The future of marketing is automated and data driven. Choosing and implementing the correct tools for your business will allow you to optimize processes, bring in more leads, and increase revenue.
Marketing automation goes beyond abandoned cart emails and scheduled newsletters. Now you can use automation to improve marketing emails, social media presence, lead generation, advertising, and CRM processes. HubSpot and ZoomInfo workflows make it easier than ever to supercharge your marketing efforts with lead generation.
Lead Generation
The first step to lead generation using a database service like ZoomInfo is to define your ideal customer profile. ZoomInfo offers a lot of filter options so you can really drill down to your potential customers. Some filters to consider:
- Company location: select your ideal geographic location(s)
- Contact department: Only looking to reach IT or marketing? Select that here
- Contact management level: Are you looking for decision makers or information gatherers?
- Contact info: Are you going to be calling or emailing these leads? Make sure they have the required contact information
- Contact Accuracy Score: Play with this number to cull down your list
- Job titles: Looking for a specific title? Search for that here
- Company industry: This is important. Select the industry that you wish to target
- Headcount & Financials: Is your product only relevant for Fortune 500 companies and above? Filter by headcount or financials
Exporting Lead Generation List
Once you have your list, you’ll likely do an export into your CRM like HubSpot. This will give you a good bulk starting place for leads. But wait! ZoomInfo is always updating their database and new leads come and go. You’ll want to set up a ZoomInfo workflow to capture these new leads as they fit your saved search. Save your search, then create a workflow from the same page. There are two routes you can take here. You can set up the workflow to send an email notification to you every time a lead is added to the list, or (my favorite) you can set up the workflow to automatically export new leads to your CRM. The more automation the better!
So you have your leads in HubSpot, and new leads are being added in automatically. What do you do now? We recommend creating custom lists for your leads to segment them based on industry, job title, or department. That way you can create marketing material that is specific to each group of leads, which converts higher.
Creating Emails
Create your marketing emails! Tailor the messaging in each email to hit the pain points of the group that you are targeting. Set up your 3-5 emails, choose the recipients, and schedule them for delivery. After this is where the fun automation can begin.
HubSpot allows you to create really advanced workflows based on many actions taken by leads on marketing emails. What we recommend is first creating a sorting workflow that sorts leads into a rating system. Did the lead click a certain link in your email, did they reply, did they open the email but not click a link, did they mark your email as spam or did the email bounce? Decide on how each of these actions best determines a specific lead rating within your own business and system. Then create a workflow to automatically assign leads that complete that action the corresponding lead rating.
The possibilities from here are endless. You can create a batch of follow up emails that automatically send to leads that are on the fence. The higher qualified lead ratings can automatically be assigned to a salesperson with a task for direct follow up. The lower qualified lead ratings can automatically be filtered into a list that goes through another batch of marketing emails for more touches, and then are re-sorted from there.
Marketing Funnel
When automating it is important to keep the marketing funnel in mind. Your job as a marketer is to fill the top of the funnel and work leads down to the bottom as quickly and efficiently as possible. Ask yourself at each step in your automation process, “Is the lead ready to move down in the funnel, or do they need more work?”
If they are ready to move down, automate a process that assists with that. Assign them to a salesperson for direct follow up or send them an email with a meetings link to schedule a demo or call. If they aren’t ready, figure out what they need.
Are they still cold and need a few more touches? Send them back through another batch of marketing emails. Have they been interacting well with your marketing materials? Send them a couple short direct follow-ups. As your leads work their way down the funnel and complete more actions, don’t forget to set up processes at each level that re-sort them into the correct lead rating!
Conclusion
Automation is not a one-size-fits-all guide. Each business is unique with vastly different customer bases and target profiles. It helps to start with the customer journey without automation in mind, and once you have designed the process from top of the funnel to bottom, you can begin to look at each step and see what you can automate. Good luck!
Author Bio:
Jonathan Gieg is the Marketing and Business Operations Manager at Hiperwall, a video wall software company utilizing distributed visualization for command and control, advanced analytics, visual collaboration and more. He graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in Economics. Jonathan is focused on growth and adding value through data-driven marketing.
