61% of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge, with 37% of salespeople admitting that they struggle most with prospecting. The growth of a business is reliant on the consistent momentum of sourcing and following up leads, but not every business has the resources to do this in house. For many businesses, outsourcing a Lead Generation campaign is the next logical step.

When enquiring about a Lead Generation campaign with us, a business’ top question is often, “when will I see a return on my investment?” The most important thing to remember with any campaign is that no two are the same. On average, the time frame in which a business will see a return is 6-12 months, however, some of our clients see returns as quickly as 1-month in. Ultimately, campaign outcomes and ROI will be totally unique to you and your business.

Making your Lead Generation campaign a success can be impacted by different criteria including, but not exclusive to:

• The journey of your customer – How long does it take to engage, nurture and close your prospects? If your sales cycle only tends to last a couple of weeks, you will see ROI more quickly, however, if your sales cycle takes months or years, this will inevitably delay the time in which you begin to see ROI.
• The average cost per order – Once closed, how much is the sale worth? If, for example, your product has an upfront value of £10s of thousands, you may see ROI quicker than a company selling products of a lower value per sale, or a subscription-based SaaS solution relying on residual income. That is however not to say that ROI won’t develop, it is more about being realistic on the scale and worth of your sales – look at your sales value, customer lifetime value and time to convert.
• Your ability to service your clients – When beginning a Lead Generation campaign, it is important that you have three things in place to support us and your prospects.

1. Define what a lead means to you. Is it a phone call, face to face appointment or setting up a demo, for example?
2. What are your qualifying criteria – industry, company size, location, decision maker position or contract end date window?
3. Have a process in place to handle and close the lead once they are qualified by us. We will focus on the qualification and passing the quality, but how will you close them?
4. Be the expert and have good product/market knowledge. It sounds obvious, but you need to know your market and products inside out, whilst our experienced team are able to offer prospects introductory information, it is your experience and knowledge that will ultimately seal the deal.

• Your data – If the data provided to us is cleaned and ready to go, we will be able to get the ball rolling quicker than if it needs to be sourced and cleansed. Moreover, if your data includes prospects that are already in the process of being warmed or nurtured, ROI will come quicker as they will be further along your sales pipeline. If you don’t have any data to provide/are looking for additional records, we can source this for you and ensure that it is CTPS compliant.

The key takeaway is that Lead Generation, like any other sales and marketing campaign, should be seen and measured as an investment and a business support. It is not a magic fix and there is no magic formula to calculate guaranteed return. Whilst we can forecast what can happen and make predictions based on your business and our experience, it will ultimately be dependent on what you want to achieve and the insight you can provide us with to get you there – from there we can take your goals and run with them.

Are you ready to take your Lead Generation and sales goals to the next level? Talk to Air, the award-winning agency who are disrupting the market. Call 0345 241 3038 or email contact@air-marketing.co.uk