After years of studying, developing and implementing successful lead generation programs and processes for software companies, we have developed a lead generation test that companies can now use to measure the effectiveness of their lead generation program.

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If you’re not generating enough leads to satisfy your sales team, there is a very good chance you don’t just have a problem with your campaigns or activities – in most cases you have a problem that goes much deeper than just tactical lead generation activities.  You more than likely have a marketing and sales issue that’s not going to get solved overnight.

In over 15 years of focusing on lead generation solutions for the software industry – our answer to the “quick fix” has remained the same…

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We’ve created a separate “Quick Tips” category you’ll find on the right hand side of each page under the Category heading.  Hopefully you’ll get some value out of these tips…and of course, let us know what you think…

Quick Tips:   Lead Generation - Before You Start…

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In fact, in a recent Forrester Research document published an June 16, 2008 titled - US IT Market Outlook: Q2 2008, Not So Bad So Far — But There Is Worse To Come In The Rest Of The Year , the author Andrew Bartels summarized, “With Q1 2008 data now in for both the US economy and the US tech market, the year has started out much as we expected. The data so far supports our projection that the US market for technology goods and services will see a slowdown in growth in 2008, to 3% from 6% in 2007. This slow growth rate is mainly due to an assumed mild, two-quarter recession in the US economy.”

But even though the outlook might not be bright, - it doesn’t mean that generating new leads and closing new business needs to feel like it’s impossible.  

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According to Enquiro, “In this 50 minute live event catered to B2B online marketers and web designers, attendees will learn what the latest research tells us about landing page content and layout. We reveal what business to business purchasers look for at various stages of their buying cycle, and how marketing campaigns should be adjusted accordingly. More specifically, Enquiro’s new eye tracking research examines what these buyers look at on B2B landing pages and shows how the principle of barrier scanning can be used to effectively coax eyes towards the desired conversion.”

I have attended a few of Enquiro’s webinars and found them to be worth the time.   Of particular interest – and a topic I’m sure they will cover in this webinar as well – is their research concerning when B2B prospects use search engines and what they are looking for during the different phases of their buying cycles.

You can register for their free webinar here.

Last week I attended a webinar conducted by Kellysearch.com titled: “B2B Online Marketing Foundations: Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.”

The webinar’s focus was on the differences between Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization, and to provide tips and tools for developing effective SEM and SEO campaigns.  Like many similar type webinars there was a good deal of basic information, but the webinar also had some very solid ideas and tips for B2B marketers. 

Here are a few of the topics and tips I took away from the webinar that I thought were most relevant to our industry.

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According to their registration information they claim that despite the softness in the overall economy, b-to-b marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year.   During the webinar they plan to review the findings of this annual survey and update them with new interviews and survey data collected in the past month.

Included in their webcast will be:

• How marketers are measuring success in 2008
 
• Where marketers are spending their online budgets
 
• What marketers think about current economic
 conditions, and how these are affecting their plans
 and budget

Register here for this webinar, offered by BtoB Magazine.

While it’s not a vertical search engine, I ran across this site a few weeks ago and I think it’s a pretty interesting take on how people may use search engines in the future…not only in their initial search process, but also as they compare and contrast vendors and products throughout the buying process.

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And it’s just not the software industry that’s feeling frustrated as they attempt to use the major search engines – but most all B2B industries are feeling some type of similar pain.  Most B2B marketers, by now, understand that you simply can’t compare the popularity and effectiveness of search engine results to B2C markets.   The bottom line is that the relevant factors that the major search engines use to determine rankings simply don’t work well for B2B companies.

However, one answer to this frustration may be vertical search engines. 

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