Lead tracking is a system for maintaining and sharing information about sales prospects. Your tracking system gathers and consolidates information about each potential customer that visits your website or contacts you at a webinar, trade show or other event. Lead tracking also helps you accomplish other goals as you learn from each customer and become more effective at both marketing and sales.

How to Do Lead Tracking

There are several ways to use lead tracking data in your organization. The method will probably depend on the size of your team and the number of leads coming in at once.

If you have a small organization and low volume of leads, you might be able to manage lead tracking with a home-grown program. You will just build a file for each contact. If very many people will use the system, you might need controls on who can change the files.

If you have a larger shop, a larger staff or if you are managing information about more people, you will probably want to look into a system or software program to assist with the tracking function. Effective lead tracking will be able to inform sales, marketing, customer service and management in several ways:

1. Review landing pages and the way visitors are moved through your web site to a sale or asked to give you personal information.

2. Evaluating and refining your registration form and “contact us” page.

3. Improve effectiveness of blogs, social media, article marketing, advertising and SEO in bringing people to your sales table.

4. Gaining a better understanding of how leads are converted to customers – how to improve the sales process.

5. Build better relationships with existing customers.

If you have a large organization, tracking leads as they move from the web site and from marketing to the sales without being lost will be one of your top challenges. A multi-faceted tracking service will be needed for effective lead conversion.

The Importance of Lead Tracking

If you do not do a good job of lead management, you will not be able to keep track of the people who show interest in your company. If you lose track of them somewhere in your system, you almost always lose the sale before you find the file. Lead tracking is also the best way to constantly improve your marketing plan, your landing pages, and your sales program. Without lead management, tracking and analysis, your growth will be very limited.

If you own a small business or professional and want more information about lead generation, view the short video, “How Article Promotion Can Send 25,000 – 50,000 New Prospects to Your Web Site Every Month – For Free.”

Ads for really cheap vinyl banners are all over the ‘net. I mean, who wouldn’t be interested in a 4′x8′ vinyl banner for less than $70. You know what they say about things being too good to be true. Be sure to closely examine just what you are getting…

Banner material

Just what is this banner made of? To use your banner outdoors and have it last longer than a few hours, it must be made of no less than 13 ounce vinyl scrim material. Don’t be fooled by shops trying to pass off paper banners. They won’t make it outside.

Banner material weight

This spec is the one most likely to be hidden from you in an online ad. Chances are that if the advertisement doesn’t specify what the banner weight is , they are hiding something.

Never buy any banner for outdoors that is less than 13 ounces. Experience has shown that this is the minimum weight banner for long lasting outdoor use. You can probably move up to 13 ounces for an additional cost.

Hemming

Finishing the banner with a hem is very important. By folding under an inch of material and securing it by either sewing, welding or using banner tape, you get a banner that is significantly stronger and more durable. My preference is banner tape since it causes no damage to the graphic.

Quite a few printers use sewing as their method of hemming. The problems with sewing are that it makes the edges pucker and distort the image.

A sewing machine can cause some marring of the image due to the claw tooth foot that moves the banner into the machine. This will cause marring of the image you are paying good money for. If your cheap banner doesn’t include hemming, expect to pay about $1 per linear foot, or slightly more than $20 for a 4×8 banner.

Banner finishing: Grommets

This is a simple one…everyone needs some way to hang the banners that they buy don’t they? Grommets are super cheap, about $0.10 each, and should be included in the price. You should have one in each corner and then one every two/three feet along all four sides. Those shops that charge extra usually bill you $1.00 for each grommet. That is $12.00 for a 4′x8′ banner.

Summary

Vinyl banners are a super tool to promote your business or events. Banners offer the best return-on-investment of all advertising. Be careful when you see those ads for cheap banners, that might be just what you get.

Learn more about Oregon Banner Printing. Stop by Michael Pingree’s site where you can find out all about banner printing and what it can do for you.