Anyone can generate good quality targeted leads using high-end lead generation tools and services. However, it’s very easy to slow down or even halt any campaign progress by making a few tiny mistakes, resulting in anything from just slightly worse metrics to a completely ruined campaign.
But forewarned means forearmed, and we’re going to help you with some of the most common lead generation mistakes that can ruin a campaign. Note: every mistake described below is not caused by an external factor, meaning all of them are made by the people running lead generation campaigns. This article will show you if the saboteur is you and how to fix this.
Mistake 1: You don’t diversify your lead sources
This is a common mistake made by every beginner. Inexperienced marketers, salespeople, and SDRs tend to focus on a single lead generation channel or source. For example, many start generating leads from social networks, using Facebook or LinkedIn as their only source.
And while these may seem like good lead sources, especially if they offer enough leads in your particular niche, the problem is that you are confining yourself to just one channel. The bigger problem hides in the consequent lack of data that would help you compare different sources and channels, discovering which ones bring leads of the best (or worst) quality.
How to avoid it: If you are just at the beginning your lead generation journey, always go for multiple lead sources. Try generating leads from social networks, websites and 3rd party databases all at once, and compare which works best for you. Using multiple sources will allow you to extract more data, thus enriching your leads and making them easy to segment.
Mistake 2: You don’t verify your leads
This mistake probably deserves the top spot on the list, as it will affect your stats the most. Far too many people don’t verify the leads they’ve generated. This mistake can cost you both your sender reputation and money.
Always verify your leads, no matter how many you have – 10 or 5000, every email address has to be verified before you send a message. Some email addresses may no longer work, websites that host the email might be dead, and many emails are no longer used though they still exist and can be considered valid.
In most cases you’ll find that 30% of your leads are invalid, and filtering them out will save you money that would otherwise be spent on delivering the messages that would never be read.
How to avoid it: Verify your leads. Always. Really. It costs less to verify 10,000 leads than to deliver your message to 2,000 invalid, abandoned or non-existing email addresses lurking on your list.
Mistake 3: You don’t enrich your leads
This mistake will not necessary ruin your campaign as much as not verifying your leads, but it will still bring your open rate, click-through rate and conversion rate down.
This problem arises when the generated leads are used right away, without enriching them by extracting additional data from various sources. Additional data for enrichment can include the following:
- Secondary contact methods (e.g. phone number, or social media profile for messaging)
- Company name (for personalization)
- Company size (for segmentation)
- Title, position and more (for more detailed personalization)
How to avoid it: Generate your leads using multiple sources, or extract additional data separately. Once you have enough additional data you can enrich your campaigns – personalize subject lines, segment your lists, personalize email copies, contact leads using multiple channels, and much more.
Mistake 4: You don’t segment your leads
The more leads the better, of course, but don’t forget about the smart, laser-targeted approach. You will get much better results and more conversions just by segmenting your leads and approaching them with more relevant messages or offers.
Lack of segmentation will show in the stats. Segmentation is a form of personalization, and emails that lack personalization don’t get opened and read as much.
How to avoid it: To segment, your list needs to be enriched. Start with basic segments.
Here are just a few examples of how you can segment your leads:
- By geographical location – You can segment your list by countries, regions or cities. You can modify your email copy to reflect the cultural differences, or just deliver your message at the right time according to the time zone.
- By company size – You can and should reach out to small, medium and enterprise-level companies with different messages. Always keep in mind that one-man-companies are interested in less expensive products, while bigger companies have bigger budgets and completely different pains and desires.
Once you are familiar with basic segmenting you can create deeper and more sophisticated segments that work best for your business. You will definitely see better open, click-through and conversion rates once you start segmenting your leads.
Mistake 5: You use your leads once
Last but not least, you only use your leads once. This is one of the most common mistakes: you have generated leads, launched your campaign, got your good/bad results, and then moved on from those leads to start generating new ones for your future campaigns.
It’s not a major mistake that can ruin your campaign, but using your leads again and again can bring you so much more conversions!
How to avoid it: If you have enriched your leads prior to this, you can follow-up by reaching them by phone in addition to email campaigns, or create multiple segments and launch bigger drip campaigns with multiple steps and better offers. Try squeezing more out of your leads, you can definitely get at least 2x more conversions from your existing lists!
Combine these tips to improve your rates, save money and get more out of your leads. Good luck on your next campaign!
Oh, thank you guys for such a complete checklist.
Thank you for reading, Zack! 🙂