For example, WebFX reports that the average cost per lead (CPL) for manufacturers can vary between $333 to over $1,000 and the average cost per click (CPC) can reach $12.
When almost half of manufacturers (45%) have no idea how many leads they get from their website, the real cost of B2B lead generation could be much higher.
One of the most impactful ways to reduce your cost per lead is to capture more of your website visitors. This can not only transform your conversion rates and fill your pipeline with a flood of new leads and RFQs, but it can bring in more revenue and help you drive more ROI from your website.
Many manufacturers are already doing this with B2B website visitor identification software.
These tools, like Lead Forensics, help you identify which businesses are already interested and browsing your website, uncover which web pages they’re interested in, and send contact details of key decision makers straight into your CRM. And there are four key ways that manufacturers use this software to turn anonymous website visits into more RFQs and greater revenue growth.
Capturing leads before the RFQ
If you wait for a customer to send an RFQ, it may already be too late. After all, between 30 and 50% of all B2B deals go to the company that reaches out first.
Research also shows that B2B buyers are typically 70% of the way through their journey before they speak to a sales rep. When they do reach out, 81% already have a preferred vendor in mind.
With website visitor identification, you can uncover which businesses are currently looking at your products and services before they become a lead in your CRM.
And when you combine this with additional context, such as which webpages they’re reviewing or which campaigns drove them to your website, you can identify which prospects are in buying mode – and which are still in the early research stage.
You can then use tools like a lead manager or CRM to automatically route those hot leads to the most relevant sales rep and share the colder leads with your marketing team for nurturing.
The impact can be transformational, as McAree Engineering discovered.
Peter Richardson, Sales and Marketing Manager at McAree Engineering, revealed: “We have seen €217K worth of business tracked through customers that have been identified through Lead Forensics – with four of these six customers generating repeat business.”
AM Technology also used this strategy to expand its international presence and boost sales.
“I use Lead Forensics daily to identify new B2B leads and have found it to be invaluable,” shared Mike Kenny, Business Development Manager at AM Technology. “Lead Forensics has been fantastic in allowing us to identify new B2B leads in international markets, where we don’t have boots on the ground.”
Website visitor identification helped Pure PCB achieve a higher conversion rate from initial inquiries to closed deals, too.
“The thing I love most is how easy it is to use,” said Nic Bosco, Account Executive at Pure PCB. “Lead Forensics introduced us to a new way of obtaining email addresses for the leads coming to our website. This led to an increase in RFQs and sales.”
Understanding prospects’ needs better
Unless you speak to potential customers, it’s almost impossible to guess what they need. And even when they send an RFQ, the details can be vague and leave you with more questions than answers.
But if you use website visitor identification, you can build a clearer picture of what your leads are actually interested in. You can get details like how often they visit your website, which web pages they’ve looked at, and which adverts they’ve clicked on, which all help to deepen your understanding of their needs.
This insight is particularly valuable if you want to make your outreach as personalised and impactful as possible.
It’s helped Coltraco Ultrasonics to have “really valuable discussions” with prospects, “rather than just trying to say anything that we possibly can”.
“We manufacture 28 instruments and systems, so sometimes our customers know their challenge and what issue they’re trying to address, but it’s hard for them to know our range,” explained Chloe Barker, Head of Commercial at Coltraco Ultrasonics. “To have an understanding of what they’re looking at means that we can really help them and have a useful discussion about what their challenge is and how we can address that.”
And because Coltraco Ultrasonics connected Lead Forensics to Salesforce, their sales reps get to see this context alongside anything else that they know about the lead. It means they have everything they need to tailor their pitch and don’t have to waste time hunting for other information.
Website visitor identification can help manufacturers to unlock new markets, too. It led Snopake to discover that the financial services and social care sectors were two untapped markets with huge potential.
Simon Fawke, Director at Snopake, shared other benefits of using this type of tool: “Lead Forensics gives us the ability to identify not just potential new leads but also to clearly see which channels and sectors are looking at our products and services. This enables us to tailor our marketing and exhibition activities more effectively.”
Integrating website visitor data with other tools
“Our strategy works best when the data flows smoothly between our teams,” explained Jean Gabriel, Managing Director at Filame.
That’s because when you integrate your tech stack, you can work much more efficiently and effectively. With everything in one place, there’s less hopping between tools and less reliance on incorrect or outdated data.
You can integrate Lead Forensics with a range of tools, from CRMs to sales engagement platforms, and beyond. This helps to remove blind spots from long, complex buying cycles – and empowers you to nurture leads from early interest through to purchase.
For example, you can identify potential customers in the early research stage and pass these leads to marketing so they can be nurtured. When the same lead warms up and moves along the funnel, you can send automated email campaigns or automatically notify sales reps, who can reach out quickly.
Filame increased their lead-to-prospect ratio by 50% using these strategies.
“We have seen a massive jump in lead generation since using Lead Forensics, along with new relationships and our existing client base, which makes Lead Forensics an important part of our strategy going forward,” Jean Gabriel said.
By connecting website visitor identification insights with their existing CRM system, Next Generation Rooflights drove over ÂŁ40,000 in incremental sales from leads identified by Lead Forensics.
“Implementing Lead Forensics into our CRM system was a strategic move that really paid off,” explained Alan Saxby, Sales Director at Next Generation Rooflights. “The ability to seamlessly integrate fresh leads into our existing sales process not only streamlined our workflow but also brought in significant new business.”
Making sure your PPC spend generates leads
Your manufacturing marketing budget can be devoured by PPC adverts that seem to perform well in ad management platforms but never translate into actual leads or RFQs.
But if you can use website visitor identification to understand which PPC campaigns are driving genuine interest – and not just visits that bounce – you can unlock better efficiencies and win more business.
Coltraco Ultrasonics used Lead Forensics to analyse their PPC performance.
“We were able to see that some of the campaigns that we were running were not bringing in the right types of customers,” Chloe Barker confessed. “We realised we were spending budget on a campaign that – without Lead Forensics – we wouldn’t have known it wasn’t working.”
They discovered their product campaigns performed best, but their generic campaigns weren’t yielding the right results. This insight allowed them to reposition and focus on the campaigns that generated quality leads instead.
“Rather than just throwing money into it and hoping for the best, we were actually able to make an informed decision so that we could target different areas,” Chloe added.
This kind of insight can also be used to understand how other marketing campaigns are performing or identify potential UX issues on your website.
Survitec doubled their website traffic and increased sales by analysing website behaviour more closely.
“Using Lead Forensics’ software, we were able to identify that clients were visiting particular product pages and bouncing off because they couldn’t find whatever it was they were looking for,” said Chris Burrows, Marketing Manager at Survitec. “We were then able to redesign pages and improve that specific customer journey. And, because of this, we’ve seen great improvements to our bounce rate, sales, and the amount of traffic to our site.”
Try for yourself with a free demo
These eight manufacturers share the same strategy: they don’t wait for prospects to make the first move. Instead, they capture every potential lead from their website and use context from those visits to personalise their outreach.
As a result, they’ve been able to turn their anonymous website traffic into increased RFQs, sales, and revenue.
It’s not too late to join them. Book your demo to learn more.
