4 Reasons Why Internet Cookies from Hubspot will Revolutionize Your Company's Marketing Department
Posted by Marcus Sheridan on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 11:09 PM
Cookies…..Mmmmmm…..Just the thought of them gets my salivary glands working. And no, I’m not talking about the ones Grandma used to make. I’m talking about the internet kind. And trust me when I say that these cookies, if you try ‘em, will be the best you’ve ever had.
But before we go into the reasons why Hubspot’s internet cookies are the greatest thing since sliced bread, let see how our friends over there at Wisegeek define this ‘sweet’ marketing tool:
A computer cookie is a small text file which contains a unique ID tag, placed on your computer by a website. The website saves a complimentary file with a matching ID tag. In this file various information can be stored, from pages visited on the site, to information voluntarily given to the site. When you revisit the site days or weeks later, the site can recognize you by matching the cookie on your computer with the counterpart in its database.
So for those of you that are new to this term, did you get all that?? Well, if you didn’t, just look at it this way. Every computer, just as a vehicle has a license plate, has its own address. This address is referred to as an IP address, or Internet Protocol address, and is a numerical label assigned to just about every computer on the web. The beauty behind cookies is that it knows when your car (computer) and license plate (IP address) have entered the building(website). In fact, because your address is recorded and always being monitored, cookies enable an analytic system like Hubspot’s to ‘follow’ you wherever you go while you’re on their site. As you can imagine, knowing where customers have been on your website, the pages they’ve viewed, how long they spent on each one, and how many times they’ve come back, is an extremely powerful sales and marketing tool.
But before we cover just what Hubspot’s cookies (aka lead tracking system) can do for you, understand that the only way cookies even work in the first place is if a visitor to your site fills out a form. This part is key. When a customer fills out a form, cookies are then attached to the IP address and at that point the benefits begin. And one other point—Many people turn the cookies to their computer off, therefore disabling others to track their actions when visiting that site. Notwithstanding, many others allow cookies and its benefits to you as a business owner and marketer are incredible. So let’s check out what this awesome tool can do for you and your business.
4 Reasons Why Hubspot’s Lead Tracking System (Cookies) is Stinking Awesome
1. They can tell you how the visitor found you: Lead tracking is an essential component of any marketing plan, and it’s imperative that you’re able to track how our customers are finding our site. Did they arrive via Pay Per Click? Was it an organic search? Maybe a referral from another website? Either way, as you see how customers are finding your site you are then able to focus more attention on that area and have more direction with your web marketing focus.
2. They can tell you how many, and what pages, a lead has viewed: In this information age, an informed consumer will make or break a sale for a business every time. For example, my swimming pool company’s website has about 250 pages. And after looking at lead activity for about a year now, I’ve come up with the following ratings system:
1-5 Pages Viewed: Likely not very serious and maybe misinformed. Good change this person is not yet in the ‘buying’ phase.
6-10 Pages Viewed: Luke-warm shopper. Still has not spent nearly enough time to become informed and educated, but showing signs of hope. Will need quite a bit of teaching if we meet for a sales appt.
11-20 Pages Viewed: Relatively serious shopper. This person has taken a decent amount of time to become informed regarding our company and products, and therefore has a solid foundation. Still could use quite a bit of knowledge and teaching though.
21-50 Pages Viewed: Serious Shopper. Very informed. Looking to make a decision.
50+ Pages Viewed: Red Hot Lead. This person knows just about everything there is to know about me, my company, and my product. Not only is this person going to buy, but it appears they’re already sold on us.
Now you may be thinking it’s not a good idea to judge a lead before you actually meet them, but I’m here to tell you that if you follow customer patterns long enough, including the type and number of pages viewed, you will be able to thin slice quickly just how serious they are about buying, their hot buttons, and their overall product/company knowledge in general. Although I always keep an open mind when meeting with a prospect the first time, the numbers never lie.
3. Number of Site Visits: Who do you think is more ready to buy—Someone who has only visited your company’s website once or someone who has visited your site 4 times and the last 48 hours? I’m sure we’d both agree that you’d choose the latter, which only makes sense because that person is obviously thinking quite a bit about your product and appears to clearly be in a ‘buying’ mode.
4. Visit Notification: Holy Cow, this is one of the coolest tools ever. Imagine that you recently gave a client, we’ll call him Jeff Jones, a quote and upon following up with Jeff, you leave him a message only to receive no response. Undeterred, you trying calling him a second time but again receive no call back. By this point, you dejectedly give up hope that Jeff is interested and decide to file his information away. But two days later, out of the blue, you get a notification on your blackberry that says, “Jeff Jones is visiting your website.” With a new-found hope, you call Jeff and this is how the conversation goes:
You: Hello Jeff, it Marcus Sheridan, how are you?
Jeff: Marcus, hello, I’m so glad you called me. You’re not going to believe this but I just got off your site!
You: (w/ a big smile in your voice) No way! Well I guess it was meant to be then, huh?
Jeff: Wow, I guess so. But I’m glad you called……
I’ve literally had a conversation similar to this one many, many times with clients of mine. I’ll give up on them and then, out of the blue, I see they’re visiting our website. And as soon as their names comes across my blackberry, you better believe I call them that second. Can you imagine the power of such a tool?!!
So there you have it. If this hasn’t gotten you excited about trying out Hubspot’s incredible inbound marketing system for your business, just wait to you hear about the many, many other tools they have available to enhance your sales and marketing department and elevate your company’s website to heights you never dreamed possible.