Digital Strategy Blog

If you rely on HubSpot for marketing automation or customer relationship management, lifecycle stages are an essential component of the platform. The problem is that they can be really confusing to understand since the concept of each stage is open to interpretation and adaptation, but HubSpot’s current format makes the lifecycle stage implementation pretty rigid and automatic. Developing a clear understanding of the purpose of each stage and how they can work most effectively to motivate leads to become customers will help your sales and marketing teams avoid the need for workarounds in the future. 

HubSpot is one of the best tools in any marketing or sales team's arsenal, but a tool is really only as good as the person using it. Our CAM (Channel Account Manager) at HubSpot, Jacob (@jacobin617), loves to use the analogy of a helicopter. It goes something like this -

If someone asked you if you wanted a helicopter, what would you say? You'd say heck yeah!

Then they'd drop the helicopter off in your backyard and you'd have no idea what to do with it. Where do you get gas for the helicopter? How do you fly it (hint: that's not how!)? Who does helicopter maintenance? There are so many questions to go along with your cool new toy.

We’ve all had the experience of being targeted by a retailer who makes us feel uncomfortable because of their sales tactics. We know about the awkwardness that accompanies those moments when someone is trying to sell us a product we’re not interested in, but the person doesn’t seem to get the hint.

Sales-driven organizations gather leads in a lot of different ways. One organization may focus on pay-per-click advertising and building an exciting e-newsletter, while another thrives on personal referrals and gathering potential customer information at special events.

I've talked a lot about lead nurturing and it's value in helping to grow your business. The fact of the matter is that not everyone is ready to buy the first time they come to your website. In fact 57% of the sales process is actually complete before a customer ever reaches out to a company. In our current world, customers have access to more information than ever before and they use that to their advantage by consuming mass amounts of research before they contact a salesperson. By the time your leads are contacting you, they most likely have thoroughly researched your business and all your competitors businesses and they probably have already decided that they want to work with you. But what about those prospects who come to your site, fill out a form and leave never to be seen again? That's where you're lead nurturing campaign comes into play, helping keep your business name in front of those people anticipating the moment they might finally be ready to make a purchase. 

The mistake most companies make when it comes to their lead nurturing is stopping it once your lead has become a customer. Sure closing a lead into a customer is incredibly important but that doesn't mean that your relationship ends once they've signed a contract or made a purchase! Wouldn't you rather develop a long-term relationship with these people? If your answer to any of these questions is "yes" (and, trust me, it should be), read on.

8 Ideas to Generate More Leads Online Today and 10 Tips to Increasing Your Leads Online seriously and you've started generating leads online, but...now what?

You're not in business to generate leads online, you're in business to generate SALES! So, how do you go about turning those leads that you've generated online into actual paying customers? Let's take a look at four Do's and four Don'ts of lead nurturing to help you start closing more deals!

If you've been keeping up with the HIVE blog, you should know a little bit about lead nurturing by now. We've talked about what lead nurturing is and how crucial it is for moving potential customers through the sales cycle. We've also talked a little bit about how to use email workflows for lead nurturing and how they can help you close more customers.

But wait...I know what you might be thinking... "I totally understand that I need to be nurturing my leads in order to turn them into customers but how exactly do I get them to become leads in the first place??"

Great question! How do you take a stranger who has come to your site and convince them to give you some information (ideally an email address so you can use those workflows) so that they then become a lead and you can commence with your lead nurturing? This is where calls-to-action come into play. Ready to learn how to use calls-to-action for lead nurturing? Read on!

In the past couple of weeks we've talked about the importance of lead nurturing campaigns and why you should be using workflows as a part of your lead nurturing strategy. You've learned that the lack of lead nurturing is the reason that a large portion of leads never become customers and you've learned that automated email workflows can help you stay in front of these people with little manual work required. Chances are that, at this point, you're sold on the fact that you need to have a lead nurturing campaign and that email workflows need to be a part of that. If you're still on the fence, consider these stats: 

• 60% of companies who use marketing automation say it has increased the quality of the leads that get passed to sales..
• Leads that go through automated workflows have a 23% shorter sales cycle. This means that it takes less time and manual effort to close them into customers.
• 80% of marketers who utilize automated marketing saw their leads increase when they implemented automation.  
• 77% of companies saw their conversions go up when they implemented automation strategies. 

So now you know you need to be using automated workflows, but where do you start? What types of workflows should you try first? 

We usually recommend starting small so you can get an idea of how your workflows are functioning and the process that goes into them. Here are three types of workflows that usually work well for all types of businesses:

In a previous blog post titled Why You Can't Afford NOT to Have a Lead Nurturing Campaign, I talked about the importance of capturing leads and staying in front of them. If you've read that post, you might remember that 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. 

We know that staying in front of our leads is a crucial component of moving them through the sales cycle and eventually converting them into customers. We also know that email is the major tactic that we use for lead nurturing. But keeping up with regular email marketing to your database can be incredibly time consuming, especially if you're sending targeted emails to different lists based on their behaviors. This is where email workflows come into play. Let's examine what an email workflow is and how it can help your business.  

Every business has the goal of increasing leads and many are focused on increasing their leads online. But with all of the chatter out there, all the competition, all of the distraction, how can your business stand out to help you increase your online leads?

It's not an easy task, but by following our ten tips below, you can begin to increase your online leads and continue to grow your business. Whether you're a small 'mom & pop' or a larger corporation, these tips hold true. Let's get started!