Developing the marketing lead generation process of online and offline events in B2B business
Shi, Hong (2023)
2023
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052112372
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052112372
Tiivistelmä
This paper describes research done with the B2B case company about the need to develop the lead generation process of B2B business. Lead generation was a process instituted two years ago in order to measure marketing efforts based on data. The aim is to design marketing efforts and investment for the best results, as measured in data, tracking the quantity and quality of marketing leads as the main index.
The theoretical framework chapter describes the B2B marketing theory and practices, the marketing mix and challenges, the role of communication, the marketing & sales funnel, online and offline events, measurement of marketing actions, and internal communication approaches in the industrial context of the case company.
This paper takes pragmatism as its approach, focusing on the case company’s B2B lead generation from online and offline events. The aim is to analyze and define the status quo of these events, identifying problems and suggesting solutions to improve future practices. Interviews with selected sales representatives and managers were conducted to get different perspectives on the online/offline events.
A current state analysis was done before the interviews were carried out. The interviews were designed and structured in Microsoft forms and carried out face-to-face mainly. A few were carried out over TEAMs video call. The results were collected and analyzed, and findings were made about the definition of marketing qualified leads, following up the leads, the nature of the marketing platform and tools, the responsibility over the leads, and the need for internal communication to the different stakeholders.
This paper describes the results of the research and gives development suggestions to improve the marketing lead generation process from data creation and tracking to CRM functions, lead qualification, lead measurement and internal communication to stakeholders.
At the conclusion of this paper, there is a discussion about how to further develop marketing lead generation in general, going beyond online and offline events to cover the whole spectrum of B2B marketing activity.
The theoretical framework chapter describes the B2B marketing theory and practices, the marketing mix and challenges, the role of communication, the marketing & sales funnel, online and offline events, measurement of marketing actions, and internal communication approaches in the industrial context of the case company.
This paper takes pragmatism as its approach, focusing on the case company’s B2B lead generation from online and offline events. The aim is to analyze and define the status quo of these events, identifying problems and suggesting solutions to improve future practices. Interviews with selected sales representatives and managers were conducted to get different perspectives on the online/offline events.
A current state analysis was done before the interviews were carried out. The interviews were designed and structured in Microsoft forms and carried out face-to-face mainly. A few were carried out over TEAMs video call. The results were collected and analyzed, and findings were made about the definition of marketing qualified leads, following up the leads, the nature of the marketing platform and tools, the responsibility over the leads, and the need for internal communication to the different stakeholders.
This paper describes the results of the research and gives development suggestions to improve the marketing lead generation process from data creation and tracking to CRM functions, lead qualification, lead measurement and internal communication to stakeholders.
At the conclusion of this paper, there is a discussion about how to further develop marketing lead generation in general, going beyond online and offline events to cover the whole spectrum of B2B marketing activity.