This white paper delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead generation techniques to develop marketing qualified leads for an organization’s sales pipeline. You will learn how to: 1. Define a lead and understand the buying process 2. Build a robust B2B lead generation strategy 3. Use various list-to-lead techniques by Markable Solutions

1. The Journey from List
to Lead With Markable
Solutions
A
GUIDE TO
EFFECTIVE
LEAD
GENERATION
Markable Solutions
21451 Continental Circle, Saratoga, CA 95070
Phone: +1 (408) 799 4081, Fax: +1 (408) 868 0333
Email: info@markablesolutions.com

2. ABSTRACT
The process of identifying a person who has shown
interest in your product and/or service and converting
him/her into a prospect is lead generation. This usually
involves gently ‘warming up’ the person to ultimately
buy your product. Lead generation can be carried out
in a multitude of ways, such as generating a list of
potential prospects, engaging them through compelling
offers and converting them into qualified prospects.
Compelling offers could consist of coupons, gated
content, contests, email/newsletter subscriptions,
podcasts, webinars – each one of these can form a
part of your lead generation strategy. B2B inside sales
typically consist of promoting and selling your products
online, a strategy that uses sales nurturing tricks and
techniques to promote lead flow and boost revenues.
The onset of real-time business solutions has changed
the landscape of marketing, making it more amenable
to targeted offerings. Everything begins with a great
list. However, most organizations end up barking up
the wrong tree by using cluttered databases sourced
from vendors, thereby diminishing their chances
of producing the desired results. This white paper
delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead
generation techniques to develop marketing qualified
leads for an organization’s sales pipeline.
WHAT IS
LEAD GENERATION?
Simply put, lead generation involves a series of
techniques to develop interest and inquiry in the
service or product of your business. Online marketing
methods while leveraging technology struggle with
clunky purchased databases and poorly designed
campaigns. This is where effective lead generation
steps in using CRM, Content Marketing, and Digital
Marketing to stem the rot, and create enticing ‘inside
sales’ leads and converting these into sustainable lead
generation models.
WHERE IS
LEAD GENERATION TODAY?
Digital marketing has pushed lead generation to a new
level. Companies now employ precise technological
advancements that shift traditional marketing to what is
known as targeted integrated marketing – a science that
uses real-time business solutions like CRM, Content
Marketing, and other such digital techniques. Lead
generation, as a process, is extremely critical to an
organization’s sales strategy creating what insiders term
as the ‘sales funnel’. Customized mailer campaigns can
do wonders by shortening the sales cycles, improving
tele-sales figures and aligning one’s database marketing
efforts for better and more impactful results. However,
it is important to note that not all lead generation is
necessary and nurturing the captured leads is equally
important to maintain an effective sales strategy.
Research seems to indicate that 79% of marketing
leads never make their way through the sales funnel
(Source: Marketing Sherpa) and only a meager 25% are
considered ‘legitimate’ (Source: Gleanster Research).
The good news is that companies that nurture their
leads generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower

3. costs (Source: Forrester
Research).
EVOLUTION
OF LEAD
GENERATION
Independent research
seems to suggest that
78% of marketing
professionals feel that
generating high quality
leads is the most important
business challenge they
face. Technology-based
modern marketing
techniques, as we know
them today, comprise four
distinct stages – Content
Auditing, Lead Reporting,
Lead Scoring and Lead
Nurturing. Each stage,
when executed well, helps
strengthen the relationship
when transitioning from a prospect to a customer. In
today’s world, marketing professionals should strive to
‘be found’ via their content strategies, rather than by
hammering out email blasts to solicit likely consumers.
With so much information floating on the internet, most
consumers’ attention span is getting more limited. What
is termed as ‘attention scarcity’ is now reaching gigantic
proportions, enough to make marketing professionals
seriously consider revising their age-old strategies of
pushing out content explicitly and making ‘sales pitches’.
For buyers it is a simple process – eliminate the noise
that is slightly off the mark. Once a buyer treads that
path, you can forget about a lead conversion.
Today, it is all about educating the buyer. Tell her/
him about the product or service category, the
benefits and the attributes, and implicitly suggest
the name of the brand. That is possibly the only way
to convince a buyer to spend more time in analyzing
your proposition – and that can lead to a conversion.
Your digital presence, and smart digital presence
is extremely critical to lead generation today. Gone
are the years of proclaiming product ‘A’ has certain
qualities in newspaper advertisements. You are
better off talking about product category, and how it
benefits the consumer. And, weave in your own brand
with subtlety. According to research by Forrester, a
buyer may be 75% to 90% through the sales journey
before conversing with the company, making it doubly
tiresome for the sales force to swing into action early.
Then Now
Companies went looking for prospects by showcas-
ing messages and ads
Prospects are attracted to quality content specif-
ic to their needs
Companies used mass advertising which was viewed
by all
Today, targeted marketing techniques that are
viewed by a niche audience are used to entice
potential customers
Decisions were based on demographic preferences Decisions are based on behavioral preferences
Companies held an upper hand by showcasing use
and need of their products
Companies attempt to build and nurture relation-
ships where consumers are at the forefront
Purchases were based on intuitions Purchases are based on fact-based decisions

4. Today’s buyer knows what she/he wants.
The customer must always be interested in what you have
to offer, without the company intruding upon her/him.
LEAD MANAGEMENT
STRATEGY AND
TECHNOLOGY
Developing a customized strategy through high impact
targeted lists and follow up telemarketing calls is an
effective way of crossing the hurdle of bulk and clunky
blast e-mailers that lead to nothing but frustration
for all. The database needs to be ‘clean’ and up-to-
date. Solutions that offer validation are invaluable
assets in the entire list-to-lead process. It yields an
accurate collection of prospects with relevant details,
eliminating the ‘stale’ ones. This invariably leads to
the lead generation process which is nothing but
capturing the requirement of your prospects in an
efficient manner. Sales-ready leads are an asset to
any sales force. Solutions that provide an ‘integrated
marketing approach’ have been found to generate
very high quality leads, often offering a phenomenal
50% conversion rate. The entire lead management
strategy, also known as customer acquisition
management involves the entire cycle, right from
finding new prospects to rejecting unwanted inquiries
and dovetailing perfectly with the organization’s CRM.
Different companies may use different processes
and resources as part of a similar funnel structure
for their lead management strategies. An additional
hors d’oeuvre in the form of event marketing is bound
to add to customer delight. Educating customers,
offering promotional content, updating databases
via registrations – all such add-ons and more can be
effectively achieved.
Achieving all the concepts discussed above is not an
easy task – it requires some of the best talent in the
industry. Very few firms are able to pull this off on a
sustained basis. Adept campaign managers, dextrous
database co-ordinators, talented telemarketing folk and
the like – each forms a critical cog in this wheel.
COMPANIES NEED TO
DEFINE WHAT A LEAD
MEANS TO THEIR
ORGANIZATION
A lead is an individual who has expressed interest in
your product or service in some manner. It may be by

5. filling out a form via gated content, engaging with your
social media content, or expressing a desire to enter
your sales funnel in any manner. Every organization
though, has a different perspective when defining
a lead. To some, a lead may be someone who has
engaged with the brand more than ‘X’ number of
times, whereas for others, a lead may be someone
who showcases a distinct behavior, typical to someone
inclined towards a purchase. Some element of contact
information is a prerequisite to the definition of a
‘lead’. More often than not, the definition needs to be
‘quantifiable’ to be able to address the requirements
satisfactorily or help the consumer move to the
next stage of the funnel. A number of systems and
technologies prefer to define a lead as somebody who
exhibits a certain ‘buying behavior’. However, there are
a number of examples of sales teams that do not define
a lead in this manner, often leading to contretemps
with other departments within the same firm. A
uniform definition, is a must. The BANT (Budget,
Authority, Need and Timeline) theory is also a good
place to begin the definition of a lead.
Leads can also be based on demographic or psychographic
profiles. Knowing the consumers’ problems, behaviors,
needs and interests, help define what content will attract
them and which channels are the most effective to allow
them to consume this content. Once these details are
determined, they can be used as parameters for preparing
an effective lead generation strategy.
SETTING UP A LEAD
GENERATION PROCESS
As part of the ‘capture’ and ‘nurture’ phase of a lead
generation management strategy, an organization needs
to set up a customized lead generation process to help
the business grow. A lead generation process involves
the actual methods of engaging with and getting
noticed by prospective customers. As mentioned earlier
in this document, there are many different ways of
lead generation. Here are a few processes that can help
organizations build their database of leads:
1. Offers
When promoting a brand or service, a company needs
to make an offer that will catch the eye of the user. It
may be a sale, discount, exclusive first look at a product.
This is how brands can stand out amidst the digital
clutter. The offer is the first thing that will attract a
prospective customer. Subscriptions and contests can
also be weaved into your website.
2. Call-to-action (CTA)
The next part of the process involves a Call-to-Action
(CTA), which encourages the consumer to take an action
to further interact with the brand. Even something as
simple as a ‘Click Here’ button acts as a CTA. This helps
direct the consumer further, to get more information
about the brand. CTAs can also take other forms, such
as a 3-minute demo or explainer video, a free trial or
a ‘contact us’radio button. A caveat for the ‘contact us’
though – make it as simple as you can for the buyer’s
query to reach you. Else, frustration can get the better
of her/him. A live chat section is quickly gaining ground
among the CTA modes, as are short 2-minute surveys.
3. Landing Page
When the consumers click on the CTA, they are directed
to a landing page. This is one of the most crucial parts
of the lead generation process as it is the platform that
tells the consumer more about the product or service
offering, thereby influencing their purchase decision.
A recent survey indicates that one has 0-8 seconds to
make a mark on the consumer with one’s landing page
(Source: KISSmetrics)!
4. Forms
The last stage of the lead generation process involves
determining whether a consumer will convert to a lead
or not. This is especially true for most gated content, i.e.
white paper downloads, webinar transcripts, long form
journalism, and others. Typically, a form is required to
be filled, with various descriptors of the potential lead.
An invaluable source of information for sales teams, this
is a clear indicator of interest in the product or service.
The number of questions posed using forms is likely to
influence a buyer, either positively or negatively. This must
be weighed with the product/service. The moment one
goes beyond a threshold, as far as questions are concerned,
one runs the risk of the buyer providing false details.

6. LIST TO
LEAD TACTICS
Whether it is B2B or B2C lead generation, businesses
need to use different kinds of tactics to draw the
attention of prospective customers. Given below are
some of the industry best practices in converting a
database to a lead:
Database Marketing With
Targeted Prospect Lists
Database marketing starts with collating
previously used data, existing in-house data
and/or purchasing data through credible
sources. Yet, this is usually not enough. The
database must be validated and cleansed to be of value,
lest you run the risk of annoying both potential leads as
well as people who are not interested, resulting in bad
publicity. ‘Dirty’ databases can hurt your efforts to the
extent of a whopping 66%. Outdated and duplicated
data is damaging to your campaign. A recent study
suggests that 30% of prospect data is outdated in 3
months. That gives an idea as to how frequently one
needs to monitor the database. Your existing customers
can be frequent re-purchasers of your offerings; this
data must also be purged regularly. So, in a nutshell, the
message is – scrub and validate frequently.
Industry best practices dictate validation followed
by appending missing information. This is swiftly
followed by tele-marketing teams swinging into
action and getting all co-ordinates of potential leads
and customers down pat. This can further be followed
by resorting to CRM tools.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a time tested lead
generation tactic, where highly targeted and
personalized emails are sent to a list of
potential clients. The best feature of this
technique is that it is very cost effective. It helps attract
new leads into the sales ecosystem. Email marketing
helps build trust and awareness, besides re-enforcing
brand loyalty. Template design used for this tactic
needs to be well crafted. Some interesting numbers
reveal the importance of email marketing – 59% of B2B
marketers call it the most effective source for revenue
generation (Source: HubSpot). Email marketing has also
been cited regularly, as the most effective channel for
digital marketers to showcase their wares.
“EmailExpert” went as far as to say every dollar spent
on this channel leads to an ROI of 4,300%!
But here’s the snag – your list must be accurate and
targeted and templates must be designed in a user-
friendly, classy and uncluttered manner. You need
to attract your consumer, not turn them away. Stay
away from blast emails. They can be dangerous for
your campaigns. Finally, refrain from combining the
form technique in gated content with e-mailers. The
two do not gel.
Best in class email processes generally follow these
techniques:
a. Define the campaign including targets, offers,
frequency and follow ups.
b. Validate your e-mailer list. This is critical.
c. Create relevant content that resonates with the
audience. Having a battery of great content writers
helps.
d. Design a classy user-friendly template.
e. Seek out experts to design and manage the
campaign.
f. Analyze the results in a mathematical fashion
using parameters such as CTRs, subscribes, and
unsubscribes.
Telephone-based Lead
Generation
Receiving unwarranted calls, whether it is
about an unsolicited product or about credit
card, at the wrong time can be annoying to
customers. Instead of cold calling, sales and
marketing representatives can call the relevant target
audience and try to provide additional information about
the product/service rather than attempt to make a sale
on the telephone. Best in class processes usually involve
tele-calling using a scrubbed database and can have a far
higher success rate with existing and repeat consumers.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing helps educate and
attract prospects to your site via your social
handles. It is changing the way in which
brands communicate with their target audiences. It is
an important tool in every firm’s arsenal. However, it
is very easy to get trapped in the excesses of this
form. Too many posts, a million hash tags, irrelevant
posts and the works, all can damage one’s brand.
Another issue marketers grapple with is the ROI of
social media content. It is difficult to quantify this.
Dozens of analytics are available to confuse the
details. Yet, it is critical to select the ones that match
your campaign and provide the information to build
on your efforts. Some key metrics include likes,
followers, shares, and others. Innovative metrics such
as scroll depth can also be used effectively.
Industry best practices follow the below method:

7. a. Goal Setting – this involves setting measurable
goals clearly such that ROI can be defined in an
unambiguous manner.
b. Creation of Social Handles – Many a company falter
at this stage by using wrong methods of creating
social handles. This can be damaging.
c. Creation of Social Content – Harvesting and re-
purposing of existing collateral is an essential
attribute of any social media strategy.
d. Editorial Calendar – Timing of posting is an oft-
neglected and abused facet. Best in class marketers
and experts know how to navigate through this web.
e. Reporting – Finally, aligning with your pre-defined
goals helps measure efficacy.
Content Marketing and SEO
The art of educating and communicating
with clients without the intention to
sell is content marketing. Every growth-
oriented company is trying to foray into this realm.
Few, however, are successful at it. Content marketing
can take on various methods like implicit blogging,
infographic marketing, storytelling, interviewing, etc.
The key is being consistent with what your brand is
attempting to project. Content marketing was born out
of the excessive ‘junk’ floating around on the internet
about everything. Thus, the mart folks invented
this new and highly attractive concept of attracting
consumers by providing them a 360 degree view of the
product’s characteristics without really attempting to
sell it. It is as tricky as it sounds; yet, once you have
experts on board, it is possibly one of the most effective
and explosive methods of marketing in this new digital
era. It makes a lot of sense to outsource this activity.
Statistics reveal interesting numbers – more than 50%
of marketing professionals struggle with in-house
content while almost 40% struggle with budget. Couple
that with the fact that content marketing is possibly
one of the most expensive formats to outsource, and
you can see why it’s a tightrope walk. Every content
marketing activity must begin with a content strategy
that clearly defines the goals and objectives of the
campaign, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Then
you come to the content itself. Re-purposing old
existing content, as well as creating new content, are
both time consuming activities. However, they are
the most likely ones to give you that bang for your
buck. Content promotion, syndication and content
amplification follows, whereby the reach of our content
is multiplied. Finally, the loop is closed with previously
identified metrics. More often than not, this entire
process is outsourced as it requires specific skills such
as creation of original content, content syndication and
sharing and developing visual content via ‘infographics’.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising such as pay-per-click ads,
banner ads, video ads, search engine ads, etc.,
were, until recently, the fundamental unit of
lead generation tactics. The new age era has
introduced the concept of native ads or sponsored ads.
These are essentially advertisements published on
websites, made to look like they are a part of the site,
constructed in exactly the same design as the site. The
ads often dovetail so perfectly with the site that it is
difficult to distinguish the ad from the original
publisher content. This ultimately results in a higher
CTR and a higher chance of conversion.
Event Marketing
Event marketing involves providing event
attendees with valuable information and
content that will stimulate interest in the
brand. The tricky part often is nurturing
event participants and training them to provide leads
to the sales teams to follow up. Best in class solutions
help tide over this with ease, often resulting in high
quality events characterized by top notch audiences
through social channels and increased attributable
revenues. Although it sounds obvious to the
untrained, many top firms make mistakes at this
stage. Using the wrong channel to send invites, not
selecting the right prospects as attendees, providing
wrong and badly worded messaging, poor timing of
the invite and most of all, refusing to take outside
agency help. Event marketing is a specialized field and
needs experienced personnel to execute.
Search Engine Marketing /
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the process
of increasing website traffic through Content
Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
and Paid Adverts. Effective SEO often calls for
a specialized team and aims for high website rankings
on search engines, typically on Google.
A slew of statistics reveal that SEO is more effective
as compared to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) models, yet,
PPC does make its presence felt in a few cases.
Most industry experts promulgate a combination
of the two. SEO methods are typically measured over
time (minimum of 6-8 months) and require identifying
keywords and phrases, based on type of content that
the company deals in. SEO experts generally provide
monthly reports on key word searches and post content

8. IN-HOUSE OR
OUTSOURCE?
When a business has made a decision to use a
lead generation strategy, the question arises
– should this be done in-house or should it be
outsourced?
For a business, focusing on developing
offering and marketing campaigns is a better
use of their time than chasing down leads.
For B2B lead generation, outsourcing the
task to an experienced and qualified agency
can help simultaneously save time as well as
boost sales. Many companies often make the
mistake of believing that all leads will convert
and that the sales team can do the necessary
lead qualification and scoring along with the
sales calls. Often, the sales team is not able to
manage both, as lead scoring, qualification and
nurturing is a very time consuming process. And
if not given suitable importance, it can cause a
drop in sales.
When outsourced, the lead generation agency
is able to help clients with multiple areas of a lead management
strategy such as defining goals and criteria, integrating CRM
solutions, generating and nurturing leads, segmentation and
scoring, assigning leads to relevant teams for follow up, analytics
and reporting. This leaves the organization free of administrative
and management tasks allowing them to focus on the development,
marketing and sales of the core product or service.
ABOUT
MARKABLE SOLUTIONS
Markable Solutions is a marketing company specializing
in B2B marketing and sales services. We have worked with
multiple clients internationally to drive sales and revenue
through digital and telemarketing services. Markable
Solutions provides a multitude of services such as prospect
list development, lead generation, and various forms
of digital marketing such as content marketing, email
marketing, automation services, website development,
animation and design, content syndication and others.
Markable Solutions has a global presence with clients
across the world, and is headquartered in Silicon Valley
with offices in India. With technological and domain
expertize, the company can develop planned and targeted
marketing strategies and to help clients execute these to
achieve the best results.
that can be searched more easily and thus is more
accessible on search engines. The PPC model is a much
quicker model as it is based on paid campaigns. It is
generally an activity carried out by industry experts in
conjunction with the firm’s marketing team and involves
bidding for keywords. It is suggested that PPC be used
initially to build quick traction while SEO sets in over a
period of time.
Print Advertising and PR
This is a process that is typically done by
people well connected with good publishing
houses. This form of marketing is more
simplistic and generic in nature. Print
advertising can range from having ‘standees’ at
conferences to pamphlets and leaflets as inserts in a
product package. There is very little that is subtle
about this format and it is simple old-school
advertising, using punchy phrases. Public Relations,
on the other hand, while being similar to Print Ads in
scope, differs in format. These take the form of press
releases that are meant to be targeted towards a
specific industry and have been specifically created
(content often provided by the company itself) to
make announcements that are impactful. These are
handy add-ons to all the previously discussed
modes and help in creating traction for the site
and the brand.

9. WHY
MARKABLE SOLUTIONS?
At Markable Solutions, our mission is to help our clients
reach new heights of success through innovative solutions
using creativity, technology and strategy. Here are a few
reasons why Markable Solutions will be the right B2B
marketing partner to help support your business goals:
1. The teams at Markable Solutions are led by domain
experts who will guide you to provide the most
innovative and efficient marketing solution.
2. Our cost structure can be affordable, it is ROI driven
and is aimed at generating quality leads.
3. Our data-driven approach towards marketing helps us
achieve a holistic overview, which allows us to develop
practical and profitable operations.
4. We tailor optimal solutions and strategies to align
your product or service with customer touch points to
create a well-rounded brand image across channels.
In conclusion, the List-to-Lead cycle promotes selling of
products and services remotely, with the core objective
of developing a robust and ‘clean’ database, follow up
on various campaigns as given in this white paper and
generate high quality leads for the organization’s sales
force to swing into action in a cost effective and timely
manner. It helps tide over B2B issues such as reduced
revenues, poor database repositories and diminishing
campaign results. There is no ‘one solution’ for these pain
points. However, employing the tactics described in the
paper will give the firm a better chance of focusing on
the pressing issues that need to be addressed. Nurture
relationships by engaging them with high quality content
allowing your funnel to overflow with leads.
21451 Continental Circle, Saratoga, CA 95070
Phone: +1 (408) 799 4081, Fax: +1 (408) 868 0333
Email: info@markablesolutions.com