One of the challenges I’ve heard multiple times from entrepreneurs is around inconsistent lead flow from marketing. Marketing is running the standard playbook — SEO, PPC, webinars, events, email drips, social — and it’s working with demonstrable value. Only, it’s inconsistent. One month is great and the next month is weak, yet it’s hard to discern why.
What’s a high performing startup to do about inconsistent lead flow from marketing? Here are a few thoughts:
- Ask the five whys. Drill down and look for patterns or trends that aren’t visible from the surface. Look for seasonality, major events like an industry tradeshow, or other major influences.
- Track everything. Implement Pardot and a marketing attribution engine. Track everything that can be tracked.
- Run an account-based marketing process. Identify best-fit targets. Build a playbook. Execute the process. Iterate.
Inconsistent lead flow is normal. The key is continuous improvement and refinement.
What else? What are some more thoughts on inconsistent lead flow from marketing?
David Cummings on Startups 
Or implememt Marketo which includes an atribution emgine and account based marketing capabilities.
For many startups, its easier to get everything out of box from 1 vendor instead of having to manage 3.
Thanks for all of the wonderful content, David!
Kevin, I think what David was getting at was that as an entrepreneur, it is frustrating that lead flow is inconsistent and unpredictable (or at least, appears that way on the surface).
I don’t think it is necessarily just implementing Pardot, Marketo, etc. To me, it’s about finding ways to generate leads that are predictable and scalable — only it’s a lot easier than it sounds.
Would love to know if anyone else reading our discussion agrees/disagrees 🙂
David, great post — but is this always the case? Did you find this to be true at Pardot as well?
Curious as to what you found were the underlying causes once you did your drill-down. Any patterns?