Newton, MA
BtoB Magazine
May 26, 2009
by Christopher Hosford
Amid the prolonged economic recession, lead generation is one of those
marketing tasks undergoing rapid redefinition. Increasingly, lead gen today is
about protecting what you have while duplicating past successes.
"Yes, we have a house file, but we want to customize it to make sure we're reaching the correct person," said Sara Poulton, senior director of marketing at DigitalGlobe, a provider of satellite and aerial images of the Earth for government; oil and gas companies; and the insurance industry, among others.
"It's all about segmentation and matching our content with the right type of industry," Poulton said, adding that converting these leads and "handing them off to inside sales to follow up" is another key part of the process.
DigitalGlobe faces the basic lead-gen challenges: Find the right prospects; communicate with them in a timely and compelling way; and do whatever it takes to get them to convert.
But DigitalGlobe's emphasis also highlights a shift in how lead gen is handled by many companies these days. The company is increasingly focused on the bottom of the sales funnel—nurturing the warmest of leads—and up- and cross-selling current customers.
Not surprisingly, automation is key to a successful lead-gen and nurturing effort. To market its Earth images, for example, DigitalGlobe uses lead-generation and nurturing automation from Neolane to alert prospects and current customers about the availability of new images, then tracks them based on their transaction history, catalog requests, online behaviors and lead scoring.
