Asking Too Much Too Soon? New Research Supports Progressively Building Marketing Lead Profiles

Poll Confirms Customers Reluctant to Provide Social Media Information

Business Wire

posted: 34 DAYS 8 HOURS AGO

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A recently released study of Internet users supports the concept of building profiles of prospective customers progressively – that is, only asking a few, general questions when prospects first register on vendor web sites and then asking additional, deeper questions as the relationship develops. Market2Lead, a leading provider of marketing automation software and services, pioneered software that enables marketers to build profiles on prospective customers progressively. The lead nurturing software dynamically creates new web forms each time a prospective customer returns to a vendor’s web site.

Market2Lead CMO Kevin Joyce says a Harris Interactive survey released last week by Pontiflex confirms the importance of progressive profile-building as well as the value of nurturing prospects via email until they become sales-ready leads.

“Marketers should think of dating when they create web forms,” Joyce said. “You don’t ask for a complete medical history on a first date. Likewise, with a first web form, you should only ask for some basic information, including a valid email address. Then, as the relationship with the prospect grows, you can ask slightly deeper questions on each subsequent web visit. Market2Lead dynamically creates web forms that do exactly that for our customers.”

A recent analysis of 750,000 registrations on the websites of Market2Lead customers showed that 21% of people who registered once returned to register for additional offers. In addition, 11% came back to register 3 or more times. Dynamic progressive profiling gives marketers the chance to slim down the first web form in the knowledge that the interested leads will come back and offer up more information during subsequent registrations.

The Pontiflex/Harris survey indicated that 96 percent of online adults who have completed web forms to receive special offers or more information from companies have provided their email address. The survey also indicated that under the same circumstances only, 12 percent of online adults have provided their social networking information (such as a Twitter handle or Facebook username).

“A social networking address is an example of the kind of information for which marketers shouldn’t ask on the first web form presented,” Joyce added, “but customers are often more willing to provide such information later in the lead nurturing process.”

The Pontiflex/Harris survey also found that at purchase time, 73% of online adults are more likely to buy from a company with whom they’ve registered for special offers or more information vs. a company with whom they have not registered. And 68% are more likely to trust a company from whom they hear often.

“These numbers provide strong support for the kind of lead nurturing Market2Lead makes automatic,” Joyce said. “Market2Lead not only keeps marketers in touch with prospective customers, our system automatically selects the best next offer to provide to each individual, based on what that prospect has done and said so far. This adaptive nurturing helps turn even more prospects into sales-ready leads.”

For more information about marketing automation and Market2Lead, visit the company’s web site at www.market2lead.com. More information about the Pontiflex/Harris Interactive survey is available at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb3043284.htm.

About Market2Lead

Market2Lead offers software and services that provide the automation and analytical insight to move more prospect relationships into customer relationships. Market2Lead has a strong focus on contact data integration, data quality richness, and deeper and more accurate reporting. Market2Lead’s software and services assure that marketing programs are more effective in producing sales-ready leads, and marketing investments have a measurably better ROI. Market2Lead is a privately held company headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit www.market2lead.com.

© 2009 Market2Lead, Inc., Market2Lead, and the Market2Lead Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Market2Lead, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Information is subject to change without notice. All rights reserved.

Editors: This news release is also available online at http://www.market2lead.com/company/pr2009-10-26.html.