We’re about to kick off a New Year and here at ReachForce we are in the process of analyzing all of our programs to determine which ones drove the most sales conversions. As we are finalizing our Q1 lead generation plans we decided to segment our leads a different way, active and inactive.

With every program we as Marketers run we are able to bucket people into “responders” and “non-responders”. We typically do different things with these two groups. Responders typically move into other programs that try and further qualify the lead for sales. But what do you do with the non-responders and inactive leads and contacts in your marketing database?

By leaving them in the current mix, you’re only hurting your program ROI and possible sales conversions. Continuing to do the same thing over and over again with these non-responders is insanity, right?

Before writing these people off, try changing up the mix and offer them something new and different.

In our 2.0 world, there are so many new possibilities for reaching your prospects and customers in a way they respond to. Here’s a few ideas to consider:

• Social networks – where else are your prospects hanging out? Get out there with them and try and make contact. Remember you can’t enter the social world with a sales pitch.
• Channels – are your prospects also customers of some of your partners, see if they can help with introductions or more insight into the prospect account.
• Webcasts – some people are visual learners and want to feel like they are interacting with live people. Email them an on-demand webcast or invite them your next live webinar.
• Survey – we use explicit surveys here at ReachForce to gather lead qualifying information. Now, yes we do incentivize people to take the survey but the results we get back are great. It helps our lead gen and sales team to prioritize their follow up and it helps us weed out no fits (also helping increase our next program ROI).
• Podcasts – some people like to listen vs. read [a whitepaper or eBook]
• Offers and Incentives – be sure to change them up and test what works best.

And if all else fails, it might be time to clean up your data. Make sure you have the right buying contacts in the right companies or it doesn’t even matter what you are sending or offering. So how are you reaching those stubborn prospects that give you no signal of interest? Hopefully you’re not just giving up on them …