What is Lead Tracking: Basics & Strategies?

Leads are the lifeblood of any thriving business, but have you ever wondered about lead tracking?

A lead refers to an individual who engages with your business, holding the potential to become a customer. These leads may include people browsing your website, exploring your landing pages, or even those who opt-in to your email marketing campaigns.

Lead tracking process involves deciphering your leads' origin and understanding their journey from their initial discovery of your business to the point where they are prepared to purchase. Generating leads is the only first step towards getting potential customers, but failing to follow up with the leads may zero the lead-generating efforts.

According to research conducted by Verse, 44% of sales reps are too busy to follow up with leads. But integrating analytics tools like Traek helps track the leads for increased conversion rate.

By effectively tracking leads using a sales lead tracking system, sales, and marketing professionals can collaborate to discover more qualified prospective customers, close additional deals, and generate increased revenue for the business. Furthermore, lead tracking enables you to optimize your lead acquisition strategies by identifying which deliver the desired results.

What is Lead Tracking?

Now, let's delve into the fundamentals of lead tracking and what you need to know about it:

Lead tracking primarily revolves around closely monitoring the progress of your potential customers across various stages within the sales and marketing funnel. Employing lead-tracking software empowers businesses to utilize a diverse range of tools to map the entire customer journey leading up to a purchase.

In today's intricate digital landscape, customers navigate multiple platforms and environments while seeking solutions to their problems. Experts suggest that, on average, it takes approximately eight interactions with a brand to generate a sale. To enhance your chances of driving more sales, it becomes crucial to comprehend the sources of your leads, their past interactions with your company, and the types of campaigns most likely to influence their decision-making process.

How does Lead Tracking Function?

Marketing professionals can use technology to generate more accurate data throughout the lead-tracking process. Let's explore the following three steps that provide an overview of the b2b lead tracking process:

1) Lead Capture

Most companies employ various activities to gather a substantial pool of potential leads. Conducting lead generation events like giveaways and webinars can help attract a large group of leads simultaneously. Additionally, leveraging consumer data from trade shows, web form statistics, and customer hotline transcripts can be valuable. Consolidating information from multiple sources in one place allows for reliable evaluation. Many marketing and sales teams utilize software platforms that facilitate importing lead information from various sources.

2)Collecting Lead Information

Once leads are captured, collecting key information from them is essential to facilitate activity tracking. This information can be gathered through online forms or by requesting in-person visitors to fill out cards with relevant details. The information gathered may depend on the product or service the company offers. Here are some common pieces of information that might be collected from a lead:

• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Location
• Types of products or services they might be interested in purchasing
• Questions they may have

3) Lead Qualification

By categorizing leads based on specific factors, sales representatives can concentrate their time and efforts on more likely to purchase leads. Here are some characteristics to consider when determining high-quality leads:

• Inquiry: Users who have shown potential interest in the service or product through their interactions.
• Marketing qualified lead: Leads whose interactions with marketing materials indicate an intention to make a purchase potentially.
• Sales accepted lead: Marketing-qualified leads who have met predefined criteria and are subsequently passed on to the sales team for further action.
• Sales qualified lead: Marketing-qualified leads vetted by the marketing team and agreed upon by the sales team.
• Closed opportunity: Leads who have previously purchased a product or service.

Strategies & Tips for Lead Tracking

By implementing an effective lead tracking system, you equip your sales teams with contextual data that can significantly contribute to closing a sale. Such a system captures crucial customer journey information, enabling you to tailor your sales pitch accordingly.

The following methods are highly effective for tracking high-quality leads:

1) Email Campaign Preparation

Develop a structured email sequence to engage with potential leads consistently. Planning a comprehensive email marketing campaign with multiple touchpoints enables tracking open rates, click-through rates, replies, and bounce rates. Leads who actively open emails or click on embedded links are more likely to purchase. Many email marketing tools include built-in trackers that collect and compile such details into reports. Sending more emails also provides insights into the types of content potential customers are interested in.

For example, a weekly content-based newsletter featuring industry news has a higher open rate than a digest email about promotional events. This information suggests that potential customers appreciate informative content. Launching a marketing campaign that provides information through webinars and blog posts can resonate with these leads and highlight the company's expertise in their field.

2) Follow-Up Practices

Sales teams often have a system for following up with new leads that enter their database. Emailing or calling a new lead allows the sales team to gather more information, which aids in lead tracking. For example, they might discover that the lead is located in an area where the company has multiple branches, thereby increasing the chances of a sale. If you manage a sales team, consider creating a lead follow-up script with questions about key criteria such as location and budget.

3) Implementation of Lead Scoring

Based on the established qualifiers, develop a scoring system to rank leads according to their likelihood of purchasing. In smaller sales organizations, lead scoring helps focus the sales team on high-probability leads. For larger companies, lead scoring condenses essential information from vast data points. The scoring system effectively increases the chances of converting leads and acquiring new customers. Many sales management tools offer adaptive scoring, enabling the lead's score to be adjusted based on further information or interactions.

4) Investment in CRM Software

CRM software is a comprehensive tool encompassing all the previously mentioned methods. It streamlines the labor-intensive process of sifting through large volumes of data and compiles information into reports or interactive dashboards. This technology helps maintain lead tracking by storing historical data, allowing sales teams to track changes in customer spending habits over time. CRM platforms can also automatically update contact information, minimizing missed conversion opportunities. Numerous CRM options are available for companies of all sizes and industries, with some integrating into other business management tools.

5) Utilize Website Analytics

You can track how leads interact with your website by employing website analytics tools like Traek and Google Analytics. This includes monitoring which pages they visit, how long they stay, and where they exit. These insights provide valuable information about lead behavior, enabling you to optimize your website for lead generation.

Tips for Effective Lead Tracking

Here are a few tips to help implement an effective lead-tracking strategy:

• Consider your budget: Lead tracking can range from simple spreadsheet usage to sophisticated CRM software. Assess the size and objectives of your organization to determine the resources required and create a budget accordingly.
• Forecast lead quotas: Understand the volume of potential leads expected and anticipate the time and effort needed to organize the information. This knowledge can assist in task allocation and optimize the efficiency of your sales team.
• Evaluate team size: Lead tracking can be time-consuming, involving sending emails, scheduling calls, developing content, and tracking analytics. Assessing the availability of your team members can help assign tasks or consider outsourcing certain functions.
• Identify challenges in advance: Attend training programs to familiarize yourself with complex lead-tracking strategies and software. If you're part of the management team, collaborate with other directors to anticipate lead-tracking challenges within your organization.
• Assess weaknesses in your current lead management system: Evaluate your leads' quality to gauge your current strategy's effectiveness. This information can guide you in selecting your team's appropriate set of tools.

Conclusion

Every business thrives on converting its potential leads into repeat customers; this can only be achieved through a well-thought and implemented lead-tracking strategy. Lead tracking requires combined efforts from the sales and marketing teams, as both attract the leads through their process.

Traek helps sales and marketing professionals understand their target audience's behavior, track lead sources, analyze the top-performing web pages, and evaluate the effectiveness of call-to-action elements on the website. Get in touch to learn more about how Traek can help you launch a robust lead-tracking strategy.