Person Level Visitor Identification: Introduction

Imagine the power of knowing that a potential customer visited your pricing page in real-time and being able to identify their name, company, and even LinkedIn profile. These valuable insights go beyond basic website analytics and IP tracking, providing in-depth, actionable data that can transform marketing efforts and significantly improve the efficiency of sales teams.

In the broader sense, person-level website visitor identification enables marketing teams to track and analyse the behavior of specific individuals, allowing them to understand the customer journey better and optimise their marketing campaigns for improved conversion rates. For example, RH Commercial Vehicles (RHCV) could generate £50k in revenue, achieving an 1150% return on investment (ROI) through website visitor identification tools.

Overview

1. Person Level Visitor Identification: Introduction
2. GA4 (Google Analytics) – Market leader in ‘Anonymous’ Web analytics
3. Website Visitor Identification on “Classical” Company Level
4. Quick overview of “Company-level” identifier platforms
5. Personal-level Website Visitor Identification market in 2024
6. How does LeadRebel’s Visitor Identification Technically Work?
7. GDPR and Legal Compliance for LeadRebel and Person-Level Website Visitor Identification Tools
8. LeadRebel’s Data Compliance with Global Legal Landscape
9. Comparing LeadRebel vs. RB2B Personal-level Website Visitor Identification Tools
10. How do Marketing and Sales Teams Benefit from Personal-level Website Visitor Identification
11. Integration Use Cases for LeadRebel’s Person-level Website Visitor Identification tools (Email Marketing Tools, Personalized LinkedIn outreach, and Targeted Cold Calling)
12. Summary and Future Trends

GA4 (Google Analytics) – Market leader in ‘Anonymous’ Web analytics

With over 9 million website integrations, GA4 holds 86.1% of the web analytics market, thanks to its free platform, integration with Google’s ecosystem, and advanced features for tracking user behavior and engagement.

GA4 (unlike Universal Analytics) is an event-based model that identifies every visitor interaction – page views, button clicks, video plays, or file downloads -as an event. A code snippet added to the website is used as a tracker for GA4 to identify individual events on a web page.

However, GA4 does not identify “company-level or person-level” data. The platform is capturing most on-site events as anonymised data. Let’s dive deeper into GA4’s limitations – for Lead Generation and B2B retargeting:

Yet, with features like Cross-platform profiling (user behavior monitored across websites and apps), Measurement Protocol, Custom audiences, ML, and integration with Google Ads, GA4 offers a unified view of ICP’s journey, making it a marketer’s free and favorite tool for non-selective ICP retargeting.

Website Visitor Identification on “Classical” Company Level

The next-generation website visitor identification tools focused on offering “Company-level” information and recognising ‘Buyer Groups’ (two or more website visitors from the same company). The trend started in 2009 when Lead Forensics launched its reverse IP tracking platform to identify anonymous website visitors for B2B brands and convert them into actionable sales leads.

Since then, several visitor identification tools have pioneered sourcing Company-level data by leveraging a combination of proprietary and public network sources such as IP addresses, firmographics, and network databases.

Image Source: Leadforensics

Quick overview of “Company-level” identifier platforms

• LeadRebel: Initially developed as a company-level identification platform, LeadRebel empowers B2B businesses to track and identify global website visitors (including those from the EU). Uniquely, LeadRebel specialises in personal-level identification for U.S. visitors, offering a first-of-its-kind platform that combines individual contact information with detailed firmographic data. This dual focus—on both company-level and personal-level insights—enables businesses to access granular data and more actionable intelligence on their website traffic.
• Lead Forensics: Leverages reverse IP tracking and proprietary databases to identify individual visitors and fetches their Company name, pages visited, and financials. The platform claims to process over 2 billion data points annually to process company identification and can potentially ‘unmask’ even remote corporate visitors.
• Leadfeeder: Built as an internal tool for a digital marketing agency, Leadfeeder serves over 40,000+ business customers globally.
• Clearbit: With their flagship Enrichment APIs and Webhook integrations, popular SaaS tools (Asana, Salesforce, and Intercom) have backend integrations with Clearbit to deliver real-time company-level data on visitors and leads. 
• Salespanel: Built to identify high-intent leads, the platform accelerates conversions with real-time alerts on B2B SaaS companies and businesses with high-value sales cycles. Even if a website visitor remains anonymous, the platform uses tracking codes to log these visits and provides firmographic information. 

Image Source: Salespanel.io

The scope and abilities of a ’Company-level’ visitor identifier tool go beyond GA4 (Google Analytics) to offer specific insights on the visitor’s company information – firmographics, technographics, and (if available) the visitor’s purchase intent.

In addition, company-level data aggregators operate via basic IP-to-company lookup functions or integrate databases. Hence, these tools strictly comply with GDPR/ Data Privacy Regulations across global markets.

However, generic firmographic data can only enhance sales intelligence or account-based marketing (ABM) but lacks data accuracy and falls short of identifying person-level information of ICPs. 

To address the challenge of identifying individual website visitors, RB2B (R! B2B) pioneered a disruptive technology that provides real-time identification of website visitors, empowering website owners with valuable insights. LeadRebel.io followed suit, offering an improvised tool to help B2B businesses know the identity of their anonymous website traffic.

Personal-level Website Visitor Identification market in 2024

A step ahead of offering ‘Company-level’ information is fetching ‘Personal-level’ information of website visitors, which RB2B pioneered, LeadRebel and some other companies followed, disrupting the B2B Lead Generation and marketing space.

Image: Personal-level data vs. Company-level data identifiers. Source: RB2B

On the surface level, LeadRebel.io aggregates personal-level information from 1st and 3rd party cookies, device IDs, and IP addresses, matching them with an “extensive proprietary publisher network” (more on this in the next section).

Two Specific Challenges that ‘Personal-Level’ Visitor Information Solves for Marketing and Sales Teams

• Authorized Personal-level data: While company-level identifiers stop at revealing visitor firmographics, LeadRebel goes a step ahead by identifying visitor contact information and pushing their profiles to CRM. RB2B, too, identifies a visitor’s LinkedIn profile to sales teams on Slack. These real-time systems allow for more verified and targeted outreach efforts for Sales Teams and reduce dependency even on third-party data validation tools.
• Instant engagement with Warm leads: With real-time push notifications on CRM and Slack, sales teams can act swiftly to engage with a warm/potential lead while they actively evaluate a product or service on the B2B website. This (as the platform claims) has potentially led to faster sales cycles and increased conversion rates.

How does LeadRebel’s Visitor Identification Technically Work?

LeadRebel.io visitor tracking and identification works by embedding a proprietary pixel script (similar to Google Analytics) onto a B2B website header to collect visitor IP, further referenced with a barrage of other datasets to identify visitor profiles. Let us dive deep into the visitor identification mechanism:

Step #1: Pixel installation and Initiating tracking

• LeadRebel embeds a JavaScript tracking code (a pixel) onto a client’s website header. 
• The code captures visitor data, including IP address, browser information, operating system, and on-site behavior (pages visited, time spent, etc.).

Step #2: IP Address Resolution and Enrichment

• From the captured IP address (of a visitor from the US), LeadRebel leverages range of  IP to company databases and matches it with own data and potentially other data enrichment sources to identify the visitor’s company and build a more comprehensive company profile.

Note 1: LeadRebel respects the browser’s “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature, whereby the entry in local storage is not created if the end-user explicitly disables this through a browser setting.

Note 2: LeadRebel does not rely on cookies, allowing them to track visitors even with cookie restrictions.

Step #3: LinkedIn and Database Matching

• LeadRebel further enhances the IP and Company data enrichment process by leveraging LinkedIn data to provide more detailed insights into the companies visiting your website. 
• This process involves analyzing various data points, including company name, website domain, and employee names (if available), but potentially cross-references even social media activity.

Step #4: Automation, Real-time Alerts and CRM Integration

• LeadRebel integrates with HubSpot (or other CRM tools) to push real-time notifications of a website visitor with a link to their LinkedIn bio. This enables sales teams to engage with their leads quickly.

Source: LeadRebel.io

GDPR and Legal Compliance for LeadRebel and Person-Level Website Visitor Identification Tools

While integrating LeadRebel, or similar personal-level website visitor identification tools with a website, business owners must carefully evaluate GDPR or applicable data-protection norms. 

Why should Business owners bother about GDPR?

Similar to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), certain mandatory data protection laws focus on protecting citizens online privacy and to restrict commercial use of their web activity. Such laws define personal data as information about an identifiable natural person. 

In specific, GDPR has set a global standard for data privacy and includes direct identifiers (like names and email addresses of website visitors) and indirect identifiers (like IP addresses and online identifiers) as personal data.

Is the LeadRebel Tool GDPR compliant? Yes, LeadRebel is GDPR compliant. As LeadRebel operates globally, including extensively within the EU, it adheres to strict data protection regulations. However, for businesses operating in both the U.S. and EU markets, note that:

• LeadRebel processes Company and firmographics data by identifying website visitors and sourcing their internet activity and company profiles (from both U.S. and the EU) while ensuring full compliance with GDPR requirements. 
• However, person-level recognition is exempt from GDPR if it involves only U.S.-based individuals, as GDPR does not apply to personal data from U.S. visitors.

LeadRebel’s Data Compliance with Global Legal Landscape

Data privacy regulations like the CCPA (in California) are more lenient than GDPR, and hence LeadRebel is free to operate by anonymising IP addresses and focusing explicitly on B2B interactions (not B2C).

However, any person-level visitor identification tool operating globally will be challenged with a complex global compliance landscape that includes:

• Stronger Emphasis on User/Visitor Consent: Regions outside the US might require explicit consent for data processing, increasing operational complexity.
• Data Management or Localization: Countries like Russia and some Asian nations mandate local data storage, complicating cross-border data handling.
• Platform Restrictions: Use of LinkedIn can be restricted in certain countries like China, hindering data aggregation efforts.

Compliance with Data Privacy Norms: Update your website’s Privacy Policy and Data Usage terms to inform your visitors and avoid getting penalized. 

Comparing LeadRebel vs. RB2B Personal-level Website Visitor Identification Tools

While both LeadRebel and RB2B offer website visitor identification, LeadRebel goes a step further. It combines both company-level and personal-level data, providing a more comprehensive view of your website visitors and their potential fit with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

Here’s a closer look at what sets LeadRebel apart. Please note, that feature landscape might change anytime and we make no claim to completeness. If you see any discrepancies, please notify us.

Table 2: Comparing LeadRebel.io and RB2B Tools

In essence:

• LeadRebel offers a broader focus on both company-level and personal-level data, with more extensive integration options for visitor activity. Hence, the platform is ideal for B2B businesses that want a deep understanding of both visitor behavior and identity. 
• RB2B, on the other hand, excels in real-time individual-level identification, providing businesses with actionable insights to enhance their sales pipeline, making it more suited for high-intent, fast-paced outbound sales environments.

How do Marketing and Sales Teams Benefit from Personal-level Website Visitor Identification

Studies show that only about 2% of website visitors convert on their first visit, and identifying the other 98% opens up a huge opportunity for lead generation. With tools like LeadRebel, B2B businesses can leverage visitor-identification alerts to gain a significant advantage and drive-in revenue.

• Prioritising High-Value Prospects: By identifying key decision-makers from target accounts visiting a website, sales teams can prioritize efforts to target high AOV (Average Order Value) prospects and buyer groups with high purchase intent.
• Anonymous Visitors turned into Qualified Leads: Rather than letting potential customers slip away, marketing teams can identify their prospects, learn about their specific interests, and proactively engage with them by leveraging firmographics and contact details such as email addresses or phone numbers.
• Personalized Outreach to Improve ROI: Knowing a visitor’s web activity (dwell, scroll depth and page visits) allows marketing teams and sales teams to craft a pitch to address the specific needs and interests of the visitor. Such personalised outreach efforts yield 6x ROI compared to a generic retargeting call or mail.
• Lead Nurturing and Shortened Sales Cycles: Engaging with warm leads who expressed interest in a website offering accelerates the sales process and closes deals faster. Snov.io identifies that such lead nurturing can increase sales leads by 50% at a 33% lower cost.
• Improve Conversion Rates (CRO): Insights from visitor profiles can help optimise website layouts and assist in A/B tests to yield higher conversion rates and CTA clicks. For instance, B2B businesses that use visitor tracking tools see an average conversion rate increase of 10-20%.

Integration Use Cases for LeadRebel’s Person-level Website Visitor Identification tool

A. Email Marketing Tools:

Combining a website visitor identification tool like LeadRebel with email marketing platforms like Instantly or Apollo.io unlocks powerful capabilities for targeted outreach and personalized engagements. Email marketers can benefit from:

• Integrating visitor data (e.g., job title, company names, company size) with email marketing platforms enhances lead-scoring accuracy through AI. In addition, with behavioral and engagement data, Predictive lead qualification can boost conversion rates by 20-30%.
• According to a study by Mailchimp, hyper-personalized email campaigns that tailor messages to visitor interests, such as browsing history or past purchases, achieve 26% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates than a generic cold-email outreach.
• Automation can also be enabled with Event-triggered email campaigns, Automated sales outreach, and Personalized sales funnels, allowing more effective marketing efforts than traditional methods.

B. Personalized LinkedIn outreach:

When high-intent visitor data from LeadRebel is combined with LinkedIn outreach tools, marketers can transform LinkedIn outreach into a more meaningful and relevant one.

• Connection requests can be tailored based on visitors’ on-site behavior, specific pages they visited, and on-page events to demonstrate a genuine interest in building user satisfaction. LinkedIn highlights that such personalised connection requests are 3x more likely to be accepted.
• Sharing content with prospects on live chat based on their browsing history and LinkedIn interests: For example, if a visitor views a case studies page, send them a personalised message with a relevant case study and a call to action. Research by HubSpot shows that targeted content can increase lead conversion rates by up to 80%.

C. Targeted Cold Calling:

LeadRebel, used in conjunction with tools like Ocean.io or Apollo.io, can enrich firmographic data, boosting the sales team’s cold-calling efforts with more informed, relevant, and timely outreach.

• With real-time alerts and the ability to reach out to high-quality leads while they are actively engaged with your website. According to InsideSales.com, contacting a lead within 5 minutes of their website visit can increase the likelihood of qualifying that lead by up to 100x times compared to waiting 30 minutes.
• LeadRebel.io can identify valuable leads who demonstrate interest by their on-page engagement and number of page visits. Research by Gartner shows that prioritising leads based on their engagement can increase B2B Marketing conversion rates by up to 30%.

Summary and Future Trends

Person-level website visitor identification tools like LeadRebel.io revolutionize how businesses connect with potential customers. With integrated personal-level and company-level data such as email addresses and phone numbers, B2B marketing teams can reach out to high-intent leads at the right time and improve lead-generation efforts combined with lead scoring and account-based marketing.

However, website owners must also be mindful of data privacy regulations like GDPR compliance and CCPA to avoid getting peanalised. Ethical considerations, transparency and lawful control of customer data must be ensured by website owners while processing personal data like IP addresses, contact details, and other personal information.

Future trends: With advanced automated triggers and API integrations, personal-level tools will get a sophisticated upgrade with Machine learning and AI-enhanced features. Advanced tools like LeadRebel.io, RB2B, and other website visitor tracking software will likely play a key role in helping businesses navigate the evolving AI-driven digital marketing and sales landscape.

The post Personal-level Website Visitor Identification: A Guide appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Cloud VoIP systems are increasingly becoming the go-to choice for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for communication needs. These cloud-based systems offer a range of features and benefits that traditional phone systems cannot match. In this article, we will explore the top five cloud VoIP systems for SMEs and highlight their features and benefits.

Key Takeaways

• Cloud VoIP systems offer a range of benefits to SMEs, including cost-effectiveness, flexibility, scalability, and easy setup and management.
• It enables businesses to access multiple features like video conferencing, call recording, and call forwarding, which can help improve business efficiency and productivity.
• Businesses must carefully evaluate their needs and requirements to choose the right provider.

Understanding Cloud VoIP Systems

Cloud VoIP systems are virtual phone systems that use the internet to make and receive calls. They are hosted on servers in data centers and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. This technology has revolutionized the way businesses communicate by providing a cost-effective and flexible alternative to traditional phone systems.

Benefits for SMEs

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit greatly from cloud VoIP systems. These systems eliminate the need for expensive hardware and maintenance costs associated with traditional phone systems. Additionally, they offer affordable pricing plans suitable for SMEs with limited budgets.

Cloud VoIP systems also provide mobility and flexibility impossible with regular landlines and on-premise phone systems. Employees can make and receive calls from anywhere using their laptop or mobile device, which makes it easier for SMEs to operate remotely or have a distributed workforce.

Key Features to Consider

When selecting a cloud VoIP system, SMEs should consider several key features that will help them improve their communication efficiency and productivity. Some of the essential features include:

• Call management: Cloud VoIP systems offer advanced call management features such as call forwarding, call routing, and call recording. These features enable SMEs to handle calls more efficiently and improve customer service.
• Collaboration tools: Many cloud VoIP systems offer collaboration tools such as video conferencing, instant messaging, and screen sharing. These tools allow SMEs to communicate and collaborate effectively with their team members and clients.
• Integration with other business applications: Cloud VoIP systems can integrate with business applications such as CRM software and project management tools. This integration enables SMEs to streamline their workflows and improve their overall efficiency.

Top Cloud VoIP Systems for SMEs

When it comes to choosing a Cloud VoIP provider for SMEs, there are several options available in the market. Here are the top 5 Cloud VoIP providers for SMEs:

Nextiva

Nextiva stands out as a reliable Cloud VoIP system for SMEs, catering to over 100,000 satisfied customers. Their user-friendly approach is a major perk, with a simple setup process that gets you up and running in minutes. Plus, Nextiva takes care of software maintenance, leaving you free to focus on your business.

Nextiva boasts a range of features that empower your team’s communication. Enjoy unlimited calling, video conference recordings for easy reference, and mobile and desktop apps for on-the-go accessibility. They even offer workflow optimization tools and omnichannel communications to streamline your processes.

But Nextiva’s strength truly lies in its integrations. From Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams to Hubspot and Rippling, you can seamlessly connect Nextiva to your existing suite of business applications. Nextiva goes beyond by integrating with industry-specific solutions like Zendesk, and ConnectWise, and even offers virtual faxing – a secure option ideal for healthcare providers.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Pros: Feature-rich with conference calling, voicemail transcription, multi-level attendant, and more. Integrates with popular CRMs and business tools. Offers secure virtual faxing. Includes 24/7 customer support for peace of mind.
• Cons: Lacks integrations with Slack and Zapier. Pricing might be higher for some small businesses, with plans starting at $18.95 per user per month.

Nextiva also sweetens the deal with a free 7-day trial, allowing you to experience firsthand benefits before committing.

Mitel MiCloud

For small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) seeking a robust and user-friendly Cloud VoIP system, Mitel MiCloud offers a compelling solution. MiCloud goes beyond basic calling features, equipping your sales and customer support teams with a comprehensive communication platform.

Here’s what makes Mitel MiCloud stand out:

• Untethered Communication: Never miss a call with seamless call forwarding to mobile numbers.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Foster teamwork and client engagement through high-quality video conferencing capabilities.
• Simplified Management: The drag-and-drop call flow designer empowers users to customize call routing with ease.

Mitel goes beyond core features by offering seamless integrations with the tools you already use. From Microsoft Outlook and Salesforce to Google Contacts, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Teams, MiCloud integrates with your CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and other business software to streamline workflows.

Benefits for Your Business

Beyond the feature set, MiCloud boasts several advantages for SMEs:

• Increased User Efficiency: Mitel’s intuitive interface (though with a learning curve for some) and feature-rich platform enhance user productivity, regardless of their location – perfect for remote or office-based teams.
• Scalability Made Easy: The flexible phone system design adapts to your growing needs. You can easily add or remove users without incurring high costs, making it a cost-effective solution.
• Prioritizing Customer Experience: Mitel understands the importance of exceptional customer support. You’ll have access to readily available assistance should any issues arise.

Potential Drawbacks to Consider

It’s important to consider all aspects before making a decision. Some G2 reviewers have mentioned occasional connectivity issues, so a reliable internet connection is key. Additionally, while the interface is intuitive overall, there can be a learning curve for new users.

A Trial Run Before You Commit

While Mitel doesn’t display pricing directly on their website, they offer a free 7-day trial. It allows you to experience the platform firsthand and see if it aligns with your business needs.

Vonage

A veteran in the VoIP space, Vonage boasts over two decades of experience and a strong reputation for reliability. This stability is crucial for SMEs, ensuring consistent, clear calls.

But what features does Vonage offer beyond rock-solid connections? Let’s dive in:

Key Features for Streamlined Communication:

• Automated Attendant: Never miss a lead! An auto-attendant greets callers and directs them to the appropriate department, ensuring a professional first impression.
• CRM Integrations: Streamline workflows and boost efficiency by integrating Vonage with your existing CRM software.
• Unified Communication Hub: Foster collaboration with built-in voice and video conferencing capabilities.
• Advanced Call Management: Rely on call forwarding services to ensure you never miss an important call, even when you are on the go.

Pros to Consider:

• Smart Call Routing: Vonage empowers callers to route themselves using their name or an extension for a more user-friendly experience.
• Seamless Integration: Maintain call quality even with bandwidth-intensive applications running in the background.
• Virtual Receptionist Feature: This handy feature automatically directs calls to the right department, saving you valuable time.

Cons to Weigh:

• Cost Comparison: While Vonage offers a comprehensive solution, it might be pricier than some competitors. Be mindful of potential hidden fees that can inflate the overall cost.
• Scalability Considerations: Depending on your growth trajectory, Vonage’s plans may not offer the ultimate flexibility for rapidly scaling businesses.

Pricing:

Plans start at $13.99 per line per month, with additional charges of $0.03 per minute for outbound calls. A 14-day free trial is available to test the service before committing.

JustCall

Justcall seamlessly integrates with over 100 popular business applications like HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zapier. This streamlines your workflow by allowing you to manage calls directly within your existing CRM or helpdesk platform.

Pros to Consider:

• Enhanced Customer Experience: Integrations with popular CRMs and a dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android devices provide flexibility and convenience for both your team and clients.
• Global Presence: Local phone numbers in over 95 countries open doors to international markets.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Gain valuable insights with real-time analytics that track call performance and identify areas for improvement.

Cons to Be Aware Of:

• Limited CRM Features: Compared to some competitors, Justcall’s CRM integrations may offer a slightly smaller feature set.
• Chat-Based Support: While helpful, phone support might be preferred by some users.

Pricing and Trial:

Justcall offers a user-friendly pricing structure starting from $19 per user per month. Additionally, they provide a generous 14-day free trial, allowing you to experience the platform firsthand before committing.

Dialpad

Dialpad isn’t just another name in the Cloud VoIP game – it’s a reliable and feature-rich solution built for SMEs. It boasts a user-friendly interface with built-in AI that helps streamline workflows. Their advanced analytics provide valuable insights into call performance, and customer support teams will appreciate the integrated live chat, phone hotline, and knowledge base.

Here’s what makes Dialpad a strong contender for your SME communication needs:

Pros:

• Rock-solid reliability: Voice intelligence keeps calls crisp and clear, while uptime hovers between an impressive 99% and 100%.
• Cost-effective calling: Make free calls to the US and Canada from anywhere in the world.
• User-friendly design: A modern, well-organized interface and extensive training resources make Dialpad easy to learn and use, with a well-built mobile app for on-the-go connectivity.

Cons:

• Dialing limitations: While Dialpad offers a power dialer, it lacks a smart dialer for automated dialing based on predefined lists.
• Limited visual call flow design: There’s no visual flow editor for the call flow designer so some technical knowledge may be required for advanced configuration.
• SMS limitations: Currently, SMS functionality is restricted to the US, Canada, UK, and Australia.
• Integration limitations: While Dialpad integrates with popular tools like Salesforce and Google Workspace, the overall integration options might be less extensive compared to some competitors.

Pricing:

Dialpad offers a range of plans starting at an affordable $15 per month, making it a budget-friendly option for SMEs. To test-drive the features before you commit, take advantage of their generous 14-day free trial.

Choosing the Right Provider

When choosing a cloud VoIP system for your small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), it’s important to consider factors to ensure you select the right provider. Here are some key areas to assess when making your decision:

Assessing Your Business Needs

The first step in choosing a cloud VoIP system is to assess your business needs. Consider the number of employees who will be using the system, the features you require, and any specific integrations you may need. For example, if you have a remote team, you may require a system that offers video conferencing capabilities. Alternatively, if you deal with international clients, you may need a system that supports multiple languages.

Comparing Pricing and Plans

Another important factor to consider when choosing a cloud VoIP system is pricing and plans. Compare the pricing and features offered by each provider to determine which one offers the best value for your business. Also, keep in mind that some providers may offer a lower monthly fee but charge extra for certain features, so make sure to read the fine print before making your decision.

Evaluating Customer Support

Finally, it’s important to evaluate the customer support offered by each provider. Look for a provider that offers 24/7 customer support and multiple channels for contacting them, such as phone, email, and live chat. Always read reviews and testimonials from other customers to get an idea of the level of support they received.

Cloud VoIP Systems: The Bottom-Line

In conclusion, cloud VoIP systems offer SMEs a cost-effective, scalable, and feature-rich solution to their communication needs. With various providers and plans available, there’s a perfect fit for every business. Leap to a modern and reliable phone system – explore the options we mentioned and discover how cloud VoIP can empower your SME success.

The post Top 5 Cloud VoIP Systems for SMEs appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

The proliferation of AI and automation tools has significantly increased the volume and frequency of email outreach and marketing campaigns. While marketers are integrating AI to reach target inboxes efficiently, the surge in automated outbound messages is often seen as a “white noise”—undifferentiated and frequent irrelevant communication that prospects tend to ignore, failing businesses to bridge the initial contact. Notably, 91% of all such outreach emails are ignored. And hence, intent-based marketing is gaining prominence globally.

Post-COVID, McKinsey found that 71% of B2B consumers expect companies to offer personalized communications, and 79% become frustrated when this doesn’t happen. The study iterates that companies can achieve up to 40% higher revenues by addressing client intent rather than using generic messaging. Consequently, 39% of businesses now spend more than half of their marketing budget on intent data, reporting an average ROI realization within six months.

Before dwelling on Intent-data, every email marketer must consider the above statistics, especially as AI-generated email campaigns and automated funnels crowd the marketplace, often generating “white noise” without practical conversions.

In this article, we will statistically explore the reasons behind declining response rates, examine several key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through and conversion rates, and illustrate how intent-based Marketing are emerging as a more effective strategy.

AI-Only Approach Fails to Meet KPIs – Case Study

A recent study by Sam Koch, published in the Journal of Business and Artificial Intelligence, investigates the performance of AI-augmented cold outreach compared to traditional human-led and hybrid approaches.

The study spanned over three (3) months, involving a B2B client offering sales development services to SAAS and private equity firms. The targeted prospects were sales development leaders at B2B software companies with an average annual revenue of $5 to $50 million. The goal was to study three distinct approaches with 2,000 prospects each and compare the performance and cost:

• Human-Alone Method: Traditional cold outreach conducted solely by human sales representatives.
• AI-Automated Tools: Fully automated AI-driven cold outreach campaigns.
• Hybrid Approach: A combination of human sales representatives utilizing AI-powered tools.

The key performance indicators (KPIs) evaluated in this study:

• Prospecting Cost: The cost associated with researching and identifying potential leads.
• Personalization Cost: Customizing outreach messages to stand out from the competition.
• Human Resource Cost: The labor cost of sales representatives.

Results: The study’s findings revealed significant differences in the performance of the three approaches:

• Human Alone Method: $350 cost per booked appointment.
• AI Automated Tools: $250 cost per booked appointment.
• Hybrid approach (Human utilizing AI tools as necessary): $141 cost per booked appointment.

(Refer to the journal for further outcomes from the study: Journal of Business and Artificial Intelligence)

This study demonstrates that while AI and automated outreach tools can significantly enhance lead generation and customer engagement, particularly in high-tech B2B companies, their success is still dependent on human expertise to refine the Gen-AI messages, monitor the output and AI models, fine-tuning and for effective data curation. 

AI Cold Outreach – Addressing the ‘White Noise’ Problem

Bloomberg reports that the Gen-AI market is projected to grow significantly, reaching $1.3 trillion globally by 2032. This trend is driving an increasing number of AI-based startups, SaaS products, and automation agencies, which are rising to help businesses integrate AI tools into their operations. 

However, as AI integration in business outreach activities scales rapidly to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs, it contributes to the “white noise” problem. The result? 91% of outreach emails are ignored!

Most AI-automated cold outreach campaigns often flood inboxes with spammy content, prompting ISPs like Google (Gmail) and Microsoft (Outlook) to restrict domains and damage deliverability.

Read More: Bulk Email Deliverability – Gmail and Outlook’s 2024 Guidelines and Enforcements

AI Cold Outreach — Negative Impact on Marketing KPIs:

AI-driven cold outreach often fails to deliver positive results, negatively affecting key marketing KPIs:

• Low Response Rates: Only about 9% of cold emails get a response due to generic, unengaging content.
• High Bounce Rates and Spam Issues: Misidentification by AI tools can lead to high bounce rates and spam emails.
• Generic Content: Monotonous AI-generated messages fail to engage recipients, reducing conversion rates.
• Difficulty in Extracting Insights: Overwhelming content volume makes it hard to find actionable insights, affecting campaign optimization.
• Negative Perception and Satisfaction: Poorly tailored outreach creates a negative brand image and reduces customer satisfaction and retention.

Given the challenges posed by AI-driven cold outreach, intent-based marketing is emerging as a promising alternative to solve these issues. 

Intent-Based Marketing — Solution to Automated Cold Outreach Issues:

Today, 98% of B2B marketers consider intent data as an essential ingredient for lead generation. In addition, 48% of B2B teams that implement intent data report a high level of success in their marketing strategies. Therefore, intent-based marketing is taking over AI-automated outreach tools as the popular go-to strategy while addressing the “white noise” problem.

Image reference: Intentifydemand 

Understanding Intent-Based Marketing

As the name suggests, an Intent-based strategy is built on a solid understanding of the purchase interests and the intent of potential customers to create highly targeted and personalized outreach content. 

Five Key Components of Intent-based Marketing Outreach:

Every intent strategy is built on five pillars: Gathering intent data, classifying intent signals (active or passive), Creating a target account profile, Content & messaging, and Advertisements.

• Intent Data:

  This constitutes behavioral data about users’ web content consumption, such as search queries and page visits. The goal is to understand what users are searching for, who visits specific pages, and what sections are the most viewed on a page. Tools like leadrebel.io help marketers track and gather behavioral, technographic, search and query data, forming the foundations for intent-based marketing and targeting. 

• Intent Signal Classification:

  User intent is categorized as active or passive based on purchasing tendencies for a targeted approach. Active intent is characterized by proactive measures prospects take to acquire in-depth knowledge about a product or service, signalling a positive intent to purchase or convert. Passive intent is mostly informational, hinting at the research phase with no urgent compulsion to decide (sales funnel’s awareness stage).

Machine learning models can often be used at this step to classify large data sets for segmenting audiences based on their journey (awareness, consideration, etc.) and to score the intent signals into active or passive, or high, moderate, neutral, and negative scores.

• Target Account List (TAL) or profile:

  A TAL is like building the target customer persona, a comprehensive document outlining the ideal client profile. This profile helps understand how target customers interact across social media platforms, brands, and digital ads. 

• Content, Messaging and Ads:

  Based on the intent data, signal, and customer profile, content (written, audio, or video) is built to target the specific interests and needs of the audience. This includes blog entries, whitepapers, product evaluations, and other content.

Such customized outreach content is scheduled according to prospect behavior to reach their inboxes, mimicking human-like interactions and frequency. 

• Ads and Campaign Optimization:

  Intent-based ads are designed with a mix of display, video, or audio formats, customized to the service or the product, and resonating with the specific inquiries of the audience. Intent data helps to understand prospects’ social media preferences and to optimize ads using A/B testing and real-time monitoring for better engagement and campaign KPIs.

These five components form the basis for an intent-based marketing outreach. Now, let’s dive deep into the types and methods of Intent (Signals or Triggers) data, as well as the means of collection.   

Intent Signals / Trigger Data Collection – Deep Dive:

Before delving into how intent signals are recognized, collected, and managed, let’s first understand their importance across organizations. 

A survey of 200 senior B2B marketers from large companies (500+ employees) in the USA and UK revealed that 99% utilize intent data through various tools (first, second, or third-party). Among them, 80% have established intent collection strategies that have been operational for over 2 years, with 37% maintaining strategies for over 5 years.

This highlights a mature approach among organizations to predict B2B user engagement and purchasing patterns through robust intent signal mechanisms. 

Types of Intent Data

Intent signals are typically sourced from five key types of data:

1. Search Intent: Derived from keyword and query analysis.
2. Web Browsing Intent: Tracked through analytics and cookies.
3. Digital Interactions: Includes clicks, downloads, and other engagements.
4. Firmographics: Demographic data of businesses for targeted marketing.
5. Predictive Modeling: Using historical data to forecast future behaviors.

Let’s review each of these in detail — why they matter, the data collection methods, and the usage of user intent:

1. Search Intent (Keywords and queries):

According to ThinkwithGoogle, B2B prospects conduct an average of 12 searches before visiting a specific brand, underscoring the critical role of search intent in the buyer’s journey. This stat is important as it leaves a trail of the customer’s search and interactions before arriving on a web page.

Research indicates that 71% of prospective buyers begin their journey by searching online with general queries to find solutions or information. And by the time they land on a brand’s website, they have already completed about 57% of their decision-making process.

This ‘Search phase’ is crucial as it provides deep insights into where users stand in the buying cycle and their likelihood of making a purchase.

Let us explore specific Intent Signals/Triggers that should be tapped during the “Search phase.”

A. Informational Search Queries: These initial queries reflect early-stage interest, such as “how to improve SEO” or “benefits of organic marketing.”

Tracking methods:

• Google Analytics or Search Console: GA4 allows brands to monitor the keywords driving traffic to your site, and the search console helps you identify the search terms that bring users to the site and how the pages rank for those terms.
• SEO Tools: Popular platforms like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz offers insights into the specific informational keywords that the target audience is using, along with information on keyword volume, difficulty, and competitive analysis.

Why they matter: These queries indicate users are in the research phase, seeking information rather than making immediate purchasing decisions. Marketers can leverage this insight to create targeted content like blogs and guides.

B. Navigational Search Queries: Users perform these searches when they have a specific website or page in mind, such as “LinkedIn login” or “LeadRebel blog.”

Image Reference: Monsterinsights 

Why they matter? Navigational queries suggest familiarity with a brand or its competitors, highlighting the importance of brand visibility and user experience.

Tracking methods:

• Google Analytics (Acquisition reports) or Google Search Console is used to identify the navigational search terms that land on the site. 
• Tools like Mention or Brand24 can detect mentions of a brand across the web and provide insights into navigational searches.

C. Internal Search Queries: These searches occur within a website, indicating specific user interests like “features” or “contact support.”

Why they matter: Internal search queries provide direct insights into user preferences and can reveal opportunities for content optimization and improved navigation. For example, if users repeatedly search for “pricing,” the pricing section/page can be more accessible or featured prominently.

Tracking methods:

• Google Analytics: Site search (View Settings) tracking enables to monitor what users are searching for on a website. 
• Tools and plugins like Swiftype or Algolia offer detailed analytics on internal search queries.

D. Transactional Search Queries: These queries demonstrate a clear intent to purchase or act and often use terms like “buy,” “best,” “discount,” or “compare,” or phrases like “best SEO tools” or “cheap web hosting.”

Image reference: SEMrush

Why they matter: High purchase intent signals that users are at the decision-making stage, making it crucial for brands to optimize landing pages and content with strong CTAs.

Tracking methods:

• Google Ads Keyword Planner: This tool can help identify transactional keywords with high intent, such as “buy,” “discount,” “best,” and “compare.”
• E-commerce Analytics: For e-commerce sites, Shopify Analytics or WooCommerce Analytics can track what users search for when looking to purchase.
• SEO Tools for PPC: SEMrush, Ahrefs, and similar platforms offer insights into high-intent keywords and the competitive landscape for PPC campaigns.

Brands can target these queries with optimized landing pages or posts, with strong calls-to-action (CTAs) to convert visitors into customers. For example, if a potential customer searches for “best email marketing software,” a landing page comparing the product favorably against its competitors can drive conversions.

Capturing intent signals through these four types of Search queries—informational, navigational, internal, and transactional—brands can create more personalized content that aligns with a customer’s search intention.

2. Web browsing Intent data (Cookies and tracking content)

In 2022, a global survey among marketers managing customer acquisition strategies revealed that 37% of brands rely exclusively on website-based first-party data for personalizing customer experiences, up from 31% in 2021. This underscores the growing importance of user-driven data in global business strategies.

Apart from first-party data, tracking page visits provides valuable insights into customer behavior through the use of cookies, which monitor user activity across sessions. 

However, it’s crucial to adhere strictly to data privacy regulations and obtain user consent before using this data for targeting purposes. 

Let’s break down the web tracking strategies with examples:

A. Content and on-site engagement:

Understanding what content users consume and how they interact with it reveals their intent. Marketers employ various methods to track this:

• On-site user tracking: Measures how users interact with different types of content (blogs, videos, product pages) on a website. Tools like Hotjar offer heatmaps and session recordings to see how users interact across webpages, help track users’ paths, and identify high-intent behaviors.

Metrics (KPIs) for on-site tracking include scroll speeds, link clicks, hotspots, number of downloads, and reviews.

Image reference: hotjar

• Tracking External content sites: This data provides insights into user behavior beyond a brand’s website, helping to understand user interests and intent across the web. Tools like LeadRebel and Bombora aggregate intent data from various B2B content sites to offer insights into user interests and behavior patterns.
• Tracking Social Media and Communities: Through social listening, organizations can track mentions and user engagements to gain insights into specific topics and discussions that resonate strongly with the target audience. Hootsuite and Sprout Social offer social media analytics and listening capabilities that help users understand their specific interests.

B. Tracking Browsing Behavior with Cookies:

Websites often use cookies to track user activity and preferences. There are two main types:

• First-party Cookies: Set by brands on their own websites, these track sessions, pages visited, and user journeys. This data helps in tasks like cart abandonment tracking and personalized recommendations. 
• Third-party Cookies: These are set by domains other than the brands to track user behavior across different sites.  

Image reference: cookieyes.com

The goal is to understand user’s interests and intent and target them with ads and products. Google Ads is a classic example of using third-party cookies to serve targeted recommendations.

Although effective for targeting, third-party cookies are subject to restrictions like Google Chrome’s phase-out plan by Q3 2024, emphasizing the shift towards first-party data and privacy-preserving technologies like Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

Integrating CRM systems with cookie data further improves personalization efforts and offers insights to build Customer personas or TAL profiles. A Salesforce or Hubspot CRM system integrated with browsing data can identify a lead who has repeatedly visited pricing pages and bump them up the lead scoring system to trigger a sales follow-up.

3. Intent from Digital interactions:

While ‘Web Browsing Intent’ provides a broad overview of user behavior and interests, ‘Digital Interactions Intent’ focuses on specific, deliberate engagements with content or features. 

For instance, a browser cookie can capture user page visits and content categories browsed, offering a generalised user intent. However, tracking digital interactions such as downloads, form submissions, button clicks, video plays, or other feature interactions provides granular, event-based data that signifies deeper user engagement or intent.

Image Reference: Tracking Digital Interactions – File downloads and Clicks

Consider this example: frequent visits to product category pages indicate interest but not immediate purchase intent. Conversely, downloading a product brochure or requesting a demo demonstrates high interest and potential buying readiness. 

Therefore, triggering an email campaign based on a user’s download of a specific eBook or completing a survey is highly effective compared to a content recommendation engine, which suggests articles on a “Technology” if a user frequently visits tech-related pages.

Tracking Digital Interaction signals:

• CRM Systems: Platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho track and manage customer interactions across various touchpoints. HubSpot CRM, for example, integrates seamlessly with email marketing, social media, and websites to provide a comprehensive view of user interactions and preferences.

• Marketing Automation Platforms: Marketo, ActiveCampaign, and Pardot automate marketing processes and track user interactions across various channels. Marketo, for example, allows marketers to automate email campaigns triggered by user actions. Actions, for instance, could be visiting a product page or downloading a resource.

Image Reference: ActiveCampaign

• Web Analytics Tools: Google Analytics and similar web page analytic tools can also provide detailed insights on clicks, page visits, and download events to help understand content performance and user engagement. 

Once interaction data and action signals are captured, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) tools can optimize user experiences and increase conversions through systematic testing and analysis of user interactions.

4. Firmographic Data in ABM

In an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, firmographic data enables marketers to focus on high-value prospects by analyzing specific company attributes. This data includes industry type, company size, annual revenue, number of employees, and geographical location.

Why Firmographic data matters? 

While intent signals (from Search, Browsing, and Actions) help marketers understand and predict user interests and engagement readiness, firmographic data allows for segmentation and targeting based on company demographics. It also assists in defining the ideal customer profile and identifying high-value targets for B2B sales.

For example, identifying a mid-sized tech company searching for “best CRM software” indicates potential buying intent, contrasting with a new-age startup that may rely more on free tools.

Tools for identifying Firmographic data:

• CRM systems: Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho centralize and manage firmographic data alongside customer interactions, storing various profiles and high-profile prospects.

• ABM Platforms: Specialized platforms like Demandbase, Terminus, and 6sense excel in identifying high-value target accounts and aggregating firmographic data for precise targeting.

Image Reference: Demandbase for Salesforce

• Data Enrichment Tools: Platforms like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, and Dun & Bradstreet add context and enrich existing CRM data with further firmographic information. For example, Clearbit is a popular tool used across marketing teams to enhance their lead and customer data with firmographic details and help build a clearer picture of target accounts.

• Sales Intelligence tools: Platforms such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, InsideView, and DiscoverOrg offer detailed insights into companies and key contacts. These tools help identify decision-makers and influencers within target accounts, enabling more informed and personalized outreach efforts. 

For example, LinkedIn Sales Navigator can offer insights into a company’s hierarchy, recent activities, and key personnel, helping to create more informed and personalized outreach efforts.

• Business Information Services: Hoovers, Crunchbase, and PitchBook provide comprehensive company profiles and market intelligence, covering financials, leadership, industry positioning, acquisitions, funding rounds, and other significant business events.

Reference: Crunchbase from Techcrunch

In practice, leveraging firmographic data often involves combining CRM systems, ABM platforms, data enrichment tools, and sales intelligence services. These tools collectively facilitate the identification of target accounts, data enrichment, and personalized marketing and sales strategies tailored to resonate with high-potential prospects.

5. PM of historical intent-based Marketing data

PM (Predictive modelling) uses historical and real-time data to forecast future behaviors and decisions. By identifying patterns and trends within existing customer data, marketers can predict the actions of new prospects who demonstrate similar behaviors, enabling more efficient and effective targeting strategies.

Why does Predictive modelling matter? With historical data available, marketers can choose to engage potential customers before they even express clear intent through their actions.

However, predictive modelling requires high specificity and advanced tools to predict the behaviors of individuals when compared to other intent signals. Accuaracy of which can depend on understanding and reacting to the actual behaviors and company demographics. 

Tools for Predictive Modelling:

• Predictive Analytics Platforms: These platforms use high computational machine learning and AI models to analyze vast amounts of data and recognize user patterns to predict future customer behavior. Lattice Engines is an excellent example of a Predictive platform that helps build lookalike models to target new prospects resembling existing best customers.

• Customer Data Platforms (CDP): CDPs aggregate data from various sources onto a unified platform. Tools like Segment collect data from web, mobile, and in-store interactions to create lookalike models, targeting new online users like top spending customers.

• Machine Learning and AI Tools: These tools leverage AI to deliver predictive insights. Salesforce CRM Einstein, for instance, analyses past customer interactions to predict future behavior, automating lookalike modelling and suggesting the next best actions for sales and marketing teams.

• Marketing Automation Platforms with Predictive Features: These platforms employ predictive lead scoring to assess historical customer data and identify new leads likely to convert. Like AI models, they also use this data to create lookalike profiles, identifying new prospects who resemble your best customers.

Image reference: dnb.com, Customer Data Platform

In essence, predictive intent and lookalike modelling provide foresight into potential customer behaviors by analyzing patterns in past interactions and using them to anticipate future actions. This proactive approach focuses on identifying new prospects statistically likely to exhibit behaviors similar to those of your best customers.

Proven Benefits of Intent-based Marketing:

Intent Data Trends (2022) shows that 17% of B2B sales and marketing professionals have improved their lead conversion rates by 30% using intent data, reflecting a 33% year-over-year increase. Globally, over 90% of marketers have observed excellent results from intent-based marketing through data collection, including better prospect building, enhanced content creation, and more effective campaign integration. 

The following report from InboxInsight graphically presents how an intent-based marketing strategy can yield better outreach results:

Intent-based marketing excels in conversions and engagement by precisely targeting the right audience with the right message at the right time. However, an AI-driven cold strategy can also be effective for initial contact and relationship building. 

Therefore, synergising the two methods to leverage both strengths is a better approach. This comprehensive approach drives better ROI, KPIs, and Customer satisfaction while reducing the white-noise problem.

The post Intent-based Marketing – Case Studies, Metrics, and Effective Strategies appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

In 2024, 16% of marketing emails failed to reach their intended inboxes. According to EmailToolTester.com, and 15 Email Service Providers (ESPs), an average of 10.5% of these emails landed in spam folders, while the remaining 6% bounced back.

While marketers are constantly trying to personalise campaigns and test different email service providers (ESPs) to reach inboxes, ISPs (Gmail and Outlook) on the other side are continually updating their spam filters and enforcing stricter policies on what gets delivered.

Even if emails escape these spam filters, they might still end up in the “Promotions” tab. In 2024, about 37.74% of delivered emails landed in Promotions, while only 57.8% could make it to the Primary Inbox.

While many articles on the Internet offer advice on improving email deliverability, they often overlook the recent updates and evolving policies of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). A case study from Seventh Sense highlights how conventional techniques like Mail merge can backfire in 2024 due to ISPs directly flagging large-volume email campaigns as spam.

Therefore, Seventh Sense devised a solution to adjust their email sending frequency to match human rates, resulting in a remarkable 93% improvement in email deliverability. This resulted in a 178% increase in website page visits from email marketing. 

This post will help you explain the latest updates from ISPs like Gmail and Outlook. We’ll break down how spam filters evolve and give you practical tips to optimise your bulk email campaigns for better deliverability.

ISP Email Deliverability Updates — Timeline:

To better understand the impact of recent ISP email deliverability updates, let us first understand the timeline of Bulk Email Marketing Guidelines. We will focus on the legacy (conventional) practices (pre-2022) by the marketers and then explore in detail the current updated guidelines (2023-24) from various ISPs. 

Legacy Bulk Email Marketing – ISP Guidelines (2021-22):

• Google (G-Suite/Gmail): Google had announced a stronger focus on AI for spam filtering in Gmail. This stressed the need for marketers to prioritise content relevance, implement authentication protocols such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC), and avoid spammy tactics.
• Microsoft (Outlook): Microsoft Outlook emphasised the importance of a good Sender (domain) Reputation for reaching inboxes. A positive domain reputation means lesser bounce rates and better engagement metrics (opens, clicks) while following permission-based email practices.

In essence, between 2021 and 22, ISPs placed an onus on marketers to understand and adopt authentication protocols, avoid spammy content, and maintain a strong sender reputation. 

Post-2022 saw ISPs take proactive measures for bulk email marketing and campaigns. This proactive shift is evident in Google’s enforcement of mandatory authentication protocols and Gmail’s introduction of engagement-based inbox tabs (promotional and social), aiming to drive most marketing emails to Promotional or Spam boxes.

Updated ISP Guidelines (2023-24): Microsoft and Google Bulk Email Marketing Enforcements

Responding to the ever-evolving cyber threats, specifically via spam Emails, the recent updates and guidelines from various ISPs have underscored the importance of a comprehensive, multi-layered protection approach for email security. 

Fundamentally, this means a shift from solely relying on the sender’s reputation to establishing robust defence mechanisms, spanning from the network’s edge to post-delivery actions. For example, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 exemplifies this approach with its powerful multi-layer protection stack, ensuring that every phase of email handling is secure. Take a look:

By this multi-level spam defence strategy, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has ensured protection against various email-based threats. A recent Forrester report highlights how Microsoft’s Defender stack has decreased the time to investigate threats by 92% and an overall 95% reduction in time to block malicious links.

Understanding these technological changes, email campaign marketers must align with the measures while optimising their email campaigns to maximise reach and engagement.

Now that we have explored the ISP security stack let’s understand the updated norms from ISPs for bulk Email Deliverability:

1. 1. Who gets classified as a Bulk Sender? According to Google, a bulk sender is any email sender that sends close to 5,000 messages or more to personal Gmail accounts within 24 hours. Messages sent from the same primary domain also count to the 5,000 limit. If senders meet the above criteria at least once, they are permanently considered bulk senders, and this status does not have an expiration date.
   2. Spoofing and ISP guidelines: Spoofing is when a sender sends an email with @Gmail (From header), but the mail was not sent from @gmail. This is a common form of email abuse by spammers. In their recent update, Google mandates that Bulk senders that spoof gmail.com will start getting notifications about temporary failures. (explained in next section) 
   3. Spam rates and ISP guidelines: ISPs expect the senders to limit daily spam rates below 0.1% and should prevent spam rates from ever reaching 0.3% or higher. Otherwise, the bulk sender remains ineligible for mitigation and won’t be eligible for any actions that could help improve their deliverability. 
   4. One-Click Unsubscribe and ISP guidelines: Starting June 1, 2024, all bulk senders must implement one-click unsubscribe in all their commercial and promotional messages, while the Transactional messages are excluded from this clause. The Unsubscribe headers must meet RFC 8058 requirements. The goal is to restrict and maintain a low spam rate and improve delivery.
   5. DMARC and Authentication guidelines for bulk sensors: Senders must ensure that their “From:” header is identical to the SPF or DKIM domains. At least one of these must be aligned to avoid temporary error codes. Regarding DMARC, ISPs recommend that all senders fully align DMARC to SPF and DKIM. This is soon to become a mandatory requirement for senders.
   6. What happens when ISPs reject the Sender’s Emails? ISPs (Google and Microsoft) send a message with the rejection code and a reason for the rejection. For more information on Microsoft Outlook SMTP Error codes, refer to Postmaster.live.com, and for Google error codes, you can refer to Postmaster tools.

ISP Enforcements for Non-Compliance of Bulk Email Sender Guidelines (Starting April 2024):

Starting in April 2024, Google begun gradually rejecting non-compliant email traffic. Initially, senders shall start getting temporary errors. These should be considered as reminders to comply with ISP guidelines.

However, starting June 2024, the enforcement of these requirements begun strictly for all Bulk senders:

• DMARC record with a minimum policy of none (p=none).
• One-click unsubscribe in marketing messages (excluding transactional messages)
• Mitigations are unavailable when user-reported spam rates exceed 0.3% or if the sender has not met the authentication or one-click unsubscribe requirements.

Image reference: Google Sender Guidelines Link

Note: The Non-compliance ISP guidelines apply to Google / Gmail, while there is no specific mention of any new requirements or actions Microsoft took in 2023/24 as comparable to Google and Yahoo’s upcoming ISP enforcements for Non-compliance.

Improve Email Deliverability by Optimising Email Campaigns (ISP Guidelines 2024):

So far, we have discussed the guidelines and the consequences of non-compliance. Now, let us explore how, as an email marketer or a user of an Email Service Provider (ESP) promoting your brand online, you can ensure your messages land in the inbox.

To simplify, let us first categorise all ISP guidelines into Authentication, User Privacy and Engagement, and Email-Content Optimization. 

A. Authentication & Reputation:

• DMARC Alignment with SPF and DKIM: Use DMARC Analyzer or MxToolbox to set up and monitor DMARC, SPF, and DKIM records. These tools provide insights and reports and ensure proper configuration and alignment with ISP’s guidelines.

• Maintain a Good Sender Reputation: Services like Sender Score (by Validity) let you monitor the domain sender’s reputation. Regularly check your domain and IP reputation and address any issues promptly.

Image reference: https://www.theseventhsense.com/blog/email-marketing-frequency-best-practices

B. E-Mail List Hygiene & User Engagement:

• Keep Spam Complaints Below 0.1%: Use email verification tools like ZeroBounce or NeverBounce to clean your email list regularly. Hunter.io and similar email verifiers can be helpful in checking email validity. You can also monitor complaint rates using your ESP’s analytics and remove inactive or unengaged subscribers.

• Offer a One-Click Unsubscribe Option with Clear Link: Ensure your ESP provides a one-click unsubscribe feature. Test your emails to see if the unsubscribe link is prominent and functional.

• Process Unsubscribe Requests Within 1-2 Days: Automate the unsubscribe process using your ESP’s built-in features. Regularly audit the process to ensure compliance with the 1-2 day timeframe.

C. E-Mail Content and Design Optimization:

• Ensure Emails Comply with RFC 5322 Standards: Use email testing tools like Litmus or Email on Acid to check for RFC 5322 compliance. These tools can also be tested across multiple email clients to ensure consistency.

• Avoid Impersonating Gmail “From:” Headers: Ensure the “From:” address is clearly associated with your brand to avoid severe penalties and deliverability issues.

• Avoid Common Spam Triggers in Content: Before sending, spam check tools like SpamAssassin or Mail-Tester let you analyse emails for common spam triggers. Avoid excessive use of exclamation marks, all caps, and misleading subject lines, an easy trap to land into a spam box.

Image reference: https://www.theseventhsense.com/blog/email-marketing-frequency-best-practices

D. Increase the relevancy of your emails:

1. Make sure you send relevant emails to a relevant audience: Targeting the right audience is key. If your offer is highly relevant to the targeted audience, the interaction with your emails (open, click, and reply rates) will be high, which will send a positive signal to ISPs. This, in turn, will increase the deliverability rates of your future emails.

2. Use tools for better targeting: While we are going to write a separate article about this topic, it is important to use audience recognition and creation tools, as well as signal generation tools, like LeadRebel, apollo.io, Clay, Builtwith, etc., to generate a high-quality audience for your campaigns and ensure content-audience fit. Techniques like website-visitor recognition will help you narrow down your audience to highly relevant prospects, resulting in a very high interaction rate.

Additional Considerations to Improve Email Deliverability:

• Monitoring and analysing Email Bounce rates: Bounce reports are often provided by the ESP. Monitoring them to identify and address the causes of hard bounces (e.g., invalid email addresses) and soft bounces (e.g., temporary delivery issues) can offer insights into campaign performance.  You may also use tools like Mailgun and SendGrid, which can offer detailed bounce analytics.

• Finding the optimal frequency for sending emails: Sending too many emails can often overwhelm subscribers and lead to higher unsubscribe rates and spam complaints while sending too few can result in low engagement.

Image reference: https://www.theseventhsense.com/blog/email-marketing-frequency-best-practices

• An effective way is to use A/B testing to determine the optimal frequency for your audience. By monitoring open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates, you can find a balance that maintains high engagement without overwhelming recipients. 
• According to HubSpot, most companies successfully send emails 1-3 times per week.

• Understanding user engagement metrics: Engagement metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates provide insights into how well the emails were received. Tools like Google Analytics and the analytics dashboards of ESPs like Mailchimp or SendGrid can offer and track these metrics.

By leveraging these tools and strategies, marketers can significantly enhance email deliverability and align with best policies and updated (2024) ISP guidelines.

Source Links:

Google / Gmail’s Updated guidelines for Bulk Email deliverability: 

1. Prevent spoofing, phishing, and spam (Gmail security precautions recommended for all users): https://support.google.com/a/topic/9061731?sjid=13424071737467088473-AP
2. Google Bulk email sending guidelines & tools: https://support.google.com/a/topic/7279058?hl=en&ref_topic=28609&sjid=14246194665660467212-AP
3. Email sender guidelines FAQ (latest updates about our Email sender guidelines (previously called Bulk sender guidelines): https://support.google.com/a/answer/14229414?hl=en&ref_topic=7279058&sjid=14246194665660467212-AP
4. Guidelines for ESPs, Sender requirement updates, and Monitoring tools: https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126?hl=en

Microsoft / Outlook Bulk Email deliverability guidelines:

1. Email Protection Basics in Microsoft 365: Bulk Email https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-defender-for-office/email-protection-basics-in-microsoft-365-bulk-email/ba-p/3445337
2. Troubleshooting email delivery issues for senders while reaching Outlook.com users: https://postmaster.live.com/pm/troubleshooting.aspx
3. ISP Deliverability Guide: Microsoft OLC (Updated for 2023): ISP Deliverability Guide: Microsoft OLC (Updated for 2023) (spamresource.com)

The post Bulk Email Deliverability – Gmail and Outlook’s 2024 Guidelines and Enforcements appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Thanks for having interest in LeadRebel! We want to make sure that our software provides you with maximum value. Using data, which was provided by LeadRebel, and integrating it into your sales and/or marketing activities, is of high importance, since only in this case can you maximize the value provided by our software.

In this guide we are presenting you with four possible ways to integrate LeadRebel into your daily workflow.

Basic Rules on How to Use LeadRebel Data Efficiently

• Keep your dashboard clean:
  • Blacklist irrelevant visitors and visits (icon under the company name on dashboard)
  • Select countries and industries in the filter, which are relevant for your business.
  • Put on the blacklist: companies, countries, industries, subpages, which are irrelevant for you.
  • Think about setting a minimum amount of time on your website as one of the criteria. You can set the filter here: blacklist.
  • Use tags, comments, and favorite functions to keep information transparent to yourself and your team.
• Use information from each visit to recognize what product or service your visitor is interested in. You can find relevant information when you click on a company (visit detail view) or when you click on a video-recording icon.

         Here is a sample video:

• Use this information during your sales and marketing activities. Offer your potential customers the exact product or service they are interested in.

Outbound Sales 

Outbound sales is one of the most widely utilized use cases among our customers. Benefits of using cold calling in combination with LeadRebel:

• You can contact your prospect on the same day of the visit, while the lead is still warm.
• You can get direct feedback from the potential customer regarding your product or service.
• You can easily customize your pitch based on the visitor behavior on the website.
• You can use human touch and your charisma during the call, instead of relying solely on digital communication.

To setup successful outbound sales campaigns based on LeadRebel data, you should consider the following steps:

1. Connect LeadRebel to your CRM. If your CRM isn’t directly connected to LeadRebel yet, consider using Zapier to connect LeadRebel to your CRM via drag & drop, code-free method. If you don’t use any CRMs yet, think about using one. HubSpot is a good CRM with a generous free account.

• If you prefer not to use any CRMs, send LeadRebel data to your sales team using the following methods:
  • Excel export of selected data
  • 
  • PDF export of selected data.
  • Add your sales reps as users in the settings (settings -> other) so that they can directly access your companies’ dashboard.
  • Add your sales reps email addresses to a daily reporting list (settings -> other).
  • Create a tag for each sales rep (settings -> other) and add his/her email address to this tag. You can then use this tag on companies in your dashboard, and send your sales reps these leads using the “send per mail” function.
  • If you have a large sales team, where each sales rep has their own region or countries to cover, you can upload an excel file with emails and relevant zip codes and countries for each sales rep, also under (settings -> other).

• Example of exporting leads from LeadRebel to HubSpot: 

• What to consider when calling to potential customers from LeadRebel:

• Don’t mention that you have seen them on LeadRebel. People don’t like to hear that.
  • Don’t bother with finding the right person who was on the website. Just contact the right department within the company.

• If you already have a sales team, you can add leads from LeadRebel as extra “warmer” additions to your existing lead pipeline. If you don’t have a sales team, consider outsourcing the work to an outbound agency. We have had good experience with TREND Service GmbH (Germany). For this article we gathered 35 telemarketing companies, which can support you and approach your leads.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is another broadly used method of reaching out to leads generated by LeadRebel. The benefits of using email marketing in combination with LeadRebel:

• Easy to integrate and automate.
• Cheap.
• Easy to track results and measure KPIs.

Using Email Marketing in Combination with LeadRebel, Step by Step Instruction

1. Select email marketing software. You might already use one. If not, consider using ActiveCampaign,Sendpulse, Woodpecker or Mailshake (the last two are especially good for cold mailing campaigns).

• Integrate your email platform with LeadRebel. We have some native integrations; for the rest feel free to use Zapier .

• Create a mail list, where the company emails will be exported to.

• Create an automation. For example, you can offer your potential customers a lead magnet (if you don’t know what that is, you can find some information here: https://www.zendesk.de/blog/lead-magnet/ . Based on their response (or non-response) you can automatically follow-up a couple of times or directly send your lead magnet.

• Example of an automation: 

• Track results for your campaign in the dashboard of your email-marketing software.

Direct Mailing

Some large customers are using direct mailing based on LeadRebel data. The benefits of direct mailing:

• Nearly 100% opening rate.
• Higher trustworthiness of the company behind direct mailing (compared to email marketing).
• Less competition.
• Legally the least problematic way of outbound sales and marketing.

How to Use Direct Mailing in Combination with LeadRebel

1. Find a provider that can support you with sending the direct mailings (if you can’t cover this part of the job inhouse). We recommend the following provider in Germany: mailingdruck24.de. There are many more good providers as well.

• Read this article (currently only available in German, but using browser translation should do the trick).

• Analyze, tag, filter, and export the suitable visitors from your website. Every visitor company on LeadRebel has a full address.

• Create mailing templates. You can create several templates for A/B testing or to target different segments. For example, you can create product-based segments. If your company offers, let’s say, 5 products, you can create 5 segments, with one mail draft for each segment.

• Send over the exported excel file with companies and respective addresses, as well as your mail drafts to the mailing provider.

This is it. You can create follow-up sequences using more direct mailing. Or you can follow up by phone, LinkedIn, etc. The choice is yours.

Audience Building

Audience building means creating a list of companies and uploading it to paid ads platforms, like LinkedIn or Google Ads. You can gather your visitor companies over time, select the most relevant ones, and upload them, for example, to LinkedIn. Then you can create ad campaigns specifically for the uploaded companies.

By using this feature on LinkedIn, you can target very narrowly not only specific companies, but even their employees working in specific departments.

Google doesn’t allow this kind of deep targeting, but you can still create a custom audience and compare results to other audiences.

How to Build and Export a Custom Audience Based on LeadRebel

1. First, gather enough companies in your dashboard. Building a LinkedIn audience only makes sense for 300 or more companies. So, don’t rush, let recognized companies pour in, then you are ready to create an audience.

• Integrate LinkedIn API, or export a list of companies for LinkedIn or for Google Ads, such as a CSV file.

• In the case of LinkedIn API integration, you can simply select companies in your dashboard and export them to a new audience.

• To setup and upload data for Google Ads follow this guide, for LinkedIn feel free to check out this video guide.

• Example of export into LinkedIn:

• Once you have exported your website visitors into, f. e. LinkedIn, you can set up a campaign and specifically target the visitors of your website.

• Basically, it works as retargeting, but instead of targeting everyone who was the on the website, regardless of which company or country, you can select the companies you want to target on your own.

Summary

We hope this information helps you to use the data provided by LeadRebel more efficiently. We are going to continuously update this list and add more use cases. Feel free to send us your suggestions: info@leadrebel.io .

The post How to Use Data from LeadRebel for Your Sales and Marketing appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.