An enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) company operating in the highly competitive B2B marketing sector in the United States was struggling to expand its customer base. The company's initial marketing strategies included mass emailing and LinkedIn advertisements, but these efforts were not yielding the desired results in terms of lead generation and cost efficiency.
The company faced a critical challenge with extremely low lead generation. Despite sending thousands of emails and heavily investing in LinkedIn ad campaigns, they were generating only a few leads per week. These strategies were costly and resulted in a disappointing return on investment. The cold email response rate was below 1%, and the cost per lead from LinkedIn advertising was approximately $1,500. Additionally, the close rate was below 5%, as they were attracting tire kickers who were not genuinely in-market for their solution.
To address these issues, the company launched the SweepLift program. This program refined their target audience to U.S.-based B2B marketers who were also budget holders with a minimum company revenue of $10 million, targeting around 300,000 individuals on LinkedIn. The new approach included an incentive of an Amazon gift card to encourage the completion of a short qualification survey and viewing a sales demo video before booking a meeting. This strategy ensured that only qualified meetings were being set, and those leads who showed up to meetings were already educated on the company's solution. This approach made the first meeting for sales reps feel more like a second meeting.
The implementation of the SweepLift program led to an immediate tenfold increase in lead volume from the very first day. The detailed qualification survey included in the program helped collect critical data about the leads’ spending behaviors, top challenges, and the value they placed on customer solutions. This information enabled the sales team to create tailored business cases for leads, effectively demonstrating potential revenue increases of over $1 million in the first year alone. As a result, the strategy dramatically decreased the cost per lead, increased meeting volume to over five meetings held per day, and improved the close rate by 40%.
The success of the SweepLift program not only transformed the company's lead generation process but also provided valuable insights that helped shape future marketing strategies, ensuring sustained growth and a stronger market presence.