Using Marketing Applications to Generate Leads & Sales

Can I tell you a secret? One of the best marketing tools you’re not using is the marketing application. I’ve implemented a few over the course of my career and experience tells me that when used well, they give marketers an great ability to understand customer behavior while generating leads and/or sales. I worked on one for a large insurance company (with an ad agency partner) that ended up as a decision support system (DSS) application that mixes content with questions to provide users with a customized recommendation for insurance products.

The marketing DSS differs from a standard application in that the marketing DSS is designed to turn users into customers rather than simply making some process easier. The content within the DSS is critical to establishing interactions that engage the user, piquing and holding their interest. Each step in the navigation path, when done well, leads to a connection with the user where she feels educated and believes there is value for her in getting to the application’s payoff – the final answer.

The final answer is also the payoff for the marketer because it is likely that conversion actually takes place there. If the user has gone through the application and reached the final step then the application has to close the deal. The value of the payoff to the user is directly correlated to the likelihood of the user to convert into a lead or a customer.

Want to know how to make your own DSS? That’s for me to know and you to find out *wink*, but here are some tips for creating a winner:

• Focus on the User Experience
  
  

  Do what you can to make the tool visually appealing. Consider using technologies like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight, which allow the use of animation, video and other engaging visual elements. The investment may be a little higher but the returns can justify the cost.

  Navigational devices like ‘Next’ and ‘Back’ buttons should be well-placed and easy to find. The location of other navigational elements like ‘Back to Home’ should be based on generally accepted human factors principles and, perhaps most importantly, don’t underestimate the value of usability testing.

• Be Strategic About the Content
  
  

  Don’t just take content from your web site, add some perfunctory questions and call it a DSS. Know your audience, know what bothers them, what challenges they have in deciding to use your product. Then use that information to create the DSS content. Content should valuable, questions should be insightful.

• Clear Call-to-Actions
  
  

  Your final call-to-action can differ by your objective. Is your focus lead generation? Ask users to submit their contact information so they can be contacted by a sales rep or offer up a code and telephone number so the sales rep can see the user’s answers via the code. Sell direct? Include direct links to the product pages for those products recommended by the system, perhaps with a 10% discount for taking the time to use the tool. Heck, offer your first born child if you think it might close the deal.

• Make It Flexible
  
  

  The path through the tool should be pretty linear and easy to navigate. You should also give users the opportunity to try alternate scenarios by going back and changing their answers. Seeing varied recommendations indicates the responses really are personalized to each individual – making it more likely users will forward the tool to friends.

• Don’t Forget to Market It
  
  

  If you build it, people will come. Not. At the moment you start building the tool, you should also begin planning a media campaign that directs people to the application. Whether it’s SEM, display advertising, broadcast or all of the above, driving people to the DSS is the only way to meet your objectives.

Have a cool DSS or other type of marketing application you want to share? Tell us about it in the comments. In the meantime, check out this one from MetLife.