mainstream media reports fake news.
8. 68% of Californians believe the tech industry is under-regulated and 69% of people who work in the tech industry in California say their companies could increase oversight to improve digital trust.
9. 66% of consumers trust Amazon to obey privacy laws; 62% trust Google to obey privacy laws and 41% trust Facebook to obey privacy laws.
10. 66% drop in trust for Facebook since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
11. 65% of consumers want Facebook to disclose how they use personal data they collect.
12. 62% of US adults get their news on social media.
13. 57% of consumers will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars.
14. 56% of Americans trust Facebook the least of any major tech company with their personal information.
15. 54% of consumers believe organizations will sell their data.
16. 54% of B2B marketers say Facebook is their most important platform.
17. 48% of consumers have stopped using the services of at least one organization due to a data breach and breakdown in digital trust.
18. 44% of the general population gets news from Facebook.
19. 44% of Facebook users say they recently changed their privacy settings on Facebook, and were sharing less with friends and followers. 80% say it’s due to negative stories about Facebook and privacy.
20. 43% of Californians trust cannabis growers more than social media companies which only 33% of Californians trust.
21. 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year.
22. 32% of consumers say a good thing about Facebook is that it is the best way to remember birthdays.
23. 31% believe mainstream media reports fake news regularly.
24. 30% of marketers think Facebook offers the highest digital ad ROI.
25. Only 24% of U.S. internet users think Facebook will do enough to protect privacy in the future,
26. 18% of US adults get news for social media often.
27. Only 6% of US internet users say they trust media and entertainment companies.
28. Only 6% say they trust social media.
29. Only 3% say they trust marketing and advertising firms.
30. Facebook ad revenue has increased 2X in last 3 years.

Do these facts explain the breakdown in digital trust? Could your company be doing something to improve digital trust with your audience?

• Digital ads are now blocked by 200 million people worldwide
• Lost revenue from ad blocking is estimated at 22 billion dollars
• Advertisers lose 7.2 billion dollars in digital ad revenue to bots
• 68% of marketers and agencies expect to see digital ad spend increase this year

Do the companies who pour more money into digital ads know less people are watching? And if they knew, do you think they might do something?

See if these statistics mirror your behaviors. Here are 30 straightforward facts why we are fed up with digital ads.

1. 083% of people say “not all ads are bad but I want to filter out the really obnoxious ones.”
2. 82% of people have closed a web page because of an autoplaying video ad.
3. 81% of consumers have closed a web page because of a pop-up.
4. 79% of people feel they are being tracked by ads.
5. 77% of people wish there was a way to ad filter instead of ad block completely.
6. 73% of people disapprove of pop-up ads.
7. 71% of people believe digital ads are more intrusive now than they were three years ago.
8. 63% of people say “most ads I see online don’t look polished or professional.”
9. 60% of online traffic is comprised of bots.
10. 57% of people say their pet peeve with digital ads are pop-ups that obstruct content.
11. 56% of consumers say “most ads are insulting to my intelligence.”
12. 51% of people use ad blockers because too many ads are annoying or irrelevant.
13. 50% of people use ad blocker because there are too many ads on the internet.
14. 50% of viewers are irritated by ads that take up the entire screen.
15. 51% of people think less of brands that use autoplaying video ads.
16. 51% of consumers believe websites should host fewer ads.
17. 50% of people use ad blocker because there are too many ads on the internet.
18. 50% of video ads aren’t seen by a real person.
19. 47% use ad blockers because ads are too intrusive.
20. 44% of internet users cite two ads as the limit for a website.
21. 42% of consumers are annoyed by pop-ups that interrupt their shopping experience on retail sites.
22. 40% use ad blockers because ads take up too much screen space.
23. 37% use ad blockers to speed up page loading time.
24. 36% of people would never visit a website or app again if it crashed.
25. 15% of people say “the ad tricked me into clicking.”
26. Only 9.3 and 7.5 percent of consultants and freelancers said PPC and social media advertising were effective ways to get new clients. 
27. Only 8% of display ads are viewable by real people.
28. 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on display ads.
29. Only 6% of people like ads that re-target them ay digital ads are more intrusive now than they were three years ago.
30. The average person is served over 1,700 banner ads per month but only half of them are ever viewed.

Does this sound like you? Do you think companies will start producing better ads or will there be better filters to weed out the one that offend us?

Does you company need help creating a better ad experience?

Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing your potential customer base into subgroups based on a common set of characteristics such as behavior, psychographics, demographics, and customer type. 

It is an essential marketing discipline to find the customers who are looking and most need the products or services your company sells. To maximize the business value of audience segmentation, it is best to establish segmentation based on financial goals such as profits, sales, annual customer value or customer lifetime value.

The internet has made audience segmentation tools available that are accessible, trusted and often free to any business with a website.

Here are the 6 best audience segmentation tools to find customers that need you most.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the most widely used web analytics tool in the world and it’s free to anyone who owns a website. It’s designed for audience segmentation as the “add segment” tab is on every page. Segments can be build based on Users (New, Returning, Traffic Sources), Demographics, Geography, Device and Conversion Behavior. Google Analytics has Smart Goals where machine learning is used to examine dozens of signals about your website sessions to determine which of those are most likely to result in a conversion.

Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics was founded in 2008 by Neil Patel. It is highly ranked with a key difference vs Google Analytics in that it tracks people’s actions vs their page view behaviors. Kissmetric is an audience segmentation tool for marketers who are clear about their conversions. Kissmetric offers conversions funnels, A/B testing and can be integrated with popular ecommerce and email platforms. It’s very good for communication testing. Kissmetrics is for internet marketers likely to be focused on ecommerce. Kissmetrics has a 14-free trial with pricing that starts at $400/month.

Segment

Segment collects your customer data in one place and sends it anywhere.
This is helpful for organizations that want to enforce the same data standard across their enterprise. You can then power all your apps with the same data. Using this customer segmentation tool, you can even query your data in SQL for the most convenient experience. Segment also offers Personas, a new product built on the Segment platform. With Personas, you can make sense of your customer data and use it to deliver personal experiences throughout the customer journey. Segment’s pricing is similar to Kissmetrics.

Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO has a straightforward interface that any novice could dive into. This audience segmentation tool tracks visitors to your website and displays reports describing who they are and how they behave. The reports gathered using this tool demonstrate a better understanding of your audience. They are especially effective for a company that is looking to quickly be able to look and compare multiple websites. Piwik PRO is a good audience segmentation tool to consider if you’re experiencing reporting limitations with Google Analytics.

Optimove

Optimove is a Science-first Relationship Marketing Hub headquartered in Israel. It is used by hundreds of customer-centric businesses to drive measurable growth by scaling customer engagement. Optimove combines the art of marketing with the science of data to autonomously generate actionable insight, empowering marketers to deliver highly-effective personalized CRM campaigns across multiple channels. Audience segmentation is taken to an level of “emotionally-intelligent” communication that helps marketers maximize customer spend, engagement, retention and lifetime value.

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics creates a holistic view of your business to truly understand your customer’s journey on the web. Forrester reports Adobe Analytics as the leader in customer analytics last year. Adobe Analytics Cloud allows you to closely track your digital marketing campaigns and their performances, recognize and create different types of data segments for remarketing, offer a customized shopping experience to your site visitors, and works with bare-minimum data latency, particularly during the periods of peak traffic activity. Adobe Analytics Cloud also connects to a wide range of native and 3^rd party tools to easily bring in 3^rd party data to the tool.  Adobe Analytics is an enterprise tool with pricing for a license that ranges from $30,000 to $300,000 a year.

No business should pursue marketing without audience segmentation. With this range of audience segmentation tools to meet the needs of any business, there is no reason not to.

Does your business need further dialogue on audience segmentation?