Lead Analysis: Knowing When Your Leads Are Ready

Lead analysis: your secret weapon to closing more sales

Congratulations! You have a lead.

While you might think that you’ve reached the finish line in your marketing marathon (yes, it’s not a sprint), you’re only at the first pit stop. It’s what you do with a lead from this point onward that will determine whether they become a customer, or simply scurry off to your competitor.

The modern marketer – with the help of smart analytics tools – has the power to gain more in-depth information about prospective customers than ever before. And if you’re not using this information to tailor your lead’s experience with your brand, you’re behind the curve.

Enter lead analysis.

By gathering and dissecting the data from your leads, you have the ability to offer more than a one-size-fits-all service; you can provide a personalised, valuable experience.

The better your lead management, the better your data

In order for you to effectively manage your leads, there needs to be a synchronicity between your sales and marketing teams.

However, effectively bringing sales and marketing together calls for a solid strategy. You need to determine what a sales qualified lead is.

A clear definition better enables you to determine the quality of a lead as they travel along the buyer’s journey, and subsequently, dictates what content you can provide them with and how the different teams deal with them.

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A lead’s interaction with your brand at any stage of the nurturing process is an invaluable part of lead analysis. The more data you collect about them through these interactions, the easier it is to qualify a lead.

Keep in mind, though, that you’ll only be able to get the data you need if you are adding value through your online lead generation. The harder you push your product or service, the more tempting the unsubscribe button becomes.

Lead scoring is the sharpest tool in your marketer’s toolkit

Think of this process as separating the the wheat from the chaff. Why put in the time and resources to keep on pursuing a lead that really isn’t interested? Marketing automation software enables you to assign a score to each lead at each stage of the buyer journey.

With this information in hand, you can focus your efforts on those prospects that have showed a keen interest in your product rather than chasing someone who isn’t interested or ready to buy yet.

Lead scoring also allows you to determine when and why prospective customers are dropping off the automation journey. See this as an opportunity rather than a hindrance; this data can tell you how your campaign is faring and how your lead is responding to it.

Crucial factors that need to be considered as part of your lead analysis:

Lead Demographics
You can garner data about lead demographics by posing related questions on your landing pages, along with other marketing offers. Use this data to help you determine whether or not the lead fits into your target market and if they are likely to convert along the buyer journey.

Email Engagement
The open and click-through rates of your email communications can provide you with an accurate impression of how a lead engages with your messaging and campaigns.

Online Behaviour
The amount of time a lead spends on a page – more specifically service and product pages – can indicate that they are ready to move over to sales.

Observe and analyse
While all of the above mentioned factors help provide valuable data in the lead analysis process, you can add even more depth by conducting your own research.

Investigate your marketing and sales efforts to give you a clear overview of which efforts resulted in the most converted leads. Try to follow their journey from first contact to sale and use these insights to formulate an accurate overview of your lead analysis.

You’re not happy with the quality of your leads, so what now?

As with everything in inbound marketing: analyse, optimise, test, test, and test again.

A good starting point is to look at your campaigns and determine whether you might be targeting the wrong persona, or if your messaging isn’t properly aligned.

Looking for some more insights into lead analysis?

Download our Lead Generation Toolkit to help you boost your lead generation and management efforts.