The 3 M's of Converting Leads into Sales: Multitouch, Multichannel and Multicycle
February 23, 2011 By Dan McDade
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Editor's note: The feature "Lead Generation Is Broken: The sales problem facing marketers and how to fix it," will appear in the March issue of Target Marketing. However, we couldn't fit quite all of Dan McDade's good advice in the print space available, and this content summarizing his three-pronged approach to good lead nurturing wound up on the cutting room floor. But thanks to the magic of the Internet, we can share it with you here, and hopefully wet your appetite for more of McDade's analysis in our next issue of Target Marketing.
Good marketing campaigns include just enough contact to engage buyers, but enough space to respect the demands on their time and their individual needs in the buying process. The ideal scenario is multitouch, multichannel and multicycle marketing.
Multiple Touches
Traditional one-and-done campaigns touch customers just once and then move on. That is extremely ineffective compared to campaigns that integrate multiple media to touch business prospects repeatedly. Analysis of our program results over the years revealed it is essential to reach prospects with at least 12 individual touches—including a minimum of two email messages.
Why 12? That’s the number of touches—delivered over a period of time through a combination of quality outbound calls, emails, voicemail messages and direct mail—needed to achieve the greatest level of response.
Multiple Channels
Contacts responding to voicemail or email have comprised close to 30 percent of all leads generated for most of my clients over a period of years. Perhaps surprisingly, the most frequent responders to voicemail and email have been C-level and senior vice president-level executives. These executives are 2.5 times more likely to respond to a voicemail or reply to an email than their subordinates.
Multiple Cycles
There is additional benefit in implementing multiple cycles for marketing campaigns. The initial contact cycle—the first time you touch your market with a combination of 12 phone calls, emails, voicemail and direct mail—will yield only 40 to 50 percent of the total opportunities. Continuing to touch the same prospects on a regular basis can identify other opportunities.
Dan McDade is president and CEO of PointClear, LLC, and author of the book “The Truth About Leads.” He can be reached at dan.mcdade@pointclear.com
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