5 Expert Tips for Crafting a Lead Engagement Strategy

You've probably heard the old age phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover." The same goes for leads—even if the "cover" in question is on a computer screen.

Sure, most account executives can't tell at first glance whether a lead will be a good fit for their business (or even care about what they have to offer). But that doesn't mean you have to fumble around blindly, shooting emails at every poor prospect you come across.

In fact, there's a way to ensure you target the right people at the right time, every time. And we're going to show you how.

1. Leverage sales automation to optimize lead engagement

As much as you might want to match the pace of your digital tools, the reality is that no one can keep up with all the leads coming into your organization. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to ensure those leads are being kept track of and prioritized so they get engaged at the right time and in the right way.

Can you guess which solution is our favorite? Sales automation, baby!

The idea is simple: You automate repetitive tasks like manually entering data in your CRM, emailing prospects, setting up reminders, and managing follow-ups so you can focus on more important things (like prospect research, personalization, and relevance).

With these other tasks taken care of, account executives can enjoy a streamlined workload that allows them to prioritize lead engagement efforts tenfold.

tHe wOndErS oF teChnOlogY.

2. Implement a sales engagement platform to streamline lead engagement

Sales engagement platforms are basically real-life cheat codes for improved lead engagement.

These solutions are designed precisely for sales success, providing a range of benefits like:

• Email tracking: This feature allows you to see which emails were opened, when they were opened, and how many times they were forwarded. This level of insight can help you determine the best time to send follow-up messages. Enhancements like one-click polls and one-click meetings are also incredibly convenient and can boost your chances of successful engagement.
• Built-in analytics: These tools provide you with real-time data on how your salespeople are using the platform and what exactly they’re doing. These metrics can help you determine if any areas need improvement and keep track of performance over time.
• Platform integrations: Sales engagement platforms are designed to seamlessly integrate with other cloud-based applications that your sales team is using. This means you can use one platform for all your sales needs, allowing you to streamline processes and save time.

This is just a taste of what sales engagement solutions can offer, but the advantages should speak for themselves. If you're an account executive searching for a streamlined way to automatically update your CRM records without duplicating data, it's time to consider incorporating a platform into your workflow.

3. Personalize interactions to build trust and drive conversions

When crafting a lead engagement strategy, it's important to consider how you can help your leads feel like they're getting personalized & relevant interactions. After all, if people don't trust that you care about them as individuals and understand their needs and goals, it's going to be difficult for them to convert into customers.

Find it hard to believe? When 79% of organizations with a documented personalization strategy exceeded their revenue objectives, it's a method worth at least trying.

To keep it simple but effective: Use customer data and preferences in your lead engagement efforts.

You'll need more than just the basic information about each prospect (like name, title, and company). You also want to include things like interests, achievements, published content, company goals, and purchase history so you can create more relevant interactions with each individual prospect or buyer persona.

You can utilize this data by personalizing messaging in your emails and social media outreach—but remember to use the channels where they're most likely engaged in conversations with brands already (you can use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to find what these are).

4. Provide trust-building content to engage and educate leads

Engaging content is an integral part of any lead engagement strategy. In fact, by reading this blog post, you're actively interacting with our own content strategy!

At its core, content is meant to engage and educate leads about a product or service (and hopefully convince them to close a deal). Think about it: If you’re trying to get somebody invested in your business, wouldn’t you want them to know everything there is to know about what you have to offer? 

Bien sûr (of course).

Sales teams can use educational and informative content (think blogs, case studies, guides, reports, infographics, videos) to their advantage when trying to engage leads.

For instance, you could include links to relevant blog posts and case studies within your email outreach for a specific product or service. If they still have questions, you can quickly send them a follow-up containing additional guides, reports, and the like to convince them to close the deal. 

If it’s professional and crafted with purpose, this content can act as a natural sales funnel, bringing prospects from awareness to consideration, and ultimately conversion.

5. Measure and analyze your results

The final step of a lead engagement strategy is to measure your results. First, you need to define your success metrics.

These can include:

• Outreach metrics (i.e. email open/response rates, social media engagement rates, link clicks, video plays, number of meetings scheduled, etc.)  
• Rate of qualified leads generated 
• Rate of leads who received a follow-up 
• Rate of leads who proceeded to the “next step” 
• Overall lead quality and conversion rate 
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) 

Then, analyze these results and adjust as needed.

For example, if your CAC is too high, you may need to increase your lead quality and conversion rate. If lead quality is good but you still aren’t getting enough conversions, then you could take steps to refine your messaging or try a new strategy altogether—all thanks to that sweet, sweet data.

If you want to maximize lead engagement and generate more conversions, then it’s important to have a sound strategy in place.

• By leveraging sales automation and implementing a sales engagement platform, you can automate many of the tasks that are necessary for successful lead nurturing.
• Personalized + relevant interactions will help build trust with your prospects, while informative content will compel them to stay in contact and/or finalize a deal.
• Finally, measuring and analyzing your results will allow you to make adjustments as needed so every contact is maximized for success.

If you're ready to hit the ground running and start engaging leads, it's time to take action and implement your own lead engagement strategy asap.