What works when selling to marketersLead generation best practices for marketing technology and services vendors

A noisy, cluttered marketplace makes it difficult for marketing technology vendors to find the right tactics and messages that will get noticed by marketers. However, traditional lead generation practices are very successful in reaching this target.

Data is based on a study by LeadJen of lead generation campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a three and a half year period, from 2010-2013. These records included 1.45 million outreach attempts, included more than 20,000 conversations with marketing professionals, and generated 830 appointments resulting in nearly $4.8 million in revenue generated.

LeadJen 1311 W. 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN 46260 leadjen.com

Marketers are 8% - 30% more receptive to lead generation efforts

Midweek/Midday most productive

appointments set in first call

25% more appointments set

with marketers

MON

12

6

111

210

39

48

57

TUE WED THU FRI

Appointment per lead

MarketingAll Industries

2.0%2.5%

17%30%

20% 20%13%

13%Marketers

53%Outbound calls

31%1 call

11%2 calls

20%Inbound response

via email

14%Inbound

response via phone call

13%Follow up

email or call

10-12%Other professionals

6%3 calls

5%4-6 calls

Appointments set by time (Eastern time zone)Appointments set by day

How appointments are set 14%14%

9%

8%2%

12 % 16%

10%

10%

5%

13%

appointments set after

following up on“no interest”

response

LeadJen Marketing White Paper

One of the most successful marketers of all time, P. T.

Barnum was innovative not only in his ideas, but also

in how he promoted those ideas. The businessman

and founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey

Circus was famous for noting that “without promotion,

something terrible happens...nothing!”

Yet, even a visionary like P. T. Barnum would be amazed

at the changes taking place today in marketing. What

once was the practice of trying to get as many people

as possible to purchase a product or service, today is

a targeted consumer-driven process that requires

marketers to reach potential customers with the right

information at the moment they are making a buying

decision.

Fueling this process and adding to its complexity is a

constantly changing technology landscape. Less than

two decades after Newsweek published an article

titled The Internet? Bah!, online marketing is a crucial

component of most marketing plans.

To understand how quickly technology is changing,

consider that just 10 years ago social media platforms

Facebook and Twitter were not even around. Today,

more than a billion people have Facebook accounts and

Twitter boasts more than 500 million registered users.

To keep pace, a growing crop of tools has been

introduced to marketers, including CRM, data

analytics, content marketing, email marketing and

search optimization, to name just a few.

Marketing technology providers are tasked with

breaking through all the clutter and reaching marketers

with tactics and messages that will get noticed. It may

be surprising, then, that traditional lead generation

practices are very successful in reaching this target.

What works when selling to marketersLead generation best practices for marketing technology and services vendors

Marketers are more receptive than many professionals to lead generation efforts

That’s where this white paper comes in. LeadJen, a

B2B lead generation company, studied how marketers

respond to appointment setting tactics, and has

developed best practices for selling to marketing

professionals. The study found that:

• Marketers are 25 percent more receptive to lead generation efforts than most professionals.

• Certain lead generation efforts are very effective in reaching marketers and driving sales revenue.

• Marketers consume information uniquely and have preferences in how they respond.

This white paper will discuss the findings of

the LeadJen study and offer best practices for

selling to marketing professionals.

All industries:

All industries:

Marketing Marketing

2.0% 4.0%2.5% 4.5%

Appointment per lead Appointments per account

LeadJen Marketing White Paper

Study Methodology

LeadJen reviewed records for lead generation

campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a three

and a half year period, from 2010-2013. These records

included 1.45 million outreach attempts, including

both phone calls and emails.

The campaigns included more than 20,000

conversations with marketing professionals, and

generated 830 appointments resulting in nearly $4.8

million in revenue generated.

Key Findings

Marketers are more likely to respond to lead generation efforts than other professionals.

In this study, the average connect rate for lead

generation efforts directed to marketing professionals

was 13 percent. That’s 8-30 percent higher on average

than other professions.

This doesn’t mean that marketing professionals are

necessarily easier to reach by phone. What it does

show is that marketing professionals who are not

reached live by phone are more willing to respond

either to an email or by calling back when a voice

message is left.

This willingness to respond may be due to marketers’

unique understanding of what goes into a campaign.

Since marketers design lead generation programs, and

are used to being marketed to themselves, they are

more likely to respond.

Email is particularly effective in reaching marketers.

A common lead generation practice is to continue

calling targets until reaching a point of diminishing

returns. While every industry is different, a rule of

thumb is no more than eight calls.

Who responds to lead generation campaigns?

Other professions Marketers

10-12%13%

How appointments are set

Inbound response via

email

20%

Inbound response via

phone call

14%

Follow up email or call

13%

Outboundcalls

53%

However, when targeting marketers, email is a

particularly effective tactic, resulting in a whopping 20

percent of appointments set with marketers.

When targeting marketers, a good practice is to start

with a maximum of three email and call combinations.

Appointments typically are set with the first call and

email combination, and then drop off significantly.

Making more than three phone calls isn’t productive

with marketers.

LeadJen Marketing White Paper

Marketers are quick to say no. Professional persistence is important.

Because of the growing market for technology

solutions aimed at marketers, marketers tend to get

a lot of phone calls. A by-product of this is a tendency

to quickly brush off the caller. We call these “hasty

nos” because the marketer may not even completely

understand the option they’ve discarded.

However, lead generation campaigns that are

professionally persistent pay off with sales down the

road.

template email saves sales reps time and makes this

extra step highly profitable.

If after sending a follow up email the prospect doesn’t

respond, it’s a good practice to keep the name on your

list but to focus time and energy on other targets.

These names can be retargeted with another campaign

using any additional information callers have been

able to discover to help make the next campaign more

targeted.

Messaging is critical to break through the noise.

When a marketer receives a sales call or email, they

tend to break them into categories: technology, public

relations, promotional companies, etc. If they don’t

have a need based on one of these categories, the

solicitation is quickly discarded.

Messaging is critical to making a phone call or

email stand out. A good message will show that you

understand the prospect’s business; have insight into

the companies, brands and technologies they already

work with; and will demonstrate how your company

complements or compares to these companies.

Some of the most successful messages position against

other brands without necessarily selling against those

brands. For example, a marketing technology company

can reference an industry leader, such as Salesforce.

com, to demonstrate how the technologies can work

together. The assumptive statement is a jumping

off point for a conversation, even if the prospect

doesn’t use Salesforce.com, and gives the sales rep an

opportunity to gather even more intelligence about

the prospect for future campaigns.

Lead generation campaigns that follow up a “hasty no”

response with an email often can snag an appointment.

In the study, 13 percent of all appointments set came

from an email sent to a target after a “hasty no”

response.

That 13 percent translates to almost $700,000 in revenue.

Follow up emails work because they give the prospect

more time to think about the message. Setting up a

How appointments are set

2 calls

11%

3 calls

6%

4-6 calls

5%

1 call

31%

Inbound response

34%

Follow up call/email

13%

LeadJen Marketing White Paper

Sample calling script:

We work with marketing executives in

organizations that use Salesforce.com and

are being challenged by sales management to

improve rep adoption and gain better insight

into prospecting activity. With our solution,

marketers can answer what is or isn’t working

with prospect lists, messaging, calling cadence

and rep performance – increasing productivity by

over 50% and improving conversion by 20%.

Midweek, midday is the sweet spot.

The day and time that lead generation efforts are

conducted can play a significant role in the success

of the campaign. While it’s always best to test to

determine the best day and time to reach prospects,

our study provides some insight.

The best day to set an appointment with a marketer is

Tuesday; the worst is Friday. This makes sense when

considering that Fridays and Mondays frequently are

part of long weekends, and Mondays often are the

days that marketing teams meet to plan their week.

The best time to set an appointment is 2-3 pm Eastern,

which brackets the lunch hour in all U.S. time zones.

Marketing executives are more likely to be at their

desks catching up on email and social media before or

just after their lunch break.

The worst times to call are before 9 am and after 5 pm

Eastern.

Contact LeadJen 1311 West 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN 46260 Phone: (877) LeadJen LeadJen.com

Across the globe, LeadJen has developed partnerships and supplied services that increase sales growth through database building,

marketing campaigns and appointment setting. These advances enable any company in any industry to improve marketing campaigns

and grow sales revenue. LeadJen is consistently blazing past phenomenal benchmarks of appointment generation and pipeline growth.

Appointments set by day

Appointments set by time (Eastern time zone)

Monday

17%

Tuesday

30%

Wednesday

20%

Thursday

20%

Friday

13%

Summary

Marketers are challenged more than ever to keep

up with changes in the industry, which can present

both challenges and opportunities to lead generation

campaigns. While marketers are looking for solutions

to help them perform their jobs better, getting through

to them can be difficult. Understanding the best ways

to reach marketers can significantly increase the

success of a lead generation campaign.

14%14%

9%

8%2%

12 % 16%

10%

10%

5%