Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

Senior digital marketing leaders are accountable for building relationships, creating awareness, and developing trust and loyalty with website visitors, thereby delivering high-quality, high-value leads that Sales can easily convert to wins. Unfortunately, many marketing leaders report that their website visitors are low-quality and either disengage quickly or, when they engage further with lead gen engine components, they just don’t convert. These marketing leaders urgently need to diagnose what’s not working in three key areas in their lead gen engine to quickly remedy the issue and get back on track, building new customer relationships and driving loyalty. This blueprint will provide you with a tool to quickly and easily diagnose weakness within your lead gen engine. You can use the results to create a strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.

Terra Higginson

Marketing Research Director

SoftwareReviews

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Globally, business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

• A low volume of quality leads from their website.
• A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
• A long lead conversion time compared to competitors.
• A low volume of organic website visitors.

88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads (Convince & Convert), but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of a much larger problem with the lead gen engine. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the leaks, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

Common Obstacles

Even though lead generation is a critical element of marketing success, marketers struggle to fix the problems with their lead gen engine due to:

• A lack of resources.
• A lack of budget.
• A lack of experience in implementing effective lead generation strategies.

Most marketers spend too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them (Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow). Marketers are increasingly under pressure to deliver high-quality leads to sales but work under tight budgets with inadequate or inexperienced staff who don’t understand the importance of optimizing the lead generation process.

SoftwareReviews’ Approach

With a targeted set of diagnostic tools and an optimization strategy, you will:

• Uncover the critical weakness in your lead generation engine.
• Develop a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.
• Build profitable long-term customer relationships.

Organizations who activate the findings from their lead generation diagnostic and optimization strategy will decrease the time and budget spent on lead generation by 25% to 50%. They will quickly uncover inefficiencies in their lead gen engine and develop a proven lead generation optimization strategy based on the diagnostic findings.

SoftwareReviews Insight

The lead gen engine is foundational in building profitable long-term customer relationships. It is the process through which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty. Without the ability to continually diagnose lead gen engine flaws, marketers will fail to optimize new customer relationship creation and long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

Your Challenge

88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads, but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of much deeper problems.

Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

• A low volume of organic website visitors.
• A low volume of quality leads from their website.
• A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
• A longer lead conversion time than competitors in the same space.

If treated without a root-cause analysis, these symptoms often result in higher-than-average marketing spend and wasted resources. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the misfires, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

88% of marketers are unsatisfied with lead conversion (Convince & Convert).

Benchmarks

Compare your lead gen engine metrics to industry benchmarks.

Midmarket B2B SaaS Industry

Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

Common obstacles

Why do most organizations improperly diagnose a misfiring lead gen engine?

Lack of Clear Starting Point

The lead gen engine is complex, with many moving parts, and marketers and marketing ops are often overwhelmed about where to begin diagnosis.

Lack of Benchmarks

Marketers often call out metrics such as increasing website visitors, contact-to-lead conversions, numbers of qualified leads delivered to Sales, etc., without a proven benchmark to compare their results against.

Lack of Alignment Between Marketing and Sales

Definitions of a contact, a marketing qualified lead, a sales qualified lead, and a marketing influenced win often vary.

Lack of Measurement Tools

Integration gaps between the website, marketing automation, sales enablement, and analytics exist within some 70% of enterprises. The elements of the marketing (and sales) tech stack change constantly. It’s hard to keep up.

Lack of Understanding of Marketing ROI

This drives many marketers to push the “more” button – more assets, more emails, more ad spend – without first focusing on optimization and effectiveness.

Lack of Resources

Marketers have an endless list of to-dos that drive them to produce daily results. Especially among software startups and mid-sized companies, there are just not enough staff with the right skills to diagnose and fix today’s sophisticated lead gen engines.

Implications of poor diagnostics

Without proper lead gen engine diagnostics, marketing performs poorly

• The lead gen engine builds relationships and trust. When a broken lead gen engine goes unoptimized, customer relationships are at risk.
• When the lead gen engine isn’t working well, customer acquisition costs rise as more expensive sales resources are charged with prospect qualification.
• Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers lack the foundation they need to create awareness among prospects – growth suffers.
• Marketers will throw money at content or ads to generate more leads without any real understanding of engine leakage and misfires – your cost per lead climbs and reduces marketing profitability.

Most marketers are spending too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them.

Source: Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow

Lead gen engine optimization increases the efficiency of your marketing efforts and has a 223% ROI.

Source: WordStream

Benefits of lead gen engine diagnostics

Diagnosing your lead gen engine delivers key benefits:

• Pinpoint weakness quickly. A quick and accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool saves Marketing 50% of the effort spent uncovering the reason for low conversion and low-quality leads.
• Optimize more easily. Marketing executives will save 70% of the time spent creating a lead gen optimization marketing strategy based upon the diagnostic findings.
• Maximize marketing ROI. Build toward and maintain the golden 3:1 LTV:CAC (lifetime value to customer acquisition cost) ratio for B2B SaaS marketing.
• Stop wasting money on ineffective advertising and marketing. Up to 75% of your marketing budget is being inefficiently spent if you are running on a broken lead gen engine.

“It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic. Correct targeting and testing methods can increase conversion rates up to 300 percent.” – Jeff Eisenberg, IterateStudio

Source: Lift Division

True benefits of fixing the lead gen engine

These numbers add up to a significant increase in marketing influenced wins.

175%
Buyer Personas Increase Revenue
Source: Illumin8

202%
Personalized CTAs Increase Conversions
Source: HubSpot

50%
Lead Magnets Increase Conversions
Source: ClickyDrip

79%
Lead Scoring Increases Conversions
Source: Bloominari

50%
Lead Nurturing Increases Conversions
Source: KevinTPayne.com

80%
Personalized Landing Pages Increase Conversions
Source: HubSpot

Who benefits from an optimized lead gen engine?

This Research Is Designed for:

• Senior digital marketing leaders who are:
  • Looking to increase conversions.
  • Looking to increase the quality of leads.
  • Looking to increase the value of leads.

This Research Will Help You:

• Diagnose issues with your lead gen engine.
• Create a lead gen optimization strategy and a roadmap.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Digital marketing leaders and product marketing leaders who are:
  • Looking to decrease the effort needed by Sales to close leads.
  • Looking to increase leadership’s faith in Marketing’s ability to generate high-quality leads and conversions.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Align the Sales and Marketing teams.
• Receive the necessary buy-in from management to increase marketing spend and headcount.
• Avoid product failure.

SoftwareReviews’ approach

1. Diagnose Misfires in the Lead Gen Engine

Identifying any areas of weakness within your lead gen engine is a fundamental first step in improving conversions, ROI, and lead quality.

2. Create a Lead Gen Optimization Strategy

Optimize your lead gen strategy with an easily customizable template that will provide your roadmap for future growth.

The SoftwareReviews Methodology to Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

Insight Summary

The lead gen engine is the foundation of marketing

The lead gen engine is critical to building relationships. It is the foundation upon which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty.

Misalignment between Sales and Marketing is costly

Digital marketing leaders need to ensure agreement with Sales on the definition of a marketing qualified lead (MQL), as it is the most essential element of stakeholder alignment.

Prioritization is necessary for today’s marketer

By prioritizing the fixes within the lead gen engine that have the highest impact, a marketing leader will be able to focus their optimization efforts in the right place.

Stop, your engine is broken

Any advertising or effort expended while running marketing on a broken lead gen engine is time and money wasted. It is only once the lead gen engine is fixed that marketers will see the true results of their efforts.

Tactical insight

Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers risk wasting valuable time and money because they aren’t creating relationships with prospects that will increase the quality of leads, conversion rate, and lifetime value.

Tactical insight

The foundational lead relationship must be built at the marketing level, or else Sales will be entirely responsible for creating these relationships with low-quality leads, risking product failure.

Blueprint Deliverable:

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

An efficient and easy-to-use diagnostic tool that uncovers weakness in your lead gen engine.

Key Deliverable:

Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

A comprehensive strategy for optimizing conversions and increasing the quality of leads.

SoftwareReviews Offers Various Levels of Support to Meet Your Needs

Included within Advisory Membership:

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Optional add-ons:

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on lead gen engine diagnostics look like?

Diagnose Your Lead Gen Engine

Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and specific challenges with your lead gen engine.

Call #2: Gather baseline metrics and discuss the steering committee and working team.

Call #3: Review results from baseline metrics and answer questions.

Call #4: Discuss the lead gen engine diagnostic tool and your steering committee.

Call #5: Review results from the diagnostic tool and answer questions.

Develop Your Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

Call #6: Identify components to include in the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

Call #7: Discuss the roadmap for continued optimization.

Call #8: Review final lead gen engine optimization strategy.

Call #9: (optional) Follow-up quarterly to check in on progress and answer questions.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. For guidance on marketing applications, we can arrange a discussion with an Info-Tech analyst. Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

Phase 1

Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

The diagnostic tool will allow you to quickly and easily identify the areas of weakness in the lead gen engine by answering some simple questions. The steps include:

• Select the lead gen engine optimization committee and team.
• Gather baseline metrics.
• Run the lead gen engine diagnostic.
• Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Marketing lead
• Lead gen engine steering committee

Step 1.1

Identify Lead Gen Engine Optimization Steering Committee & Working Team

Activities

1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Leadership

Outcomes of this step

An understanding of who will be responsible and who will be accountable for accomplishing the lead gen engine diagnostic and optimization strategy.

1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee

1-2 hours

1. The marketing lead should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the steering committee for the lead gen engine optimization.
2. Document the steering committee members in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “The Steering Committee.”

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

Consider the skills and knowledge required for the diagnostic and the implementation of the strategy. Constructing a cross-functional steering committee will be essential for the optimization of the lead gen engine. At least one stakeholder from each relevant department should be included in the steering committee.

For small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), because employees wear many different hats, assign people that have the requisite skills and knowledge, not the role title.

1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team

1-2 hours

1. The marketing director should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the working team for the lead gen engine optimization.
2. Finalize selection of team members and fill out the slide entitled “The Working Team” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Lead gen engine working team

Consider the working skills required for the diagnostic and implementation of the strategy and assign the working team.

Step 1.2

Gather Baseline Metrics

Activities

1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Gather baseline metrics.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Analytics lead

Outcomes of this step

Understand and document baseline marketing metrics.

1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1-2 hours

1. Use the example on the next slide to learn about the B2B SaaS industry-standard baseline metrics.
2. Meet with the analytics lead to analyze and record the data within the “Baseline Metrics” slide of the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. The baseline metrics will include:
   • Unique monthly website visitors
   • Visitor to lead conversion rate
   • Lead to MQL conversion rate
   • Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
   • Lifetime customer value to customer acquisition cost (LTV to CAC) ratio
   • Campaign ROI

Recording the baseline data allows you to measure the impact your lead gen engine optimization strategy has over the baseline.

B2B SaaS baseline metrics

Industry standard metrics for B2B SaaS in 2022

Unique Monthly Visitors

Industry standard is 5% to 10% growth month over month.

Visitor to Lead Conversion

Industry standard is between 0.9% to 2.1%.

Lead to MQL Conversion

Industry standard is between 36% to 48%.

CAC

Industry standard is a cost of $400 to $850 per customer acquired.

LTV to CAC Ratio

Industry standard is an LTV:CAC ratio between 3 to 6.

Campaign ROI

Email: 201%

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): 36%

LinkedIn Ads: 94%

Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

Update the Lead Gen Optimization Strategy Template with your company’s baseline metrics.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 1.3

Run the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

Activities

1.3.1 Gather steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Gather the steering committee and answer the questions within the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool.

This step involves the following participants:

• Lead gen engine optimization working team
• Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

Outcomes of this step

Lead gen engine diagnostic and scorecard

1.3.1 Gather the committee and team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

2-3 hours

1. Schedule a two-hour meeting with the steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool. To ensure the alignment of all departments and the quality of results, all steering committee members must participate.
2. Answer the questions within the tool and then review your company’s results in the Results tab.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

Step 1.4

Identify & Prioritize Low-Scoring Areas

Activities

1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Identify and prioritize the low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

A prioritized list of the lead gen engine problems to include in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

1 hour

1. Transfer the results from the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard Results tab to the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard.”
   • Results between 0 and 2 should be listed as high-priority fixes on the “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
   • Results between 2 and 3 should be listed as medium-priority fixes on “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
   • Results between 3 and 4 are within the industry standard and will require no fixes or only small adjustments.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

Phase 2

Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

Create a best-in-class lead gen optimization strategy and roadmap based on the weaknesses found in the diagnostic tool. The steps include:

• Define the roadmap.
• Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy.
• Present the strategy to the steering committee.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Step 2.1

Define the Roadmap

Activities

2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Create the optimization roadmap for your lead gen engine strategy.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

Strategy roadmap

2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

1 hour

1. Copy the results from "The Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard" slide to the "Value, Resources & Roadmap Matrix" slide in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. Adjust the Roadmap Quarter column after evaluating the internal resources of your company and expected value generated.
2. Using these results, create your strategy roadmap by updating the slide entitled “The Strategy Roadmap” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 2.2

Create the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

Activities

2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy based on the results of your diagnostic scorecard.

This step involves the following participants:

Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

A leadership-facing lead gen optimization strategy

2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

2-3 hours

Review the strategy template:

1. Use "The Strategy Roadmap" slide to organize the remaining slides from the Q1, Q2, and Q3 sections.
   1. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q1 should be placed within the Q1 section.
   2. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q2 should be placed within the Q2 section.
   3. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q3 should be placed within the Q3 section.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 2.3

Present the strategy to the steering committee

Activities

2.3.1 Present the findings of the diagnostic and the lead gen optimization strategy to the steering committee.

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Get executive buy-in on the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Steering committee

Outcomes of this step

• Buy-in from leadership on the strategy

2.3.1 Present findings of diagnostic and lead gen optimization strategy to steering committee

1-2 hours

1. Schedule a presentation to present the findings of the diagnostic, the lead gen engine optimization strategy, and the roadmap to the steering committee.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Related SoftwareReviews Research

Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

Make it easier to market, sell, and achieve product-market fit with deeper buyer understanding.

• Reduce time and treasure wasted chasing the wrong prospects.
• Improve product-market fit.
• Increase open and click-through rates in your lead gen engine.
• Perform more effective sales discovery and increase eventual win rates.

Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

In today’s competitive environment, optimizing Sales’ resources by giving them qualified leads is key to B2B marketing success.

• Lead scoring is a must-have capability for high-tech marketers.
• Without lead scoring, marketers will see increased costs of lead generation and decreased SQL-to-opportunity conversion rates.
• Lead scoring increases sales productivity and shortens sales cycles.

Build a More Effective Go-to-Market Strategy

Creating a compelling go-to-market strategy and keeping it current is a critical software company function – as important as financial strategy, sales operations, and even corporate business development – given its huge impact on the many drivers of sustainable growth.

• Align stakeholders on a common vision and execution plan.
• Build a foundation of buyer and competitive understanding.
• Deliver a team-aligned launch plan that enables commercial success.

Bibliography

“11 Lead Magnet Statistics That Might Surprise You.” ClickyDrip, 28 Dec. 2020. Accessed April 2022.

“45 Conversion Rate Optimization Statistics Every Marketer Should Know.” Outgrow, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks.” First Page Sage, 24 Feb. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs: Behind the Numbers.” First Page Sage, 1 Sept. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Conversion Optimization.” Lift Division, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Corson, Sean. “LTV:CAC Ratio [2022 Guide] | Benchmarks, Formula, Tactics.” Daasity, 3 Nov. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Dudley, Carrie. “What are personas?” Illumin8, 26 Jan. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

Godin, Seth. “Permission Marketing.” Accenture, Oct. 2009. Accessed April 2022.

Lebo, T. “Lead Conversion Statistics All B2B Marketers Need to Know.” Convince & Convert, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Lister, Mary. “33 CRO & Landing Page Optimization Stats to Fuel Your Strategy.” WordStream, 24 Nov. 2021. [Accessed April 2022].

Nacach, Jamie. “How to Determine How Much Money to Spend on Lead Generation Software Per Month.” Bloominari, 18 Sept. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

Needle, Flori. “11 Stats That Make a Case for Landing Pages.” HubSpot, 10 June 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Payne, Kevin. “10 Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics to Boost Your Sales.” Kevintpayne.com, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Tam, Edwin. “ROI in Marketing: Lifetime Value (LTV) & Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).” Construct Digital, 19 Jan. 2016. Accessed April 2022.