Case study of how an excellent pipeline of sales leads can be generated using the online medium. This was featured in "Information Matters" a journal published by Synapse Information Services, where I worked for over 8 years and led the team that worked on this project. To know more about Synapse, visit: http://synapse.co

1. LEAD GENERATION | ONLINE MARKETING
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Internet marketing allows businesses to measure the effectiveness of ad spend and
precisely point out what is working and what is not.
ONE of the key indicators of successful marketing is the growth
in customer acquisition and sales. To illustrate the business
efficacy of web marketing we are sharing an experience of a company that has
capitalized upon the power of internet to increase its sales, revenue and profits.
Sharekhan’s Sharekhan, one of India’s leading stock broking companies has nationwide
presence with over 750 share shops and offers online investment services on
client base tripled www.sharekhan.com. Their client acquisition team is spread across the country
and is equipped with powerful product and sales tools. What they need on a
as a result of regular basis is a consistent flow of ‘sales leads’— people who have expressed a
successful Internet desire to know more about investing with Sharekhan and have provided details
like their name, phone number, email id and city in which they reside. Till early
marketing 2004, leads were generated through advertising in print, television, outdoor or
activities like events and direct marketing.
62 From mid-2004, Sharekhan and Synapse started a focused effort to generate
sales leads using internet marketing. The results have been a reason to cheer.
Sharekhan’s client base tripled within a period of three years with the use of
Internet marketing strategies. While one positive business environmental factor
was the stock market’s great bull-run, Rajiv Prabhakar, Head of Marketing
at Sharekhan believes that “generating large volume of leads from internet
marketing in a consistent and cost-effective manner was the key driver in helping
us acquire new clients. As a result of our internet marketing efforts, in 3 years
time (2005-2007) we have acquired over 300% more clients than what we had
acquired in the previous 5 years (2000-2004) put together!”
INFORMATION MATTERS | ISSUE 2

2. 6,000 valid leads from 40+ cities within less
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than 48 hours of going live
The message here is clear and loud, no business today can
BENEFITS OF INTERNET MARKETING ignore the power of internet. And those who are wary of this
medium because they have had a contrary experience during
the dotcom bust in early 2000, here’s a simple rule: Start
Fast Results: The turnaround time from thought to small, measure the business effectiveness of every rupee
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implementation is significantly shorter when compared to other spent and scale-up as you start experiencing visible results. If
media. you play the game right, we are sure you will end up clicking
Here’s an example: When the Sensex fell twice by more than all the way to your bank.
600 points in August 2007, the Sharekhan research team was - Deven Shah
optimistic on the long-term prospects and created 2 exclusive
reports with suggested trading strategies and list of stocks to
invest in the current markets. We created an eDM, Web Banners,
Google AdTexts and a Landing Page communicating the stock-
picking opportunities and offered the 2 exclusive reports as
downloadable PDF files. The communication was created and
made live on targeted websites in just 1 day and we had 6,000
valid leads from 40+ cities within less than 48 hours of going live.
Measurability: Every rupee spent on internet marketing and
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advertising can be measured. While there are many ready-
made software products available for measuring the banner
impressions and click-through-ratios of advertisements,
Sharekhan has an in-house Lead Management System in place
which answers business questions like “How many sales leads
have I got this month in each city where my business operates” or
“What is the break-up of these leads across various products” and
A special lead-generation focussed microsite with information
“How many of those leads have converted into clients and what is structured according to user profile
the revenue generated from them”.
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Adaptability: There are times when we realize that a particular
creative is not working or some specific section of a website is
more effective than the others. At the click of a few buttons, it
is possible to stop or reduce spending on average-performers
and allocate more advertising budget to the better-performing
campaign. The ability to switch-on and switch-off campaigns in
a matter of seconds and the flexibility to evolve your advertising
strategy based on real-time analysis is an advantage that 63
traditional media like Print and TV cannot match.
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Cost- efficiency: Because we have been measuring the
effectiveness of internet marketing, we can confidently say that
lead generation on internet has delivered highest number of sales
leads as compared to other media and at a much lower cost-per
Animated web banner offered a topical research report as an
lead. And this statement is not based on just one or two instances, incentive
but a collective experience of measuring the cost-effectiveness for
over three and a half years.
INFORMATION MATTERS | ISSUE 2