At Net-Results, we’re all about helping our partners and customers shine.  With that in mind, we ask that you provide us with feedback about what you like, don’t like, and would like to see in the future.

As a result of your feedback, we will be adding some pretty cool product integrations. The first is our “sweet” integration with Sugar CRM. Horrible pun intended! The integration really is very useful and will drastically increase production and efficiency for those users of Sugar CRM.  Additionally, by popular demand, we are integrating with Outlook.  We’re psyched about this one because you can send one-off emails from your Outlook plugin AND have all of the tracking and intel of Net-Results.  Pretty smart, eh?  As always, the purpose of these integrations is to seamlessly interact with the databases you already have and use AND to make using Net-Results easier and more productive.

With all of the opportunities for lead generation out there, one of the easiest and most effective ways to capture your potential customer’s contact information is through your web forms. These forms are valuable tools that let you collect crucial data so that, once qualified, you can funnel those prospects into the sales pipeline. Not only do these forms provide invaluable information to you and your sales team, they are also key players in achieving sales success with the Net-Results Marketing Automation platform. Once a visitor has done you the favor of filling in their coveted contact information, Net-Results can then identify that customer down to their company name, first name, last name, phone number and email address each and every time they come back. Not only when they come back, but how long they are on your site, what products and services they are interested in, and what their navigation through your site is.

So, all you need to do is just build a few simple HTML “Contact Us” forms on your website and the leads will just start flowing in, right? Wrong. As technology continues to advance, so do threats of SPAM, ID theft, and email address selling, making visitors to your website more hesitant than ever to just hand over their contact information. Because of this SPAM fear that has been deeply instilled in your prospects, you must use your forms to barter with your prospects for their information, provide something they can’t get elsewhere, and something that is more than worth their email address. You want your prospects to come in, check out what you have to offer, be amazed and intrigued by those offerings, and gladly give up a few pieces of personal data in exchange for the obvious benefits your site and company provides.

There are a few simple ways to ensure your visitors will WANT to fill out your forms and WANT you to contact them-

Create A Need

Give your customers a taste of your offerings, without exposing everything. Giving them a bit of very useful information, and asking them to register for the rest, shows them that you do have credibility, but you want to establish a personal relationship with them before discussing the rest. This sample creates a need for the end of the story. Providing a few paragraphs of a white paper or informational document can be intriguing enough for a visitor to submit their email address to finish the piece.

Trade Up

Everyone likes free stuff, and if you say you don’t, you’re lying.  Creating an offer with a promotional price, coupon or free item in exchange for personal data provides the customer something that they didn’t really have to work that hard to get. Your visitors will be a bit more willing to exchange their email address when there’s a free donut at stake.

Make A Deadline

We’ve all given up our email address in exchange for an offer that ends today, tomorrow or in 3 weeks. We absolutely know the offer will still be available next month, but we do it anyways. Giving your customer a deadline to get information, get a promotional price, or get insight into future exclusive events, adds a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

Members Only

Making visitors part of a “cool kids only club” to get insider information on product releases, events or updates, provides another sort of barter for information. You’ve let them into an exclusive club where they will get the best deals, have access to the best information, and get invited to the best parties. (Well maybe not the last one, but you get it)

Breaking your website visitors of their commitment phobia (or at least web form phobia) will not only help you to better utilize the power of the Net-Results platform to increase your revenue and marketing ROI, but also give your potential customers a better idea of your credibility and insight into the important products and services you can provide to them.

I met with a client this morning who currently uses Net-Results to track website visitors and identify companies coming to her site. When she sees one who could be a good prospect, she picks up the phone and attempts to call the person who came to her site. She doesn’t always get to the right person, but she does typically make contact with someone in the organization and has a good initial prospecting call. When I asked her how she normally follows up with those prospects, she said she generally handwrites notes and mails them. I thought that was a great idea – very few people do that because email is just easier – so it really makes her standout. But, I felt that the combination of handwritten notes and automated lead nurturing could further enhance her follow-up strategy and give her greater insight into the actual interest level of her prospects. Read more

Marketing tactics are hot and cold as time passes, but no matter what business or industry, one thing remains consistent: Customers love to save money, and free is still the best word in marketing. Thanks to a growing number of Americans online (more than 70% of the population), consumers are utilizing online coupons as a quick and easy alternative to spending hours clipping them from the newspaper (If they even ever did it before). Read more

There are certainly benefits to sending both TEXT-Only and HTML emails when launching an email campaign. HTML emails are of course attractive when well-designed, allow you to insert images which help you determine an open rate, can be more compelling to click through, and convey multiple messages in an organized format. On the other hand, text emails can have a better deliverability rate, look more personalized, and are generally less likely to be confused with spam (although many spammers these days have caught on to that notion). So which one is right for your campaign? Well, it all depends on what message you are sending to what audience. Read more

By Elizabeth Sklaroff, Access Marketing Company

I’m a pretty laid back person. I don’t get excited about much – and not much impresses me. But I have to say that I’m jazzed about lead gen again, and it’s because of the web intelligence I’m able to get now. With the help of a smart demand generation “solution” (forgive me for this grossly over-used term in marketing – but in this case, it truly fits), our clients know what their leads are doing and when they are doing it – and most importantly WHO their leads are.  After installing the snippet of Net-Results code onto our clients’ websites, I have been amazed, intrigued and slightly addicted to the intelligence. Read more

According to a recent survey from Marketing Sherpa, nearly 60% of online shoppers put something in their cart but do not purchase. While there are many ways to improve the abandonment rate at the point of sale (many discussed in the same Marketing Sherpa post), there are also actions you can take on the back end to regain business from people who’ve abandoned their shopping carts. Marketing automation can be a critical factor in revenue generation for B2C and B2B companies alike – but for the purpose of this example, let’s focus on the B2C market. Read more

When talking about demand generation services to people who don’t fully understand how they work, we often get this response: “I have Google Analytics. I know who is coming to my site and what they are doing.”

You do…really? Read more

A great salesperson listens to their prospects. A great salesperson can tell you who the best prospects are and detail their specific needs. Your website is like a salesperson that works 24 hours a day/7 days a week, promoting your product or service. Nearly every prospective customer will visit your website before making a purchase. These website visits are a wealth of information that could help you determine a specific prospect’s interests. In fact, your prospects are telling you exactly what they need when they visit… but your website isn’t listening. Read more