Important Lessons for Financial Lead Generation Programs

Financial leads aren't easy to come by as it seems. Simply having a lead generation campaign doesn't mean that your firm is going to generate new clients. Well, if you think about it, finding new customers that would want to avail of your financial services isn't exactly the easiest task to accomplish.

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Blogging Increases Lead Generation Results

Lead generation through online means has evolved over the years. Back then promotions would run rampant here and there and Internet marketers would pounce at any minute to try and generate leads. Today however, much has changed and more people are realizing that content is the key to generating leads online. One of the best ways to use content to better your rate of acquiring leads online is through blogging.

Studies show that companies that increase their number of pages generate more traffic and leads online. And through blogging, you can rapidly increase your page count and therefore increase traffic and lead generation results. Studies have also shown that companies that update their blog multiple times a month have better chances of generating leads through their content. So, can you see just what kind of power blogging has in helping your lead generation campaign?

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Plan Appointment Setting Campaigns BEFORE Promising Seasons

Financial planning is no stranger to preparation. So when it comes to appointment setting, it is only natural to start planning already even before the start of a promising season. Economic storms and doomsday predictions are not the only things you can brace your business for. A season of opportunities will not also be as fruitful either if you do not have an idea on how to start taking advantage of it.

The challenge is to differentiate this from counting your eggs before they hatch.

Planning Lead Generation VS Starting It

The first thing you need to remember is that planning is not the same as actually doing. And unlike taking action, the sole value of planning for your financial leads lies in not costing as much as when you are pursuing them. The best part is that a good plan is the one that guides that action when the time finally comes.

Plans do come with their typical downsides though so make sure you take note of them and set proper countermeasures:

• Plans should be based on fact – Having an uniformed plan is no better than just doing things without thinking. Make sure you have indeed made a decent use of your financial expertise to make these predictions. If you do not want to count eggs that will not hatch, make sure you have at least enough proof of those that will. (And as a side note, this does not just apply to seasons but even to areas or markets that seem more promising than others.)

Related Content: Finding Sales Leads In Friendlier Economies

• They should be easy to adjust – Despite the facts though, they are not always set in stone. Sticking too hard to a plan that is just not relevant anymore is a popular reason why some people are not fond of too much planning. Your financial appointment setting strategy should not have to be so static. Changes in the economic wind are also something you need to prepare for.

• Is time sensitive – The main element of planning and appointment setting is time. Taking some time to plan ahead is much better than wasting it via coming up with a plan on the fly. The very purpose of setting appointments is to give people to get their own plans in order. In either case, you are arguably more concerned about time than about money. Another thing you should take note is the amount of time you spend qualifying your leads. Make sure the process does not fall behind and compromise you planned schedule!

Related Content: Falling Behind In Lead Generation? The Simplest Concepts Can Speed You Up!

There is no point in a promising financial forecast if there is no order to the things you do when a promising season finally starts. Doomsday predictions can cloud judgment with hysteria. But on the flip side, their prosperous counterpart can accomplish the same with hype. Plan before the start by getting the facts straight, be ready to adjust, and manage the time of your business lead generation campaign!

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Inbound Appointment Setting – An Emergency Tool Against Financial Scandals

Many professionals in the accounting and financial management industries are used to things getting dirty. But when things get dirty, an inbound appointment setting service can come in handy for both your business as well as those of others.

Use Telemarketers To Receive Requests For Investigation

You see while other companies have their own bookkeeping experts, it might take a combined effort to gather information, discover the missing pieces, and solve the puzzle. That is more or less how scandals are uncovered. Money goes missing and further probing is turning up a lot of loose ends. Inquiries are likely sent to companies like yours in the form of inbound accounting leads asking see if you can be consulted. Unfortunately, there could be just too much data to deal with and that is where the need for collaborative effort comes in.

Related Content: Sales Leads – The Dangers Of Data Overload

But first, you need to enable a channel through which prospects can inquire without the risk of being caught by the parties who are being suspected. This is where your inbound strategy comes in. In terms of communication medium, either telephone or email is advised. While it can be argued that conversations using the mediums can be tapped, it would be harder to do keep clean when doing so. This is why most B2B appointment setting companies still use these as one of their main tools for engaging with prospects.

Confidential they may be however, your prospect still needs to provide the following details or least give them up on following up:

• Name – When someone is being suspected of something as serious like fraud, the last thing you need is a prospect approaching you under an alias or worse, under complete anonymity. If this is what you got, get back to them immediately and get a real name. 

• Reasons – By 'reasons', these include the reasons for suspecting and the reasons for why they are contacting you. Pay attention to what your prospects are saying. It does not matter if they themselves do not have enough to go on. It does no matter if they are inviting you to collaborate in a much larger, investigative effort. You need to take note. You can leave it up to your salespeople to dig deeper but do not qualify without giving them a decent heads up.

Related Content: Use Lead Generation When You Need To Verify Online Requests

• Further contact – You should know by now that this does not stop at the first call. You need to keep in touch so that you will learn of any developments. Sharing information is part of what a good collaboration is about. As stated before, you cannot be the only one gathering all the clues and connecting the dots. Still, do not forget the risk of suspects catching on to your efforts. Establish how you are going to contact your prospects again. 

Just like those movie private eyes, you never know when someone is going to walk in to your business and request your assistance with something serious. And if you have already handled such cases, it is all the more reason that you need a secure channel through which your prospects can make inquiries. Do not just stick to using them for accounting lead generation but also as an emergency tool against those suspected of playing dirty.

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Too Many Lead Generation Methods Can Result In Overhead!

Overhead costs are something that many accounting professionals are very familiar with. Therefore, why not use them to check if your lead generation strategy is not contributing to that overhead?

Appointment Setting Costs VS Actual Appointments Made

Given the many channels that customers and prospects use, the idea of using various channels to cover your bases can be very tempting. There is actually nothing wrong with the idea in theory. But in practice, that is where the overhead will possibly arise.

In other words, even if you want to have your bases covered, how sure are you that covering them all will result in a sustainable flow of accounting leads? Your strategy should not be too static either because one month might net you more leads in social media but the following one has you qualifying more from telemarketing calls. You need to always keep track.

So to start, ask the following questions when evaluating your multi-channel lead generator:

• Exactly how many methods do you use so far? - Once you know the exact number, you will know how many tools are guzzling your money. Do not underestimate this step because you never know how out of touch you are when it comes to the actual methods you use. You might think that you have set your budget strictly for email marketing, website marketing, and telemarketing. On the other hand, what if you discover that your website marketers have entailed an additional cost of using social media? Social media marketing requires a different budget separate from all the others even if it is also done on the internet and still makes use of a website. Just as you make sure your leads do not demand too much from your resources, the same goes for your marketing tools. 

Related Content: How Many Sales Leads Can You Take? 

• Do you use these channels efficiently? - Obviously the more cash you spend, the more serious the need to justify the spending. If there is no form of measurable and satisfying return from any particular channel, then congratulations: you are wasting your money! However, maybe it is not really the amount that matters but how your entire B2B lead generation strategy markets on these channels. Are you aware of what they all have in common? Do you equally take note of what different skills they still require? How well do they compliment each other and does such integration give more value to the cost or just adds up to the waste? 

• Do you stand to lose more if you do away with them? - Sometimes you cannot just cut the funding right away. The point of the evaluation is to make sure you do not accidentally kill your golden goose. You might think that a single method is not delivering anything by itself. However, it could also still provide critical support for all the other kinds of marketer who have had more success. Again, scrutinize all the facts and only narrow down the elimination to the tool that has had contributed little to nothing whatsoever. 

Related Content: Scrutinize Your Sales Leads As Much As Prospects Scrutinize You

In case you have not noticed, the element of integration seems to be taking the most primary focus. That is because this is what differentiates methods that are too many in number and methods that are integrated and act as one. So perhaps instead of tossing out your B2B appointment setting tools, maybe all you needed to really do was to combine them!

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