How Does a Lead Tracking Program Work?

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When it comes to lead tracking, there’s really no pressure in using a program, especially if you’re just handling a very minimum number of leads. In fact, there are still companies I know that are still on spreadsheets or their own made-up database courtesy of Microsoft Access. What’s really important is that you have a dependable and organized lead tracking system. 

However, to use lead tracking software is a major boost, if you’re going to consider the time and effort you spend in organizing and re-organizing all your leads. Because it’s highly automated, you can reduce your time, and there will be lesser room for errors. You can put side notes for each of your leads to determine who among them have already been called or not. You can identify who answered yes immediately; yes, but next time; and stern no. Moreover, you can easily look up for important lead tracking information such as their full name, phone number, e-mail address, and the source of your leads. 

There are also other features that you can enjoy with a lead tracking program:

Duplicate Checking. This feature is something that you cannot really find in Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet unless you’re going to make it a commitment to double-check before you enter a piece of information. When your software has duplicate checking option, you will instantly know if a lead has already been part of your database even before you place his name among the list. This way, you can simply update his records. You can also search for both partial and complete names. 

Reports. Reports are very crucial when it comes to lead tracking. You just don’t want to say that there are more people who have been followed up today than yesterday. You definitely need proof, and you need features. You can come up with your own reports, but then, it will definitely take a lot of time. Most of the lead tracking programs these days already have their own pre-made templates for the types of tracking lead reports that you need. All you need to do is to customize them to fit the information that you are looking for. It’s also very convenient for you to generate these reports, as they already have the ability to gather and collate data straight from your updates and your own records. 

Remote Lead Updates. This could be one of the strongest benefits and features of a lead tracking application. When you have a lead tracking program, you no longer have to be in one place at a specific time. Since the software can be installed in your PC or laptop or, better yet, access through the World Wide Web, you and your sales agents can be in the field, outside of your office, in trade shows, in presentation meetings, or in just about anywhere. Because the database can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all of you can instantly update the files remotely. This generally cuts down the time you spend in lead tracking, not to mention that information becomes more accurate. You just need to add up those names who can access the lead database. This way, you can establish better accountability or control over your sales team. 

Tracking Process Creation. Today, you can also create different lead tracking processes, depending on your prospect group. For example, those who have signed up with your mailing list may have to be tracked through their e-mails, while those who have attended your trade show may have to be called. When you pattern your lead tracking process according to the habits of your prospects, it’s easier for you to reach them and obtain a response. 

Visit our lead management software sponsor: www.leads360.com

Using Your Domains to Generate and Track Leads

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Domains are very important nowadays. Since the Internet has been introduced, everyone on Earth has relied on it for almost all of their needs. They use the Internet to buy items that they need. That is why there are a lot of businesses that also depend on the Internet to generate and track their leads. However, so few of them ever know the right way of harnessing the full potential of their domains to serve their business.

Clearly, people know how to do online marketing. Yet there are some things that related to it that only few people know. These are things that, if only they were known to the marketers, could have made life a lot easier for them.

There Should be Two or More Domains Used for Marketing

Most people are used to marketing only one domain or website. That’s the norm, of course, and something that all of us are taught to do. Most applications of the Internet require only a single website. It is easier to maintain and easier to advertise--not. One thing that most marketers fail to understand is that, while it is indeed easy to advertise and bring one website to the attention of most people, it is difficult to achieve what you hoped for when you only have one website: that is to gain leads and convert them into customers.

Yes, it may be hard to believe, but that’s the truth. Why? That is because people who come into a website that is owned and operated by a businessman will automatically stay away from it. It is actually very similar to the way people react to telemarketers; once you start talking about offers and products on the telephone line, it’s either they politely tell you to hang up and leave them alone, or they will slam the phone outright on you. In other words, they’ll reject you. It is just the same on the Internet. 

This behavior stems from two reasons. First, people are always on guard on offers and products because they might be scams. With the financial crises nowadays, people are conscious about where and for what they spend the money in. Unfortunately, scams are abundant in the Internet, making people careful about websites that promote products and offers. 

The other reason is that the person may be interested in only information and may not right away be interested in any product or offer. They may be later on, but if they are bombarded right away with these promotional materials, they’ll automatically erect a wall in front of them. This is a common defense mechanism, even against telemarketers who cold-call on anyone’s telephone. You too would probably do the same thing if you were in their situation. 

As mentioned earlier, people are more interested in getting information in the Internet rather than face websites that blabber about products and offers. Why not take advantage of that? 

One way to do that is to introduce only general information on a website. However, you cannot put in general information on your business website. Your website, as a marketer’s website, is designed to put in information about your product alone. It can do nothing else but promote your products, or else, it’s not a marketer’s product already. Are you scratching your head in incomprehension now? It can be confusing. How can you introduce general information in your website without sticking to its intended aim of promoting your products? 

Now don’t waste your time trying to figure it out because the situation is similar to asking the question, “Who comes first: the chicken or the egg?” Asking yourself such kinds of questions will just put you in circles. No matter how you look at it, there’s no way you can do that with your website. Your website is intended to promote--nothing more than that. Let it stay that way. 

Advantages of Using More than One Domain

Now you probably know what we’re getting at: use a separate domain to give people the information they need. With that separate domain in place, you can then use it as a medium to give people the information that they are looking for. That’s the advantage of using more than one domain: it’s easy to generate leads that way. Just remember to keep the second domain as optimized as the first domain, so it can be seen easily in the search engine results page. You may also include a tagline at the end of your articles with a link to your website. 

That’s easy, isn’t it? You just come up with very informative articles, post them in your second domain, and redirect traffic to your main website. This way, you can capture the interest of your potential traffic as long as your articles create enough hype for your products without mentioning your company or your products of course. Finally, cinch it when you ask your site’s visitors to leave in their e-mail address and name for your newsletter. That’s lead generation for you already. You now have the means to build a database of people who are interested in your products. 

Using more than one domain can help track visits as well. If you have, say, four domains running on the same strategy--that is, giving general information about your niche--you can use them in your marketing campaigns. Specifically, they can be used to compare the success of each advertisement or lead generation campaign. Here’s how you do that.

For every ad or article you use to indirectly promote or create hype for your products, you can use an individual tagline. This tagline should carry a URL pointing to one of your websites. You should then publish several articles, with each of them pointing to any of your individual domains. Afterward, all you need to do is just look at the statistics of every website you have and see which one of them has the most number of visitors or leads delivered to you. 

Visit our lead management software sponsor: www.leads360.com