Lead Contact Methods Becoming Increasingly More Complicated
Contacting sales leads used to be easy. You could email them, call them, or mail them a letter—and there was an excellent chance that one of these three contact methods would connect you to the actual person. While these three methods of contact are still the most effective, many new ways to personally interact with leads have appeared in the past few years.
Let’s face it, today different people prefer different methods of contact—and the available choices grow daily. Increasing lead conversions are more and more reliant upon finding a viable conduit to communicate with engineers. Here are just a few of the new ways innovative electronics companies are successfully connecting to sales leads today:
- Twitter: I’m a recent Twitter convert and I’m overwhelmed by the people’s responsiveness to Twitter direct messages. Now this requires that you follow your lead and your lead chooses to follow you. Today this is accomplished largely because someone Tweets about a brand, that company connects to the user, and starts a conversation.
- LinkedIn (and similar professional networking sites): More and more companies are qualifying leads by finding their LinkedIn profile and contacting them directly through LinkedIn’s InMail feature.
- Text Messaging: As more and more engineers become dependent upon their mobile phones, text messaging is becoming a more accepted method of marketing to a small segment of users. Primarily used to have prospects text you about special offers in ads, this is growing into a two-way communication tool with sales prospects.
- Instant Messaging: Another instant contact platform preferred by a small number of users. Currently requires the sales lead to volunteer their IM nickname or to initiate contact with you via a promoted IM nickname.
- Web site chat: More and more sites are integrating customer service chat into their sites. Originally these chats were a passive feature that required a user to initiate contact. Some sites are able to proactively offer users assistance based upon that users behavior via chat.
As these methods of reaching users become more commonplace, the questions become:
- What optional (and required) forms of communication should be included on Web site registration forms?
- How much control should a user have in selecting a primary method of contact?
- Is email really the best default sales lead contact communication method today?
Next month, TechInsights will add an optional field to the TechOnline registration and preferences pages allowing engineers to add their LinkedIn profile URLs. Eventually, this information will become available in TechInsights lead reports. Are there other additions you would like to see to contact information in future TechInsights lead reports?
I’ve formed the TechInsights’ Lead Generation Advisory Group (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1960076) on LinkedIn to discuss this and other questions with interested electronics marketing professionals. If you are interested in exchanging ideas and sharing best practices around electronics lead generation and reporting, I invite you to join the group!
{ Recent Comments }