Emplas has published the findings of a study into retail lead generation within its own retail business T&K Home Improvements.
According to the anlysis, the G-Award winning Installer of the Year achieved 1:8 conversion on paid for leads compared with 1:2 for those it generated in-house.
John Leary, Sales and Marketing Director, T&K Home Improvements, said that findings had provided valuable insight on what worked and what didn’t but also the cost of following through on unsuccessful leads.
He said: “When we drilled down into the figures we found that the leads that we generated ourselves through our new website and SEO activity and Pay-Per-Click, our conversion rate was just under 1:2 at 43.5% – this compares to 1:8 or 12.5% for bought leads.
“A conversion rate of 1:8 or 12.5 per cent at face value doesn’t look too bad but when you dig deeper and do the cost analysis on the time you spend setting up, attending appointments and following up on those leads the costs, which often remain unseen, really start to add-up.”
T&K is used by Emplas as a test bed for the marketing and sales support it offers to its own trade customers. It side steps issues around commercial conflict by restricting T&K’s operation to Northamptonshire only and only supplying the trade outside of it.
The retailer, which was named G-Awards Installer of the year in 2012, has seen rapid growth, increasing turnover from £2.6m in 2011, to top £4m, the last financial year.
This growth has been achieved through a tried and tested marketing and sales strategy, which Emplas is sharing with its customers through EVA, the Emplas Virtual Assistant.
Accessed through a unique user ID and login, EVA is a lead generation, management and online ordering tool. Lead generation includes a website build service, SEO, Pay-Per-Click and e-marketing support.
Emplas customers can also opt to tap into administrative support to help cleanse, set-up and follow-up on leads.
“Although it’s a web based platform, EVA is also about offline support. Lead management in our experience through T&K, is almost as important as lead generation itself. You need to make sure that those leads you pursue are worth the chase”, said Leary.
He concluded: “EVA is helping our customers to do that through more targeted and effective lead generation, plus the analytics to identify and understand what works.”
For more information on Emplas visit www.emplas.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 01933 674880.
