Bridging the biddable media channel - sales gap with thematic analysis

Generating loads of leads is great - but if your sales team can’t convert them, then you're sunk. This is especially the case when using biddable media channels, as you’re actively paying to generate these leads that don’t convert.

Brands that perfect their inbound lead generation strategy see falling marketing costs, better quality leads, greater client engagement and other benefits that outbound methods simply can’t provide. If you want to know more about inbound lead generation read our guide “Everything you need to know about Inbound lead generation”

So how do you get around this? First, you need to identify why some leads don’t convert, and then identify ways to fix the issue.

This isn't rocket science, but sometimes nailing down a concrete framework for solving issues can be tricky. Here at Six & Flow, we love to help. That’s why we’ve outlined how to bridge the gap between your sales teams’ biggest challenges and your use of biddable media channels.

If you want to achieve any marketing aim, then biddable media is a great way to boost activity. However, biddable is difficult to get right. If you want to get some solid advice on perfecting your campaign, read our blog 'What is biddable media, and how can it catapult your growth?'

What’s their problem?

Remember those lectures on research methods in the first year of university? No? Neither do I, they were probably boring and I was probably hungover. But had I been paying attention, I would have known about qualitative thematic analysis.

Thematic analysis refers to the process of pinpointing, examining and recording patterns within data. Themes are any patterns across data sets that are significant to a certain phenomenon.

In this case, the phenomenon is why can’t the sales team convert. So now we know what thematic analysis is, how do we apply this to campaigns on biddable media channels?

First, go to your CRM and speak to your sales team. Find all the information you can about how deals have been lost. As you read through your notes, look for similar reasons given. These are your themes. Then count how many times these themes appear.

For example, with our clients, two themes continually appear. One, consumers are time wasting, and two, consumers don't have enough cash.

It may seem that these themes are nothing to do with particular biddable media channels or campaign processes. However, in the next section we will explain how to improve your account builds and effectively address these issues.

Deconstructing your themes

So now you have your themes, you need to understand what is causing these issues before you can solve them. Most themes can be broken down into simple arguments, and then matched against a targeting overlay or a UX process.

For example, if we look at our own time wasters theme, you may wonder how you can prevent against this on biddable media channels? Well, the answer is simple. If someone is going to waste your time, you need to make it harder for them to do so. Adding additional qualifying questions to forms and landing pages means that people who are just browsing for some quick information will lose interest. They will then take themselves out of the process, saving the sales team call time.

So now let's look at our second identified theme – leads lacking enough income. On Facebook and other paid social networks, this may seem like a simple enough process. You just need to include the income brackets within your target range - or so it would seem.

Facebook has a huge amount of data available with in its network. However, it does not have everybody's, and the information it does have may not always be correct.

Instead of simply including the target income ranges you want, it may actually be better to exclude the ones you don't want. This gives you larger data sets, and also allows some flexibility to find those consumers whose data is not on the system. As long as you have other data overlays present, the quality of your leads should remain high.

It's an art not a science

In any discipline, there will be obstacles to navigate. In our experience, biddable media channels demand much more of a mixed method process. Yes, it’s a very number-heavy discipline, but you can risk getting bogged down in CTRs and CVRs when the reality may be much more subjective.

If you identify themes and then think of practical solutions, you will be able to bridge the gap between biddable media account builds and your sales team’s performance.

If you want to achieve any marketing aim, then biddable media is a great way to boost activity. However, biddable is difficult to get right. If you want to get some solid advice on perfecting your campaign, read our blog 'What is biddable media, and how can it catapult your growth?'