2 Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Data Centers Make

To generate qualified leads through a website, there are many parts that must be included on the website to successfully find ideal clients. You want to design a website that appeals to your buyer personas and that contains many actionable items or digital assets. Incorporating digital assets to your website builds trust with prospects and the current client base.

Here are two proven mistakes that data centers experience when attempting to generate leads.

Mistake #1:

Most Companies Have Limited Places for a Visitor to Reach Out and Become a Lead. When visitors come to your website and have no place to become a lead or learn more, they will leave your site.

Companies tend to have a contact page, or they have a call-to-action (CTA) that offers an opportunity to either schedule an appointment or request a quote. In the beginning stages of the sales process, the prospect is not receiving any value from either of those CTA’s, as they are actionable items geared toward the decision stage of the buyer’s journey. To get discovered early in the buyer’s journey, you must distribute content focused on the awareness stage.

Joshua Feinberg, the Vice President and Co-Founder of SP Home Run, explains the problem that results when your website does not contain CTA’s or a place where people can reach out to your company. Feinberg says, “the problem with having only two places where someone can raise their hand and say yes I want to be a lead, is the time somebody is ready to fill your forms out -- and by this time they are 80-90% baked.”

When a lead is 80-90% baked, Feinberg says, “80-90% of their decision is over by the time they are ready to raise their hand and talk with somebody from your sales team.” 

Mistake #2

Companies Are Not Providing Any Educational Content. Exceptional educational content is critical to catching the eyes of your audience.

The problem that companies tend to face is that their content is not relevant enough to their buyer persona or the content is not significant enough for them to read. Having irrelevant content puts a halt on creating effective landing pages and putting them in front of premium content because people will not think your content is worthwhile. Without a landing page or form, there is absolutely no way you can capture potential leads.

Feinberg provides a great example of this problem. He says “if you went to a networking event, or you did speed dating, and for whatever reason nobody allowed you to reveal their name, who they are, or even exchange business cards or phone numbers, there would be no way for you ever to begin building a relationship.”

What’s the Solution for Lead Generation?

To avoid these common mistakes, you must have various conversion paths and plenty of premium content that will be attractive to visitors and leads at each stage of the buyer’s journey - and specific to their buyer persona.

Feinberg says, “there has to be premium content for each buyer persona and each buyer’s journey stage. Otherwise, you are going to continue to suck at generating leads for colocation data centers and data center end users.” You want to attract those you care most about, your buyer personas. There should be plenty of educational resources available which include webinars, whitepapers, eBooks, blogs, podcasts, etc.

Additionally, you must have landing pages and forms in front of the premium content your team spends hours creating. If you do not have landing pages or forms, you will not capture any leads.

Have you been successful with data center lead generation? Have you experienced either of these mistakes? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.

To learn more about lead generation for the data center industry, watch our webinar recording, Attracting Data Center Clients: Step by Step.