What makes a high-quality lead?
Not all leads are built the same way. There is a time in any business when you have to separate any traffic from good traffic to get more for your investments. Think about it, instead of spending to talk to everyone, you spend to speak to the target that actually wants to buy from you. That sounds like a good business move, right? That’s the purpose of recognising high-quality leads. Gives you a better picture of who is ready to make a purchase and who's just window shopping. The numbers don’t lie, studies have shown that brands that nurture leads can see 50% more sales at 33% lower costs. Knowing what leads to concentrate on is the beginning of your strategy. So you can focus your marketing budget on the most profitable audience. What are high-quality leads? High-quality leads are potential customers that have shown interest in your product or service and have a high chance of conversion. Meaning they know your product and are ready to buy. The better the quality of the lead the bigger the chance they will buy from your company. Most of these types of leads share a strong product fit with your brands. It can also indicate a higher lifetime customer retention and value. To summarise, high-quality leads are the target you want to attack because they have 3 very important characteristics: They are ready to buy They already like your product They are more likely to buy again How to know the quality of a lead? Data is going to lead the way in learning which are the better leads for your business. Tracking customer behaviour is the key to qualifying leads. Once you have set up data tracking you will need to create a lead scoring system to separate the high-quality leads from other leads. What is lead scoring? Lead scoring is when you assign a numerical value to customer actions so you can get an end grade or rating for each lead. For example, if you see that users who subscribe to your newsletter buy more than those who just visit your site, then leads from the newsletter will get a higher score. How to create a lead scoring system Start with customer criteria. The basic characteristics your ideal lead has to have Define your customer journey Where do the quality leads start, how do they navigate your page, etc Create a scoring table Give actions, characteristics, and other factors a number Automise your scoring system This helps lessen the burden of work and identifies high-quality leads in real-time to make your sales force more effective Check data and make improvements See where users quit in the customer journey, improve on weak points and strengthen channels that lead to conversions Metrics for lead quality There are some metrics readily available through existing data collection like Google Analytics and some your marketing department has collected. These you can use to get a better understanding of where your quality leads are, what the customer journey is and where to improve. 1. Click-through rate (CTR) 2. Conversion rate 3. Time to conversion 4. Cost per lead 5. Leads per channel 6. Return on Investment How to improve your lead quality in 5 steps Not only will you want to identify which are your high-quality leads but you also want to get more of them. To do so you can try to create lead improvement strategies and experiment to see what actions work for your target. 1. Define your ideal lead and its characteristics 2. Identify your most effective channels 3. Optimise your communication 4. Nurture high-quality leads 5. Stop focusing on bad leads ...
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Becoming a better boss: top lessons for effective leadership
Leadership has a significant impact on the growth of your company or startup. Having the right person at the top will impact how employees perform and investors see your company. Being a CEO, team manager, or leader is a role that requires a lot of work. Learning how to be the best leader can make the difference between success and failure. Each of Inlat’s business partners has put their trust in our leadership, that is why we value these skills so much. Also because when you are investing in startups, a lot of the time, you are trusting the leadership over the facts. You have to be able to inspire confidence from the inside and outside so people will bet on you, even before you have a final product. Learn to be flexible Having to be the manager of a project means adapting to new events. This is especially true for startups and tech entrepreneurs, as these industries experience rapid changes constantly. Because of the nature of leadership, it is necessary to be flexible with tasks, schedules, and workloads. Having the ability to function under stress or unforeseen obstacles will make your company stronger and you a better leader. Creating routines, adding good habits, and organizing your schedules will help you in finding flexibility. Because you will be on top of daily tasks which allows you to make time for the unexpected. Invest in your self-growth There’s always room for improvement and things to learn as a professional and leader. Keeping your skills updated and adding new ones not only help you. It also serves as an example to the people who work for you to stay motivated. Keep in mind that growth as a leader does not have to be just business-focused: meditating, exercising, or mastering a hobby also results in growth and that is reflected in your leadership. Figure out your leadership style Being a leader is natural for some people and for others it takes a lot of work. One of the things that can help you become a better leader is knowing what your leadership style is. There are 7 types of leadership 1. Authoritarian - autocratic 2. Bureaucratic 3. Democratic 4. Coaching 5. Transformational - visionary 6. Servant 7. Laissez-faire You can take a leadership style quiz here! Master delegating Delegating the right way is one of the top benefits of effective leadership. A good delegator understands their team, and can perfectly manage projects and distribute jobs. This is a key aspect of projects getting finished in time and your company succeeding in business. 3 Tips to improve delegating work 1. Use a project management system like Monday 2. Talk to your team weekly and catch up on their tasks 3. Create different departments to manage separate needs Stay creative and positive You have to lead by example! Startup life can be difficult in the first years with you and your team facing a lot of uncertainty, you can help them by keeping a good attitude. Positivity and creativity will create a more productive work environment and can be the reason you come up with the next unicorn idea, so don't neglect this part of business when you become the boss. ...
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Going Digital On Business Cards? Paper Format Is Officially Dead!
The single most important moment of a business encounter has always been the handshake (and/or a kiss) followed by the handing of a paper business card. Depending on the culture, this could take just a few seconds or be an ice-breaking moment which triggers the first conversation and interaction. How you presented the card (one hand vs. two hands - especially in Asia), the material from which it was made, whether it had printed letters standout, the choice of colors, how logo & branding were exposed, the shape of the card, etc. - All that was part of this "first impression" experience. Indeed, how you present yourself is who you are! It is no secret that digital transformation has enabled many other means for doing business, thereby gradually replacing some of the physical encounters with virtual ones. Now with a coronavirus reality, we are obliged to conduct business virtually, at least for some time, but this will surely become more than just a trend. For now, "Social Distancing" has become the new reality, it is also what sparks the need for shifting to digital by all means. In that regard, paper business cards have become not only obsolete but also potentially dangerous in the context of the current pandemia. Networking with a digital business card is the new standard. This article aims at providing some tips and considerations for those professionals and companies that wish to evaluate the pros & cons of a successful transition to digital business cards for an impactful first impression! THE POWER & BENEFITS OF THE VIRTUAL BUSINESS CARD FORMAT It's always online - it never gets lost - it can be modified at any time; It's eco-friendly - a great substitute to printing; It positions your business as an "early adopter" / an "innovator"; It improves your company's brand exposure, reputation and adds a viral effect (not to be confused with coronavirus!); It provides a digital identity and a sense of belonging to your employees; It's an optimal format for personal brands. It's budget-friendly :) BUDGETARY ASPECTS Before transitioning to digital cards, companies must contemplate the following: How many employees actually need a business card - typically, mostly customer-facing divisions - but not only - that includes Management, Commercial team, Marketing, IT, Communications, HR, PR, etc. That said, since the digital format is more financially accessible (let aside all other benefits), many companies extend it to all their employees with the aim of improving employee loyalty and thereby strengthen their bond with the company. Current yearly budget assigned to business cards: a digital format must end-up being more cost-effective. Therefore, it's important having a benchmark as a means of comparison: how many cards does your company print annually? At what cost? How long does it take? Does it include design? How many resources are involved? Hidden costs: such benchmark must consider (a) the cost of the human factor (generally executive assistants) involved in ordering paper business cards to the printing company in such occasions as the initial order, follow-ups on delivery, follow-up on orders per employee when their stock gets exhausted, new orders in case of a change of position or new contact details or launch of a new branding, etc. (b) the logistics factor: each order implies an associated cost of delivery by courier; (c) the design factor: branding work is typically delegated to a 3rd party design agency which generates an extra cost that must be computed. And finally (d) when an employee leaves the company, the investment in business cards translates into a loss. Pricing of digital business cards: should ideally be volume & feature-based and above all, be significantly more cost-effective than paper. A BUILT-IN DESIGN TOOL A truly personalized digital business card cannot be relying upon standard templates or generic images. Personalization = Design = Aesthetics. Is it not all about brand recognition and top of mind? The solution proposed must provide a built-in design tool that allows for any non-technical user to: Personalize every aspect of the business card; Load images (profile, logo, pictures, etc.); Change fonts family type; Format text and paragraphs: by influencing the weight, the color, the opacity, the size and the direction (vertical / horizontal); Change and personalize background colors; Incorporate a variety of content types: images, video links, google map locations, buttons that can link to any online content, text boxes, title boxes, blank spaces for a clean look; In summary: a design toolkit that will satisfy all those obsessed by the details :) CONCEIVED FOR "HUMAN RESOURCES", "COMMUNICATIONS" & "MARKETING" AREAS In the case of large companies: HR and/or Communications areas must not depend on an external provider. The platform must allow for self-provisioning and auto-administration of all the company's business cards from a single account. HR and/or Communications areas should be able to manage the service in a centralized fashion so as to keep control and maintain a standardized, uniform design and branding. Employees should not have permission to access and modify their business card(s) - unless authorized of course. CSR - ECO-FRIENDLY Corporate Social Responsibility plays an important role in selecting an eco-friendly solution which truly substitutes the use of paper. MUST HAVE FEATURES OF AN ONLINE BUSINESS CARD SERVICE QR code for instant sharing from mobile to mobile during a physical or virtual encounter. Once scanned, contact details of the business card should automatically travel to the other device's address book and be saved with a single click; Additional sharing options such as via Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Linkedin, Facebook, Skype, Reddit, Line, Pinterest, etc. Recipients of a business card must have the option to easily save the contact details to the address book in a single click; Allow deep customization of all business cards to the company's brand; Self-management with strong autonomy for making changes as needed: activate or deactivate cards, edit design, duplicate, delete, edit text, edit & add different content types; Statistics on how each business card performs: how many views? From what geographical locations? How many times was it shared? By what means? Which links within my card were clicked? Etc.; An elegant digital signature for your email that links to your online business card thereby achieving at the same time standardization of signature format across the company; Organize business cards in folders by area (i.e. Sales, Marketing, Administration, etc.) or group them by business unit, etc.; Privacy & security: the platform on which the service is hosted must be secured to avoid data loss to hackers and guarantee high availability; Business card users must be able to save their own business card(s) as a widget to the mobile's home screen; Finally, it is always reassuring when a company can provide solid references of highly satisfied customers. I hope those tips are helpful. Do not hesitate sharing them! Should you wish to contact me, here's my business card. Warm regards and keep safe!...
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