Jason Palmer Interview
WebTrends VP of Marketing Jason Palmer discusses his lead generation strategies with Rubicon Marketing Group CEO Kevin Joyce
Lead Generation and nurturing is unique to every firm. This is the first in a series of interviews with PNW VPs of Marketing on the topic of lead generation. Our goal is to have these leaders in our industry share with us their insights.
Kevin: What are the top lead generation tactics you are using today?
Jason: The best tactics we use at WebTrends, in no particular order are:
a. Online ads, pay-per-click, banner ads and search engine marketing.
b. Online offers of industry analyst reports we have sponsored
c. Industry events and shows
d. Marketing assisted sales prospecting
e. Vertical industry focused direct mail campaigns with an invitation to a webcast
f. Regional seminars
g. Direct mail campaign to executives inviting them to attend an event
Kevin: Have your lead generation activities changed over the past 3-5 years?
Jason: Yes. Keyword advertising and webcasts have really grown and become a larger portion of the mix. Webcasts are popular with our customers. We have also increased the market segment focus of our activities, zeroing in on verticals more.
Kevin: And as you look forward over the next 1-2 years how do you see your marketing investments changing?
Jason: I envision that we will shift to more online campaigns.
Kevin: How will the emergence of new marketing media affect your lead generation strategy?
Jason: We certainly plan to experiment with BLOGs, RSS, Forums, etc. and will have some amount of them in the mix.
Kevin: How do you balance awareness building with lead generation?
Jason: We try to balance driving thought leadership with lead generation by incorporating this brand image into all of our campaigns. We take these ideas into campaigns focused on vertical markets and into horizontal campaigns focused on industry leaders. So the "thought leadership" theme permeates all of our campaigns.
Kevin: How do you do lead qualification?
Jason: We encourage leads to fill in forms online, and then we use teams internally manage them, qualify them, and route them based on the data.
Kevin: How has the Sales Organization helped shape your lead generation process?
Jason: We have weekly lead generation meetings with Sales, where we review the performance of the different campaigns, and the conversion rates for leads becoming opportunities and closed deals.
Kevin: Do you perceive a need to nurture leads before you hand them off to Sales?
Jason: We have what we call an "engage queue" where we continue to market to leads to get them ready to hand off to Sales. While they are in the "engage queue" we engage with them through webcasts, newsletters, offering them guides, and so forth.
Kevin: Do you measure the relative cost of offline leads and online leads?
Jason: We focus more on the cost of generating an opportunity. This is much better than looking at just the lead data.
Kevin: How do you measure your lead generation success?
Jason: We measure the conversion rates at each stage of the sales cycle, we measure the cost of generating leads as a percentage of sales, and we measure the time to close an opportunity.
Thanks Jason for your great insights!
Lead Generation and nurturing is unique to every firm. This is the first in a series of interviews with PNW VPs of Marketing on the topic of lead generation. Our goal is to have these leaders in our industry share with us their insights.
Kevin: What are the top lead generation tactics you are using today?
Jason: The best tactics we use at WebTrends, in no particular order are:
a. Online ads, pay-per-click, banner ads and search engine marketing.
b. Online offers of industry analyst reports we have sponsored
c. Industry events and shows
d. Marketing assisted sales prospecting
e. Vertical industry focused direct mail campaigns with an invitation to a webcast
f. Regional seminars
g. Direct mail campaign to executives inviting them to attend an event
Kevin: Have your lead generation activities changed over the past 3-5 years?
Jason: Yes. Keyword advertising and webcasts have really grown and become a larger portion of the mix. Webcasts are popular with our customers. We have also increased the market segment focus of our activities, zeroing in on verticals more.
Kevin: And as you look forward over the next 1-2 years how do you see your marketing investments changing?
Jason: I envision that we will shift to more online campaigns.
Kevin: How will the emergence of new marketing media affect your lead generation strategy?
Jason: We certainly plan to experiment with BLOGs, RSS, Forums, etc. and will have some amount of them in the mix.
Kevin: How do you balance awareness building with lead generation?
Jason: We try to balance driving thought leadership with lead generation by incorporating this brand image into all of our campaigns. We take these ideas into campaigns focused on vertical markets and into horizontal campaigns focused on industry leaders. So the "thought leadership" theme permeates all of our campaigns.
Kevin: How do you do lead qualification?
Jason: We encourage leads to fill in forms online, and then we use teams internally manage them, qualify them, and route them based on the data.
Kevin: How has the Sales Organization helped shape your lead generation process?
Jason: We have weekly lead generation meetings with Sales, where we review the performance of the different campaigns, and the conversion rates for leads becoming opportunities and closed deals.
Kevin: Do you perceive a need to nurture leads before you hand them off to Sales?
Jason: We have what we call an "engage queue" where we continue to market to leads to get them ready to hand off to Sales. While they are in the "engage queue" we engage with them through webcasts, newsletters, offering them guides, and so forth.
Kevin: Do you measure the relative cost of offline leads and online leads?
Jason: We focus more on the cost of generating an opportunity. This is much better than looking at just the lead data.
Kevin: How do you measure your lead generation success?
Jason: We measure the conversion rates at each stage of the sales cycle, we measure the cost of generating leads as a percentage of sales, and we measure the time to close an opportunity.
Thanks Jason for your great insights!