Digitally Enhance Your Prospects

The fact is the world has changed and people are communicating in different ways. For a start due to the massive increase in the amount of information available in the public domain (i.e. the internet) the majority of people will be around 60% of the way to purchasing a product or service before they even speak to a potential supplier. And when they do reach out it will be in different and more diverse ways than before for example canvasing opinion via social media or posting questions on forums.

Digital marketing such as smart content, SEO and PPC are great methods to kick-start the process and take people from suspect to prospect. But now we’ve attracted them to our website what do we do to get them to the next stage and take them from being a prospect to a lead?

Stage two is to recognise the signs that a prospect is ready to buy e.g. have they been visiting your website, are they following you on social media have they visited you at an exhibition, are they posting comments and questions? Digital marketing may be a great method to attract prospects and capture these types of new interactions however to funnel these prospects into your pipeline you will need to apply the human touch…

By picking up the phone and engaging the prospect in a conversation you will quickly be able to gauge how serious the other person is about spending the money on your product or service. Don’t have the phone number? Social networks such as Linked In and Twitter can both be used to engage directly with a prospect either by private messaging or by nurturing the lead by providing them with more information. However the end goal should always be to have that personal one on one conversation either by phone or face to face.

By qualifying your prospects in this way and following up with a quick email you will also be able to gain their informed consent when it comes to keeping their details, perfect for the new EU Data Protection Regulations.

By qualifying out the time wasters and tyre kickers you can then concentrate your time and money nurturing those prospects who will become leads and full blown sales. This is something that is only possible if you talk directly with the prospect.

Remember the new EU Data Protection Regulations are designed to rid the market of cowboys indiscriminately cold calling people with irrelevant offers. Companies that use direct marketing responsibility, providing they adapt to the new rules, will be able to carry on using it to bridge the digital gap and convert virtual interest to tangible sales.

Yes there is a whiff of overkill on the new regulations and there are still some unanswered questions about how we deal with offshore providers. However anyone that complains too loudly about data protection is probably guilty of running mass unregulated, impersonal and irritating campaigns that cost thousands but return very little. Try the targeted and approach and see the difference.

Read our full Opt In or Lose Out article in our Knowledge Bank. Have any questions? Get in contact.