« The B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study Report: Useful data and advice | Main | Industrial Marketers: Is this News Good or Bad? »
Want To Generate More Leads? Leverage Your Prospects’ Five Senses
If you want your B2B lead generation campaigns to be as successful as possible, you need your lead generating messages to break through the clutter, get your prospects’ attention and provide them with compelling reasons to respond.
To accomplish these objectives, consider leveraging your prospect’s five senses.
Sight: Many of your prospects process information best visually. To get your messages through to these visual people, use photos, illustrations or icons to help them "see" the benefits of your products or services.
I use Fotolia as a low-cost source of royalty-free photos, illustration and icons. When Garth Johnson, EVP North America for Fotolia, heard that I recommended his company, he offered to give my customers, readers, seminar attendees and business friends 5 free credits to give Fotolia a try, and 30 percent extra credits whenever you buy more.
So if you have a few minutes now, or next time you are looking for just the right image for an ad, brochure, email, website or presentation, visit www.fotolia.com/macmc to get your free credits. Then use the promo code "macmcintosh" to get your 30 percent bonus when buying additional credits.
Hearing: Other prospects are more receptive to words; both written and spoken.
My wife, Andrea, is one of these auditory people. It seems I’m always trying to show her something, as I process information best visually. Yet Andrea is always asking me to tell her instead. Why? Because she processes words better than pictures.
To communicate best with these auditory people, have a conversation with them; either out loud with spoken words or in their heads with written words.
A skilled writer can also use written or spoken words to paint mental pictures for those who are more receptive to visual information.
Touch: Does it make sense (no pun intended) to give your prospects a sample of your product that they can touch or play with? A client of mine, a manufacturer of drawer slides for the furniture industry, sends samples to qualified prospects so they can feel the quality and assess the durability of the company’s products firsthand.
Other products, software is a good example, lend themselves to "test drives" via Web demos, evaluations copies or free trials.
You can use also touch to communicate in more subtle ways too, like using the quality feel of your printed literature to reflect the quality of your products or services.
Smell and taste:
Have you ever had a pleasant smell trigger a pleasant memory? Or felt great after eating something tasty or sweet?
If your product can be associated with a pleasing fragrance, consider adding that fragrance to your lead generation materials. For example, a business catering company could add the smell of fresh baked apple pies to their postcards. Search on an industrial sourcing Website like GlobalSpec and you’ll find suppliers of fragrances (and flavors) like Carmi Flavors.
Or the catering company could leverage prospects’ taste buds by including a delicious cookie in its mailing, or giving them away at its trade show booth.
If you have additional tips about using the five senses to generate more leads, or have some related success stories you can share, please do!
Hi Mac,
Nice post.
Here are my additions, although you’ll see some overlap – which in my opinion is good as you can gain a wider appeal across your lead base. And I’m digitally focused, as you can tell
Sight: Videos, Webinars, interactive games, surveys, widgets, flash (though not overwhelming), demos, slideshare decks
Hearing: Videos, webinars and podcasts, written marketing stories – like customer stories and how-to’s, blogs
Touch: interactive games, polls, surveys, widgets, demos
Thanks for reminding me to think about this from a “sense” perspective. It can make a huge difference.
Ardath
Posted by: Ardath Albee | Sep 1, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Ardath,
Thanks much for sharing those great ideas for how to leverage the 5 senses to engage prospective customers!
- Mac
Posted by: Mac McIntosh | Sep 1, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I would like to add videos in the first 2 senses (sight and hearing). Personally I believe that videos are for those who aren’t interested in reading bulk of words and slangs. However, they are expensive but it can save a lot of time of the prospect.
Posted by: Sara Martin | Sep 7, 2009 at 1:02 pm