Lead source data tells how a visitor or buyer heard about your company. If tracked accurately and consistently, it provides insight into how visitors, buyers and customers hear about you. You can analyze your most profitable lead sources and how your target audience is finding you. Then you can better determine where to invest your time and dollars.
Best Practice: Specify Channels to Track
Lead sources have evolved over time. Your market has access to more channels than ever. The more specific and detailed your lead source categories, the better you can analyze the results of from lead source. Did a visitor respond to a tweet you sent? Did a visitor find you on LinkedIn? Did your company come up when a visitor search on certain keywords? Did a happy customer refer your company, or did the visitor attend a webinar?
Lead source is an important marketing metric to track, especially as sales and marketing collaborate to align more closely.
Automation (CRM) Settings Needed to Track Lead Source
Your sales force automation system should include a field for lead source. It should include a manageable but clear list of valid lead source options. I recommend that this field is visible on the same page that inside sales/lead generation uses to capture other key data.
Knowing the lead source is valuable information for inside sales and lead generation. Representatives need this before engaging with a prospect or customer. For example, knowing a prospect has signed up for a specific webinar, or downloaded a whitepaper on a certain topic gives you a piece of valuable data. This helps you to understand your prospect better before engaging with them. Marketing is providing valuable data for sales.
If your lead generation people have the first live interactions with a prospect or visitor, lead source is a valuable data item to track. Sales or lead generation teams should be informed and trained on the location of the field, when to enter or adjust the entry, and what the entries mean. Now, sales provides valuable information to marketing.
Lead source data managed well provides valuable insight for future company decisions. This is a small but meaningful way for sales and marketing to collaborate.