Marketing campaigns are created to help businesses attract prospective clients, generate interest, and produce avenues for growth. Although a business can produce many leads through marketing, this doesn’t automatically result in producing more clients.
Many organizations utilize Salesforce to run their marketing campaigns, track prospects, automate communications, and review sales activity. Although many organizations have the capability to utilize all of the above-mentioned capabilities, they typically find it difficult to convert the leads generated by their campaigns into paid customers.
A campaign can result in many inquiries; however, very few will turn into actual qualified sales leads. There are numerous reasons why prospects fall off the radar during the sales process; some lose interest after filling out a web form, others receive irrelevant emails, and some simply take too much time before being contacted by a salesperson.
The issue may not lie within the product of Salesforce, but rather in the way organizations set up their marketing process, collect and store information about potential customers (leads), determine who they want to reach (target market), and coordinate marketing efforts with those of the sales force.
Inadequate segmentation of audiences, poor qualification of leads, inadequate follow-up with potential customers, lack of integration among various business systems, and inaccurate measurement of campaigns may negatively impact your conversion rate.
The most important thing to know about improving your business’s performance on its Salesforce marketing campaigns and getting a greater return on your investment in marketing is to understand what the problems are with your current campaigns.
The objective of this article is to examine why many Salesforce-driven marketing campaigns are unsuccessful at turning leads into paying clients, as well as providing actionable solutions for companies to enhance lead nurturing, campaign management, and sales conversions.
The main reason for failure with many Salesforce marketing campaigns is that they are targeting the wrong audience.
Many businesses try to generate as many potential customers (leads) as they can rather than trying to find people who have an actual interest in what they offer.
An example of an organization running a campaign to target all individuals interested in CRM software is a software company that provides enterprise-level CRM implementation services. While such campaigns will produce a high number of inquiries, many of those inquiring will most likely be freelancers, students, small business owners, etc., i.e., individuals who are unable to pay for enterprise CRM implementations.
The campaign generates leads, but most are unlikely to become customers.
If a campaign is targeted at the wrong group of potential customers, then money that could be used for other purposes will be wasted on communicating with those who have no intention of buying anything from your business and/or do not fit the description of what your organization considers to be its “ideal customer.”
This creates several problems:
Before beginning to market with Salesforce, businesses need to define what makes up the “ideal” customer for them.
For B2B organizations, useful targeting criteria include:
The campaign lists and segmentation features available in Salesforce allow marketers to categorize their prospect base using key data points.
For example, an organization providing cloud consulting services can design a promotional campaign focused on IT directors and other individuals with the responsibility for making decisions regarding technology within organizations of similar size (mid-sized) who have plans to modernize their existing use of cloud technologies.
As a result, campaigns can be designed with a greater degree of relevance to potential customers, increasing the probability of generating leads likely to make a purchase.
Not every person who interacts with a marketing campaign is ready to purchase.
A user who downloads an e-book, signs up for a webinar, or subscribes to a newsletter could simply be researching a subject. If you view every interaction as a sign of intent to buy from your company, you will flood your sales team with low-quality leads.
This is where lead qualification becomes important.
Prospects are assigned value scores based on both who they are and how much they have engaged with your company.
For example, a company might assign scores based on:
| Lead Activity | Example Score |
| Visits pricing page | +15 |
| Downloads a case study | +10 |
| Registers for a product demo | +25 |
| Opens a marketing email | +2 |
| Matches the ideal customer profile | +20 |
| Unsubscribes from emails | -20 |
The following are examples. A business can use these guidelines to create its own scoring system based on how it sells.
A prospect that repeatedly visits your service pages and has requested to speak with you about a consultation is potentially more valuable than a prospect that simply reads your newsletters.
Salesforce has the ability to support lead management and lead scoring strategies for sales representatives to use in prioritizing their prospects according to their potential value and level of engagement.
Businesses need to create specific rules about what qualifies as a “marketing qualified lead” (MQL) versus a “sales qualified lead” (SQL).
A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a prospect that has shown enough interest in your product/service, or has matched the criteria of what you’re looking for, to merit additional focus from either marketing or sales. On the other hand, a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a lead that has been qualified as being appropriate for direct sales contact.
For example, a business software company may classify a prospect as an MQL if the prospect:
The sales team can then assess the prospect’s needs, budget, authority to make decisions, and estimated time frame for buying prior to accepting the prospect as a SQL.
This will allow you to reduce the number of sales contacts you have to make and increase your chances of converting leads into customers.
Another major problem is sending the same marketing message to every prospect.
Businesses have various problems to solve with their businesses, various things that are important to them in terms of their business, various amounts of money to spend on solving those problems, and various ways they prefer to purchase products/services. Therefore, a message that works for one potential customer could be completely useless for another.
A business seeking help to integrate Salesforce could want to reduce manual data entry and connect their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
For some companies, there might be a greater focus on how to customize Salesforce, how to accurately report on its data, or how to automate processes using Salesforce.
Sending the same un-targeted advertising email to both prospects will not provide solutions tailored to either prospect’s unique needs.
Marketing that is customized for individuals provides content that is appropriate for each individual’s industry, interest, previous interaction with the company, and position in their purchase decision-making process.
A business can produce content that assists prospects with understanding what their problems are and how they may be able to solve those problems rather than continually trying to sell them something.
Examples include:
Salesforce campaign management and marketing automation tools that are integrated with Salesforce will allow businesses to segment their audience (prospects), monitor prospect interactions with the business, and create and send personalized marketing messages.
For organizations utilizing Salesforce Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), lead nurturing programs can utilize both prospect information and prospect behaviors to provide prospects with content that is appropriate for each stage of their purchasing process.
For example, if a potential customer downloads a guide on how to integrate data, they can then be sent a follow-up email that includes information on typical problems that occur during the process of integrating data. In addition to providing information about potential problems, the follow-up email can include a relevant case study, as well as an opportunity to set up a consultation with the company’s team to help determine what is needed to implement the solution described in the guide.
Instead of repeatedly sending customers the same old sales pitch, this creates a much better customer journey.
Many businesses anticipate that when they initially engage with a business through its marketing campaign, the leads will quickly turn into customers.
The process of making a buying decision in the business-to-business (B2B) market is often quite lengthy. A business owner or manager might spend weeks or even months evaluating different vendors, determining what their budget allows, getting approval from within the organization, and reviewing how well each option meets their company’s needs.
If businesses cease communicating with prospects after their first contact, they will likely experience a decline in interest from those prospects.
Let’s assume there is a business that gets 100 responses to a Salesforce marketing initiative.
Leads can be reached as soon as possible after contact; others can be followed up with a few days later; and some may not be reached at all due to improper assignment.
This results in an inconsistent experience, and it will also cause you to lose more of those who are potentially interested in your business.
The delayed reaction of a company can provide competitors with an opportunity to interact with the prospective client prior to the company.
Nurturing leads is an ongoing relationship-building process with potential customers (prospects) by sending them relevant information until such time as they are able to purchase.
A structured nurturing campaign might include:
Salesforce automation and marketing software can provide coordination for all interactions using defined workflow processes and customer interaction programs.
Automation should never be used as a replacement for significant communication. Message prospects based on what they are interested in and/or doing, rather than simply having a specific amount of time pass.
A sales campaign can create many qualified leads; however, conversions could suffer due to the fact that the sales staff is unable to follow up with the potential customers.
Often, this occurs when marketing and sales teams have varying expectations.
A lead could be seen as being “qualified” by Marketing based upon a download of a resource or an inquiry made. On the other hand, Sales Reps may view a prospect as being qualified if they have established a confirmed budget, defined business requirements, and are authorized to purchase.
When there is a disconnect between the two sets of expectations, a lead will either be rejected, ignored, or sent back to marketing without explanation.
Both departments contribute to customer acquisition.
Marketing is about finding people who may want what you have to offer, building awareness of your product/service, and creating interest in what you provide. When a salesperson works with a qualified prospect, they will determine the needs of the prospect, find a solution for those needs, and guide the prospect toward purchasing your products/services.
When information isn’t shared correctly, potential customers can end up being asked the same questions over and over again, sent irrelevant offers, and/or experience delayed responses from you.
Businesses should establish a shared lead management process within Salesforce.
This includes:
An example of this would be if sales reps repeatedly turn away leads due to a lack of buying authority, then marketing should adjust how it targets and qualifies leads.
This creates a continuous feedback loop that improves future campaign quality.
Marketing campaign success relies upon having accurate data available. If there is old, incomplete, or duplicate data in Salesforce for your leads, then campaign results may be poor.
For example, a prospective customer may have left their current job, given you the wrong email address, or be listed in Salesforce with a different name.
If you use outdated data to send your campaign, it may result in lower levels of engagement and ultimately harm the user’s experience.
Some frequently encountered issues include:
Integration problems can create additional difficulties.
For example, a marketing automation tool records when an individual opens an email sent to him/her; however, the data is often not synchronized properly with Salesforce. Thus, sales professionals do not have access to crucial interaction details from their prospects.
Businesses need to have a process for establishing data validation rules, duplicate detection procedures, and periodic data cleaning.
They need to verify the integration settings so that appropriate campaign activities, lead scores, and engagements are transferred correctly.
When organizations utilize Salesforce Account Engagement, linking their marketing and Salesforce Campaign structures allows them to gain greater insight into how prospects are interacting with their campaigns, as well as the overall success of those campaigns.
Marketing teams can use accurate and synchronized data to develop more precise customer segments, while sales reps can gain a deeper understanding of each potential customer.
The other cause of failed marketing campaigns to increase conversion rates is that companies are measuring the incorrect performance metrics.
Marketing teams generally concentrate on metrics such as email open rates, click-through rates, impression counts, and overall numbers of leads produced.
While these metrics provide an estimate of how engaged your audience is with your content, they do not necessarily reflect whether or not your marketing efforts are leading to sales.
A campaign may result in thousands of clicks, yet produce only a handful of potential customers who are ready to buy.
Businesses should monitor the entire journey from lead generation to revenue.
Important Salesforce marketing campaign KPIs include:
| Metric | What It Measures |
| Lead generation | Number of leads captured |
| Lead qualification rate | Percentage of leads that meet qualification criteria |
| Lead conversion rate | Percentage of leads converted into the next defined sales stage |
| Opportunity creation rate | Percentage of leads that become sales opportunities |
| Customer conversion rate | Percentage of leads that eventually become customers |
| Cost per lead | Marketing cost for generating each lead |
| Customer acquisition cost | Overall cost of acquiring a customer |
| Campaign ROI | Financial return generated relative to campaign investment. |
Businesses must make clear distinctions between leads converted to opportunities, opportunities created, and closed-won customers. Each of those is the next stage in the sales process.
The customer can have contact with multiple marketing campaigns before purchasing.
For example, a prospective customer may initially find out about a business via an advertisement on LinkedIn, download a technical guide, participate in a webinar, and then ask for a meeting with a representative.
By attributing all of your sales to only one touch point, you could potentially mask the role that other campaign types played in achieving those results.
Salesforce Campaign Influence can assist companies with understanding the impact of their campaigns on their opportunity pipelines and revenues. Additionally, Customizable Campaign Influence gives you options when evaluating campaign contributions.
With this information, businesses can better determine how much to invest in their advertising campaigns.
Fixing individual problems can enhance campaign performance; however, to maintain long-term success, businesses must develop a consistent strategic approach.
These practices will assist organizations in improving lead conversions with Salesforce.
What kind of companies and what type of individuals are the best targets for your company’s product/service offerings?
Create an appropriate group of target customers using your industry, the size of your organization, the types of jobs you perform, where you are located, and what is required for your company to succeed.
Create value-add opportunities for your audience by collecting relevant data from them using forms on your site, landing pages, webinars, and other campaign activities.
Keep forms simple, with only the most important questions. Create a process of identifying prospects that may be interested in what you have to offer versus those who are likely to buy. Use lead scoring and/or qualifying rules to help make this distinction.
Create distinct communications plans for your prospects based on where they fall in the buying cycle.
In addition to educational content, people who are looking for solutions to their problems will likely find value in case studies, pricing information, and/or consulting services.
Salesforce Automation may be utilized to distribute Leads to Sales Professionals based on established Business Rules.
Set appropriate follow-up expectations for sales reps when they have high-priority leads that perform key tasks.
Regularly review duplicates, partial records, and outdated lead records.
Check to make sure that the marketing systems you use have synchronized all of the most significant engagement information correctly.
Track lead quality, opportunity creation, customer conversion, campaign costs, and revenue contribution.
Monitor your metric data on a routine basis to identify the campaigns that have created significant business results.
A/B Testing can be used to test various aspects of your email campaigns such as subject lines, CTA’s (calls-to-action), landing pages, and even the type of messaging you use.
Analyze conversion results rather than relying only on engagement metrics.
In some instances, a campaign that has generated a low number of emails opened may have produced a greater number of sales-qualified opportunities (SQOs) than a campaign that has had a larger number of emails opened.
The goal is to enhance the performance of business results, not just increase the volume of marketing campaigns.
Salesforce Marketing Campaigns help companies find potential customers; however, to convert those leads into customers, you need to do much more than collect customer data and send out automated email messages.
When an organization fails to target its audience effectively, has poor lead qualification, uses general messages, does not consistently follow up with leads, has a lack of connection between its marketing and sales organizations, has inaccurate CRM data, or is unable to accurately measure performance, it will have difficulty converting leads into customers.
Businesses may overcome these barriers by defining who their ideal customer is; improving how they score leads; creating individualized nurturing experiences for each lead; keeping their data up to date; and improving the way that marketing and sales work together.
In addition to measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns through business-relevant metrics like qualified leads, opportunity generation, customer acquisition, and campaign return on investment (ROI), they must also assess the performance of their campaigns.
Ultimately, Salesforce should provide for a connected process where each campaign interaction will enhance our knowledge of the potential customer and help guide the most relevant opportunity to a buying decision.
To achieve success, it is not enough to find more potential buyers. You need to attract the correct type of buyers, provide them with the information that is important to them, and allow your sales team the time and knowledge to turn actual sales opportunities into paying customers.
Usually, this occurs when you’re attracting the wrong audience through your campaign, sending out a message that isn’t specific to your audience, failing to follow up with potential customers after they’ve indicated interest (lead nurturing), and/or not communicating effectively with your sales team regarding how you plan to follow up with leads generated by the campaign. Just because you generate leads doesn’t mean those leads are going to buy.
2. How can Salesforce improve lead conversion rates?
By utilizing lead scoring, audience segmentation, marketing automation, proper lead assignment timing, individualized communication, and tracking of campaign results, businesses have the opportunity to increase their lead conversion rate.
3. What is lead scoring in Salesforce?
Lead Scoring is a system that allows you to assign value to leads based on how they interact with you and what characteristics they have. Lead scoring helps you determine which leads will likely turn into customers, so you can spend your time following up on those leads first.
4. What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL is a potential customer who has shown enough interest/suitability to continue being contacted. An SQL is a potential customer who has met certain criteria and is now able to engage with a salesperson directly.
5. How does Salesforce Campaign Influence help businesses?
Salesforce Campaign Influence can assist companies in identifying which marketing campaigns have contributed to sales opportunities and ultimately generated revenue. It can help identify the campaigns that played a role in guiding a consumer through their buying process.
6. Which metrics should businesses track to measure Salesforce campaign success?
Important Metrics are: lead qualification rate, lead conversion rate, opportunity creation rate, customer conversion rate, cost per lead, customer acquisition cost, campaign ROI, and revenue contribution.
7. How often should businesses review Salesforce marketing campaign performance?
Active campaigns must be monitored regularly by businesses, and more in-depth performance reviews are recommended regularly (i.e., monthly or quarterly). Performance reviews will evaluate the quality of leads generated from campaigns, feedback provided by sales teams regarding the effectiveness of campaigns, conversion rates associated with campaigns, and the amount of revenue generated from campaigns.
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