We all know technology is important. But do we know just how important it is? Let us go back to that dreaded pen that all our professors tried to get us to sell, when we walked into their class for the first time all those years ago. In order to successfully sell that pen to someone, you would have to know a few things about them: can they write, do they write a lot, do they prefer using a pencil over a ball-point pen, and so on. What you are collecting by means of asking these questions is – data.
Now imagine having at least 20 such answers per person, and a target of selling one million pens. Do you think it would be humanly possible for however large a team to sit together and sift through 20 million answers to confidently say whether or not they would be able to meet the target in a reasonable amount of time? And even if you could get this team, how much do you think you would have to pay them? Do you think you could make a profit out of pens sold this way?
At every point in the above scenario, there is a very good chance you tried to use some kind of device, or software, or program (at least in your head), to get a direction, or ‘lead’, to guide your subsequent steps. In other words, technology abled your journey forward and in the right direction. And yet, when it comes to investing in sophisticated systems that will make life a lot easier and business much more lucrative, we hesitate.
10 Reasons Why Spending the Big Bucks on Technology is a Smart Move
Technology has become such an integral part of every process these days that it is often not accounted for. When we think of getting in touch with someone, we automatically think of using a phone or social media platforms. Wedding invitations? Gotta email them. Meetings – cannot happen without a PowerPoint presentation. And yet for someone who is constantly in touch with technology, we know little of how it impacts our business, especially lead generation. So let’s take a look at some of the ways technology has revolutionised the way we conduct business, particularly how it has improved lead generation
1. Technology helps chalk up a roadmap for people to walk up to your store, instead of compelling you to go door to door. At the click of a button, you can advertise your service or product to millions of customers, and give them the means as well as methods to reach to you to make a purchase. In other words, technology improves your reach, increasing number of leads generated
2. Technology helps create very niche funnels, which it would be humanly impossible to create. This allows for specific targeting, and even more specific marketing, so that you have something to offer to every person who arrives at your doorstep. Not only are niche funnels useful to generate sophisticated leads, they are also a great way of increasing as well as simultaneously diversifying your leads.
3. Technology is improving the scope of conversations. You can use it to reach wider audiences, beyond the scope of any one person or organisation. Not only that, you can track, record and review every conversations – whether through emails, or on the phone – to multiply your learning and thereby improve your service or product, or the marketing thereof. This creates a positive feedback loop and in turn helps generate better leads, and further convert them into satisfied customers.
4. Technology can aid in the actual conversion of leads too. Most business is carried out online, so no one is physically present – neither the seller, nor the buyer. In fact, the product or service too is experienced only virtually before a purchase is actually made. However, technology can make this journey more sentient; for example, through the use of augmented reality, live chat support, and so on. This does not only improve conversion rates, it also helps improve quality of leads, and thereby initiates the creation of a loyal ‘tribe’.
5. Technology helps build loyalty. You do not have to run a fresh campaign every single time you want to sell a new service or product; through the use of sign-up programs, you can keep your loyal customer-base informed about your company, the developments you are making, and what services/products you plan to offer next. This not only helps strengthen the loyalty, but it also escalates the chances of referrals, creating opportunities for more and more leads to be generated.
6. Technology enables you to go from customer satisfaction to customer delight through predictive models. It allows you to study purchase behaviour and predict the needs of your customer, thereby giving you a chance to wow them by offering solutions that you have good reason to believe they need. In doing so, you automatically diversify your customer base by casting a wider net to generate more leads.
7. Data is just a bunch of numbers, unless you have the right tool or program to make sense of it. Technology makes handling of data easier and faster, and helps you infer it better. Without technology, all you have is 2 billion customers; technology will help you figure out how many of them want to buy a new pen, versus how many just want a cartridge. You can thus build several subsets, union sets, intersection sets, etc. of the universal set (that is your entire customer database) and maximise the marketing potential of your company.
8. Technology makes it possible for you to have multiple face-to-face interactions without even so much as leaving your office, through the use of video content. This gives your marketing endeavours a ‘face’, making people connect better, trust more, and engage actively – all of which in turn multiplies your chances of a sale. Use of sophisticated technology in marketing campaigns thus improves your chances of lead generation.
9. Technology allows reinforcement by creating multiple touch-points, all of which can be used to drive the same point home. For example, an email can inform leads about an upcoming event; the same event can be promoted through social media channels by creating an ‘RSVP’-type of interaction online; finally, content marketing can further improve recall value in the form of press-releases or supplementary content. If all this interaction is made ‘public’ even people outside of your customer base may be intrigued and want to participate. Not only does this ensure better conversions, it also augments number of leads generated, because each mode of communication will generate its own unique set of leads. There will hence be sufficient overlaps as well as unique leads. Finally, this type of a marketing approach also allows you to study the quality and quantity of leads generated through different platforms, giving you a better indication of where to put your money; all this made possible only through the use of correct technology.
10. Technology helps cut costs – in terms of labour, money, and time. All these resources can then be allocated to explore more methods and avenues of expanding your business through evermore better lead generation.
Be it email-marketing, subscription or sign-up content, or building a community, technology can help you find a faster, easier, more efficient and at time even more interesting/fun way to do things. And when you enjoy the work you do, people enjoy working with you too, creating a positive feedback loop. And isn’t that what we all really want at the end of the day – to do something that makes us happy?
Mrunal Belvalkar
Writer
Having completed Masters in Microbiology, a fluke job she took up fresh out of college made Mrunal realise her true calling – writing. Since then, she has gotten her hands dirty with every kind of linguistic job she could find – from working as a writer for a website, to editing educational books and novels, to working as a German Language specialist for the e-commerce giant Amazon. Currently she is working on translating a Marathi novel into English, while trying to pursue the scores of other creative activities she likes to indulge in, in her free time – reading and traveling being right at the top of the list.