‘The New Rules of Lead Generation’

Marketers know what lead generation is, but too many of them don’t know how to do it well, especially with the landscape quickly evolving. That’s why Dave Scott, CEO and founder of Marketfish, decided to literally write the book on lead generation, “The New Rules of Lead Generation: Proven Strategies to Maximize Marketing ROI.”

We interviewed Scott about the book and the lead-generation industry in general. Read on to find out the hardest part of writing the book, the importance and effectiveness of social media ads, the seven most successful lead-gen tactics, and his emphatic exhortation for marketers.

Why did you write this book?
I’ve always been surprised by how little today’s marketers know about lead generation. Almost 90 percent of all companies use some kind of lead-generation marketing. And yet many marketers don’t know how to use lead-generation marketing to their advantage.

Most MBA programs focus on brand marketing and completely ignore lead-generation marketing, which is the “down and dirty” side of marketing. I got my MBA from an Ivy League school, but even my program never offered any courses on lead-generation marketing.

Most of today’s marketers learn lead-generation marketing on the job. As a marketing executive, I had to invent my own ways of doing effective lead-generation marketing and tracking the costs to keep my campaigns under budget. I wrote this book to provide those methods to other marketers.

What was the most difficult part of writing the book?
There were a few things. First, in the book, I talk about several levels of lead-generation strategy. At a high level, there’s management strategy, which is how you manage your organization’s lead-generation campaigns and how you calculate the costs of those campaigns. Then there’s tactical strategy, which is how you use individual lead-generation tactics like direct mail and email marketing. And then there’s integrated strategy, which is how you use two or more lead-generation tactics together as part of an integrated marketing campaign. In writing the book, I had to break down each of these levels of strategy to help marketers understand them and understand how to use them to achieve lead-generation success.

I also had to spend some time on the question of “What exactly is a lead?” Ultimately, a “lead” comes down to whatever action you want your customer to take as a result of your lead-generation efforts. For some companies, a “lead” is getting someone to “raise their hand” and say they’re interested in your products or services. For e-commerce companies, a “lead” is an actual sale. In “The New Rules,” I show marketers how to define a “lead” for each of their campaigns, based on their business needs and on what stage their customer is in in the buying cycle.

Finally, I had to make sure the book would not go out-of-date soon. So many marketing books become outdated very quickly because they focus on marketing tactics that go out of style in just a few years. But in “The New Rules,” I put more focus on strategies for lead generation and calculating your lead-generation costs. I give you a basic five-step tactical strategy that you can use with any lead-generation tactic. I think the strategies I give will still be relevant 10 years from now, even if the tactics we use change over time.

What have been the biggest changes in lead generation since you first started out in the industry?
When I started the book, social media wasn’t big. Now it’s become a legitimate lead-generation tactic that is here to stay.

Using social media for lead generation is tricky. For example, you don’t want to use your company Facebook page or Twitter feed for lead generation. This is because your Facebook fans or Twitter subscribers are usually people who have already bought products from you. So it’s like “preaching to the choir.”

But Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites allow you to post social media ads. These are banner ads that will appear on the Facebook or LinkedIn pages of people who are not already your customers but who have indicated that they may have an interest in your types of products or services. For example, if you post an ad for honeymoon travel packages on Facebook, it will appear on the pages of people who mark their status as “Engaged.” Social media ads are an effective form of lead-generation marketing.

Even Twitter is now offering “Promoted Tweets,” where you can attach a special offer to a Tweet, and it will appear in the Twitter feeds of people who are not already your subscribers but have an interest in your types of products. I had to devote two chapters in “The New Rules” to the subject of social media advertising — one chapter for advertising on sites like Facebook, and one chapter for advertising on Twitter.

What are the areas of the industry that need the most improvement?
Marketers need to learn how to “do the math.” They need to learn how to measure their marketing results, and how to keep track of their marketing spend and their ROI.

It amazes me how many marketers don’t keep track of their costs. They have no idea if their lead-generation efforts are making money or losing money for their company. For example, if your cost per lead (CPL) is $100 but your product sells for $50, you could be losing money to acquire customers, especially if your product is a one-time sale item. On the other hand, if your customer has a lifetime value — if, say, they’re going to buy a $50 product from you every month for several years — that $100 CPL you spent to acquire them could be very cost effective over time.

Many marketers argue that marketing isn’t measurable, but it is and should be. Lead-generation marketing is very quantifiable, because it’s more about how many leads you acquire and how much you spend, and less about creativity and emotional impact. In “The New Rules,” I give specific strategies for calculating your lead-generation costs and determining your ROI.

What are the most successful lead-gen tactics today? Which one excites you the most?
In the book, I explore the seven most successful lead-generation tactics. These tactics are the best at providing large numbers of leads to companies. They are: 1) search engine marketing; 2) social media advertising; 3) display advertising (or banner ads); 4) email marketing; 5) direct mail; 6) cold calling; and 7) trade shows.

In “The New Rules,” I devote one chapter to each of these tactics and explore how to use each of them successfully. (Well, two chapters in the case of social media.) I recommend that you test each of the seven tactics and use the ones that work best for your company, whether that is one, two or all seven tactics at once.

Right now I’m intrigued most by the possibilities of social media advertising. In the book, I write about social advertising as it is today, but there are new types of social advertising in the works. I don’t think people have found the right formula to really make it work (especially for B2B businesses), but I think it’s right around the corner.

What are the most important trends marketers should be paying attention to, and how can they apply them?
New marketing tactics are being invented daily, but none of the old tactics are going away. For instance, we love Pinterest, but direct marketing still works better in terms of bringing in leads. I just went to a marketing trade show where call centers were the hot topic, so cold calling is coming back into style.

You have to be careful about taking on new marketing trends. Each time you adopt a new marketing tactic, you should test that tactic to find out if it’s really more effective than the tactics you’re using now. It may be that the old tactics are still more effective. For example, there have been attempts to replace trade shows with webinars. But in terms of collecting actionable leads, nothing beats going to a trade show in person as a vendor and meeting face-to-face with your potential customers.

In the book, I talk about how to use tried-and-true techniques like trade shows, cold calling and direct mail. Some marketers say these tactics are outdated, but many companies are still using them successfully for lead generation. So as we look toward the newer concepts, we need to make sure that we keep an eye on the older ones.

If you could have a supernatural megaphone that would reach the ears of every single lead-gen marketer in the world, what is the one thing you would want to tell them?
Again, I would tell them, “You need to measure your success! You need to keep track of your costs and measure your ROI! If you do that, you’ll be a more successful marketer! If you don’t do that, you may lose your job!”

Many marketing executives are getting fired because they come to their bosses without any real analytics to show how the marketing dollars were spent, or how well their lead-generation campaigns have worked. If you’re a marketer, you need to know how to determine your ROI in order to justify your lead-generation efforts and budget. If you can show your superiors that your lead-generation efforts have been successful and cost effective, you may see your marketing budget increased. Your superiors may put more faith in you if you can demonstrate how your lead-generation efforts will provide a positive payback for your company.

By Jason Hahn