Commentary

'Leads' Lead Marketers' Attention, 'Conversational Commerce' Rises Too

As companies contend with how to survive in today’s completely new landscape, lead management should rank high on the list for both agencies and brands. It comes as no surprise that the digital world has been a lifeline for sales teams during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, for most businesses, it has been one of the only ways forward. 

Among the top 10 search topics with the largest discrepancy among brands and agencies, according to this week’s Bombora search topics? Lead Management, Lead to Account Matching and Lead Scoring all ranked highly. 

Because of the increasingly digital B2B-buying landscape we’re living in, prospective customers now form opinions about businesses long before they ever interact with a sales team. They expect brands to anticipate what information they need, regardless of where and how the interaction takes place. Today, it’s table stakes for brands to have lead management systems, which allow them to improve their sales pipeline by developing strategies that incorporate lead nurturing, lead scoring, and marketing automation. Optimizing one’s lead management activity to suit today’s unpredictable environment, along with rising customer expectations, is imperative. Agencies can assist in breaking down brands’ organizational silos that inhibit the flow of lead insights between sales and marketing. 

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We’re also seeing the effects of the pandemic on the burgeoning B2B e-commerce sector, as evidenced by a nearly 2000% increase in intent among US enterprises around “conversational commerce,” more commonly known as chatbots or voice assistants, from April to late June. This same group exhibited a 1,900% increase in intent for the e-commerce SaaS platform BigCommerce, and a 550% increase in “B2B eCommerce.” 

While the world shifted even more of our lives and livelihoods online, the tech industry, in general, has not been left economically unscathed. Due to significant disruptions in the supply chain, there are sectors of the tech industry that have taken a considerable hit. However, it’s not all gloom and doom. 

As the rise of e-commerce has shown, there are opportunities to be had even in the most challenging of times. According to this week’s search topics, “Adsense” and “Website Builders” hit an all-time high in early August as COVID-19’s effect on the demand for online selling and service strengthens. 

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