Inside Sales – The Changing Nature of Lead Generation and the Buyer

“Where do customers come from?” That’s the question that Mark Roberge of HubSpot wanted to find out, specifically after the age of the internet.

“[HubSpot’s co-founders and I] were looking at the change the internet had on how people buy and show,” Mark said in a new eBook. “We noticed that the internet gave a lot of control to buyers. With that in mind, we started looking at how people were marketing to these buyers; we found it wasn’t transformative. For example, with DVRs, people don’t watch commercial as often… So how do you reach these people?”

What was the solution? For Mark and his team, it came to understanding that they had to visible in the places that their potential customers were looking for answers: Google search and social media. According to Mark, HubSpot wanted to ensure that they were found when people were talking about marketing or lead generation. The technique has been hugely successful.

Take a look at the table at the top of this article. 2.3% of organic search leads that HubSpot’s sales reps are calling are becoming customers. Compared to .64% of referrals or .36% of email marketing sources, organic produces a more results with less work. While it’s important to have these other types of marketing generating leads, there really is no comparison for the results that leads from organic search traffic create.

Additionally, inbound, organic leads cost dramatically less than paid/advertising leads and they close 3x faster, according to Mark.

Source: Secrets Revealed – Master Tactics for Exponential Growth and the Secrets of Contact Rates

When attempting to get your content to pop up in a relevant Google search, social media is key. Take a look at the graph, above. Facebook shares, posts, comments, and likes make up the top six ranking factors in the U.S. Backlinks and Tweets make up the other two spots. What does this tell us? Quality content that generates social discussion and that drives backlinks are how to make sure your customers find you.

As a last piece of advice, Mark challenged all lead generation professionals to write educational, quality content regularly.

“Promote this content on social media, your blog, and in as many places online as you can,” he said. “When you are promoting your own content on social media, it is all about you, so make sure you also participate in industry conversations to become thought leaders related to your content.”

For additional tips from Mark Roberge and Ken Krogue, download a copy of their latest eBook, “Secrets Revealed: Master Tactics for Exponential Growth and the Secrets of Contact Rates.”

Image source: HubSpot and InsideSales eBook