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By Rahul Khosla, Partner, eDynamic
This blog is targeted towards B2B Technology marketers interested in
understanding how traffic is converted to leads
Yes, “M&Ms” as in Meaningful and Memorable moments…well, candy works just as
well in acquiring new customers, as Credit Card marketers using airport kiosks
would attest…It certainly does work with me, and my love for the humble treat
led me to coin the term for the web…
Most website marketers put lot of effort into driving traffic and bringing users
to their content, but the Conversion Strategy is quite often poor – they miss
out on two things which are critical to getting customers:
1. They do not create Meaningful and Memorable moments
where credibility is built, prospects engage with the product and the brand and
convert into high quality leads.
2. They do not seize the moment and tip prospects to leads when the
Prospect has an M&M
A combination of Content Management, Analytics and Marketing Automation allows
marketers to profile users and personalize messages to
create M&M moments
Before I get into explaining how M&M moments occur, let’s take a look at how
this fits into the buying process to understand why this is important.
Research and Compare -> Value Proposition -> Prospect Engagement ->
Purchase-> Customer Engagement
M&M moments are created during the Research-and-Compare and Value
Proposition phase of the buying lifecycle that moves a prospect into the
Prospect Engagement phase of the buying lifecycle. Once your product is in
consideration by the prospect, you’ve got to be on your game – It’s
during this stage that the business needs to enhance the product’s value
proposition through sales and marketing strategies.
Understanding who the prospect is, and providing relevant information at the
right step in the buying process, will allow you to engage the prospect and
convert the prospect to a lead or help him make a purchase.
So how do you give out M&Ms? It’s a combination of things really, but
encompassed in a simple statement:
Get the right message to the right user at the right time
The right user
The ability to profile a user is the first step in targeting messages to the
user.
Creating ‘User Personas’ will allow you to understand what different users are
looking for.‘User Profiling’ is a mechanism used by website technologies like
Content Management Systems and Analytics Software to segregate user groups and
target them with relevant messages. One of our Content Management partners,
Sitecore, provides an online marketing suite that allows marketers to
profile the users who visit their site. You can read more about the product
here.: http://www.sitecore.net/en/Products/Sitecore-Online-Marketing-Suite.aspx
Website content structure: you can use the content structure on your website to
guide the user down a defined path.
Examples:
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B2B electronics sites such as Lenovo allow users to select which business type
they belong to, home, small, enterprise, etc., and provide relevant content
based on the type of user they are.
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Amazon suggests ‘you might be interested in’ products that are aligned with
usage patterns on the site
The right message
When a user is looking for, or perhaps considering, a product, the appropriate
message can turn that user into lead. B2B marketers use case studies, video
testimonial and product demos to enhance the Value Proposition of the product.
So, how does giving the right message to the right user at the right time create
an M&M moment that tips a user to become a prospect (ie register on your
site to get more information of the product or engage with you)?
If you are able to capture the buyer’s interest when they are considering your
product, it will go a long way in closing the sale.
Example:
1. If a user is on the product page of a software product site such as that of
Microsoft Sharepoint, offering video testimonials, demos and whitepapers on the
product will help enhance the value proposition of product
The right time
What’s true in life is true in converting traffic to leads: timing is
everything. Getting the appropriate message to the user at the right time to
either create an M&M moment or tip the user over to become a lead is
important.
Here’s how you do it…
Information Architecture design process - During the design process, scenarios
and use cases are used to create user flows that allow you engineer website
processes that are efficient and target appropriate messaging at appropriate
steps
Personalized messages – Content management systems allow you to deliver dynamic
personalized messages to users based on the path taken through the site. The
URL for Sitecore provides details on how CMS’s accomplish this.
Examples:
The Salesfoce.com website has targeted messaging to get traffic to convert to
leads across the site..Request demo, free trial and Contact me are examples of
messaging used to convert prospects to leads.
So if you’ve targeted the right user with the right message at the right time,
you have understood the users needs, created credibility and emotional linkage
for your product, you would’ve created M&M moments for the prospect to want
to buy your product
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