This isn’t a debate about outbound vs inbound…
I’ll flat out say it and be done… outbound works… period… and it should be part of your mix.
Now that’s covered, we can move on. And I’ll say this. Inbound works better.
How much better? Inbound leads are 750% more likely to convert than outbound.
That’s not me saying it. There’s been a lot of research done on the topic. So, just stop and think about that for a second… 750%…
What this means is that if you can create an inbound machine… you will likely have much better sales results… higher quality leads, more opportunities, shorter close cycles, and of course more closed deals. (Ahhh, that thing we’re all after).
It’s a Process
So, how do you create inbound leads? And how do you do it in volume?
I’ve spent the better part of the last deacde answering that question.
Believe it or not, it’s a process. There’s no secret. You don’t have to go viral. You don’t have to sell your first born to the internet gods. But, you do have to execute a process.
This post covers the 5 steps that will get you there.
These are the five steps I used at WhatCounts and then perfected at Orderly to go from 0 inbound leads per month to 1,500 inbound leads per month in under 26 months.
This led to us moving from 100% outbound SDR prospecting to 100% inbound response.
And before I go too deep, I want to also add that these were qualified leads… MQLs if you will (Marketing Qualified Leads). Meaning, they were companies that fit our ideal client profile and could make a buying decision in the next year.
We actually generated many more “leads” than 1,500. We regularly had more than 2,000 leads, but once you removed the “Consultants and Canadians” as we called them – the people who were not product or geography fits – the MQL number was 1,500.
A Bit of Eye Candy
So, let’s jump in…
We’ll start with some eye candy. I give you Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2.
Exhibit 1: The 26 Month MQL Growth Trend. Here’s what the growth curve looked like (so sexy!)
Exhibit 2: The morning inbox. There’s nothing better than opening your inbox every morning and having to scroll through a massive pile of lead notifications. (For me this represents online domination that’s more satisfying than a Fortnite win).
Alright, enough chatter, let’s dig in…
Step 1: Start with the Ideal Client Profile
While it’s great that we could sell to a broad market, we understood that was not our ICP.
Our tribe was the group of people whose problem we directly solved, every time. And this was a subset of the larger market.
We identified the exact firmographics (industry, sector, size, titles) of our targets.
We defined:
1) Industry verticals – by SICs
2) Business size – revenue, employees, locations
3) Exact titles – financial buyer, user buyer, technical buyer, coach
4) Additional account characteristics – demo, geo, psycho, technologies…
We also identified who was a bad fit and waste of time. And we were very clear to everyone not to waste time on these red flag prospects.
We were data pros. We built a complete database of ICPs. After we had the data we surrounded them with great offers and products that made their life easier and more profitable (more on that below).
Building a database means data tools. And you need to be Jedi level. We used many tools. My favorites are: Synthio, Radius, Info USA, Zoom Info, and Sales Ripe. We used all of these (and more) at one time or another.
Your goal should be to only shoot at the targets you’re likely to hit… so built a database of the right prospects.
And it starts by defining your ICP.
Step 2: Define your Unique Value Proposition
Once we knew the right target, then we wanted to address the value equation.
We had to be able to articulate what we do better than everyone else and how we do it differently.
We were a start-up trying to attack a large market. We knew we needed to stand out. That meant we had to find an authentic voice AND we had to deliver unique value.
It’s human psychology. We are all attracted to the thing that is different… the thing that stands out… the thing that delivers unique value. So we created that in our marketing.
We leveraged one of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, the law of category, and created a new category we could be #1 in. And we ran with it.
Our copywriting and content was full frontal… it was direct… frank… and shocking… Definitely not the safe and boring “corporate marketing” I see every day. We sought to be controversial and helpful at the same time.
Ultimately we described our voice and style as: Off-the-cuff. Sharp. Salty. Never fluffy.
And we focused on solving problems and delivering ROI in a way that no one else was doing.
It was this unique weirdness and candor that drove the engagement and success.
Nothing is worse than incrementalism. So find the thing that you do better than everyone and get funky with it.
Step 3: Build your lead magnet
Now that we had our targets identified and our unique value locked down, we had to give our clients a reason to engage with us.
What valuable lead magnet, trip wire or offer could we make so that if our ideal client saw it they would have to respond? What was our “too good to be true” offer?
Ultimately we decided on a free app. It was an efficiency tool that delivered great utility for our ICPs. All of them could use it and get value whether they paid us or not. It solved a real problem every one of our ICPs had.
It was adjacent to what we actually did. Meaning, it wasn’t a freemium tool that delivered a weaker tool set than the paid version.
It was a stand-alone free tool that we just gave away. BUT, it allowed us to enter the conversation at the intersection of the problem we solved AND we could benefit from the influence factor of reciprocation.
And it worked like a charm.
I’ll never forget the first weekend of our launch. I was watching college football and had the ringer of my phone on. Every 2 or 3 minutes it would “ding” with a new registration notification.
We had over 50 registrations that day. Watching my Bulldogs pull out a W and getting a stack of new registrations at the same time… pretty cool indeed.
Of course we created many other lead magnets… calculators, cheat sheets, checklists, complete guides, etc… and we leveraged all of them to drive leads.
Point is… create something of value… content or tools so valuable they’d pay for it… then give it away and use that as your platform to engage.
Step 4: Find your channels
Marketing is about distribution… of your message, your content, your offers, and your product.
Where do your ICPs hang out online? What social channels and publications do they consume? Where do they go to learn? Where do they go to be acknowledged? What trade associations do they belong to? Now, go meet them there, digitally. Build and buy those audiences.
For us, we leveraged 7 different channels. It was a variety of paid, earned and owned traffic.
Email, paid media sends, and Facebook ads were the winners for us. It drove 90% of the leads. To get there we tried almost everything.
We re-evaluated traction channels on a quarterly basis. We invested time and money in the top 3. We were quick to exit channels that weren’t producing leads or had unsustainable ROI.
We used Gabe Weinberg’s bullseye framework. We’d rotate in and rotate out channels and strategies. We truly believed less is more. We only spent energy on what works.
We had a small team of 3 marketers that drove insane numbers. It was all about efficiency and ROI.
[For more information on the channels and tactics, get the B2B Marketing Playbook below]
Step 5: Measure what’s working
It’s important to understand what’s working and what’s not working. This meant we needed to understand attribution on every lead and the cost per lead per channel.
This was the key job of one of our managers. She’d track and report on every lead by campaign and source. And we’d measure it through acquisition, not just through lead capture.
This told us where the quality was. As an example… We drove a lot of Facebook leads, but we knew these had lower conversion to paid than email or media sends…
We also found that certain pieces of content drove high volume, but were low quality leads… they rarely converted… and when we saw this, we’d pull the campaigns…
Of course, when an SDR saw a schedule a demo lead that came from email after an app download… they knew this was like money in the inbox.
This process told us where to invest marketing dollars. We were able to scale so fast because we didn’t budget top down… we budgeted production up.
If something was working… and we knew the CPL was good… and the conversion rate to paid was good… we’d just keep increasing the spend on that channel and campaign (this is a really important point).
To get there, you have to track every lead by campaign and channel. You have to know your CPL by channel. And you have to know what campaigns are driving new bookings.
The marketing budget should be unlimited for those things that work!
The 5 things most marketers get wrong
Ok… now that I told you what to-do… I am going to tell you what not-to-do.
These are the five things I see over and over every day. They are lame. They do not work. But yet, every day my eyes are burned with these random acts of marketing.
(1) Content that focuses on eyeballs
It’s a great general interest piece. It even drafts off current pop culture. People love, love, love it. Problem is, none of them are your future customers. Heartbreaker… your article is NOT going viral. Keep your content and lead magnets centered on solving problems for your ICP.
(2) No decent lead magnet or content upgrades
Those 30-day free trials are table stakes. And that “free demo” is a joke. You need to offer something of real value. And don’t make it self-serving. Your content or magnets should have nothing to do with you. They should solve a problem for your ICP. A calculator, checklist, cheat sheet, mind map, or trending alerts are good. Free software is better… You need to think like Dropbox, MailChimp, and Canva. These companies built billion dollar valuations by offering awesome lead magnets.
(3) Boring corporate speak
The material is boring or even worse, undifferentiated. It’s a massive wall of words. And I don’t understand what you do. What does “inspire. listen. empower.” mean? Get rid of the corporate speak. It’s not smart. Try an authentic voice that uses the language of your buyer. Better yet, make it fun… and well, engaging.
(4) Organic traffic only
Maybe in 2007. If you think your blog and social feeds are going to organically drive meaningful traffic and leads, think again. “Build it and they will come” and “blog it and they will convert” is mythology. You need to have great content, awesome lead magnets… and you have to promote it through paid channels. Break out the wallet and grease the skids.
(5) Wasting money on PPC
Bidding on expensive keywords that all the competition bids on. Then sending them to the website or blog without a solid offer or reason to convert. PPC can work, but it’s not always the best strategy. And if it is, send them to a squeeze page with a balling offer.
Summary
And there you have it. The recipe. The blueprint. The roadmap to driving thousands of qualified a leads a month for your sales team.
There is no secret. This is a proven direct response model that marketers have been using since the advent of media.
David Ogilvy, Seth Godin and the Sham-wow guy all used the same model. What’s changed is the channel and distribution methods. Want thousands of leads a month for your team? Follow the process…
- Find your Ideal Client Profile
- Define your Unique Value Proposition
- Build you Lead Magnets (and don’t be cheap!)
- Find your Channels
- Measure what’s working (and put no limit on good spend)
- And please… stop the random acts of marketing
This is the exact process that drove 1,500 MQLs per month at Orderly in under 26 months. As I’ve applied this same process to my consulting clients over the last year, it has proven fail-proof… It works every time.
I know this process will work for you.
Of course, if I can answer any questions about the process, just reach out… Call me, email me, or hit me up on the socials.
