Until they can generate leads and convert them to sales, the job of the marketing and sales departments of any organization is far from complete. In a nutshell, leads are web visitors who responded to a Call-to-Action (CTA), while sales are paying and loyal customers. It certainly goes beyond creating an attractive website (though that is a fairly good strategy). Neither should your qualified leads be limited to website visitors alone.
How well are you ensuring that visitors to your site are convinced enough to take positive action? That is, to actually buy from you? Not just once, but again and again? And how well are you using every available communication channel to engage potential customers, generate leads and convert them into sales?
Let’s examine a few useful steps you can take towards building an effective lead conversion process or strategy.
5 Basic Steps Towards Creating an Effective Online Lead Conversion Strategy
- Optimally use your social media handles to attract customers: Social media is a hotbed of social, commercial, and other forms of interaction for millions of internet users. Multimillion-dollar deals are sealed there. And unending opportunities to learn, get informed, or be entertained abound on the internet. Popular social media sites have an immeasurably huge audience that make use of each platform every passing day. Thus, it is critical to leverage social media as a key strategy to generate leads and convert them into sales.
- Create engaging and relevant content: Ensure that your web content (as well as content created for other available communication channels) are meaningful and captivating to any visitor. Email copies, videos, articles, ebooks, product demos, training materials, and podcasts need to convey a sense of belonging. They should also engender trust and connectivity with potential and existing customers.
- Imbue SEO into every website element as much as possible. Most of the elements on your website can be optimized to rank high on search engines and give them more visibility. Therefore, invest in improving the SEO standard of your website. Focus even more on critical website elements such as the web addresses of each page, hyperlinks, page titles and headers, videos, pictures, and other dynamic web elements. This strategy is effectively used to generate leads and convert them into sales at little or no cost.
- Make your website’s landing page more interactive and attractive: Be fully aware that your website’s landing page is the door to the entire company and its brand. It must be carefully designed to attract and generate leads and convert them into sales within a short period. Consider incorporating appealing videos and images, data input elements (such as text boxes and combo boxes), forms, and call-to-action clickable buttons and hyperlinks. Overall, the entire landing page must be welcoming, and prompt visitors to take positive action to get closer to your brand.
- Intensify efforts on email marketing: Email campaigns have always been, and still remain effective lead generation tools. You can send out newsletters that, combined with attractive email templates, continually relate and communicate with your target clients. Customers get to know more about your brand, the products and services you have to offer in a quick glance through email marketing.
10 Effective Strategies You Can Use to Improve your Lead Conversion Rate
Identify and Capture Your Target Market through Research
You intend to get the attention of a targeted group of customers, right? There is no better way to do so than by carrying out research. You must understand the behaviors and choices of your potential customers. Gather relevant data that covers their age group, gender, social class, earnings, and employment status, even their personal opinions and attitudes. Then channel all these information into personalized content that addresses their needs. Personalized and relevant content can easily convince your leads to buy into your product over time. Thus, research can enhance how well you can generate leads and convert them into sales through personalized ads and content.
Also Read- Marketing Trends to Watch in 2024
Filter Out and Work on Good Quality Leads
Like it or not, not every lead will convert into a buying customer (in spite of coming in large numbers). So, you need to identify the good quality needs and work on them. Who are those potential AND promising buyers? More often than not, you can investigate and identify them, by virtue of how well they align with your business. Or else examine how much interest they have shown in your product or service. Carry out research on the behaviors of, and interaction of visitors with your website (and your other platforms). It will reveal the extent of their willingness to convert and buy into your brand.
Link up With Your Converted Leads – Embark on Optimum Customer Service/Support
Before and after your leads convert into buyers, by all means maintain close communication with them. Use all available channels to offer your services and be ready to support them. Take note that while some leads will respond to emails, others would prefer phone calls, while some others will prefer text messaging. Therefore, endeavor to put all channels of communication to work. You can easily automate the linkup process with the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
However, once the leads begin to respond by requesting for your service, it is advisable to relate with them organically beyond CRM. That is, relate with them on a personal basis to answer their queries (and meet their needs). This will ensure you convert them faster into buyers.
Do Follow-up on Your Leads
You should never abandon a lead after they show interest in your product. Otherwise, such persons would simply forget and drift away. In fact, be ready to do a follow-up more than once – possibly up to four times (or more). This could be through repeated email messages or calls. It is a demonstration of how much you value that customer.
A repeated call or message – as simple as offering advice, or willingness to answer questions, will make your leads remember you. Especially when they need a similar service or product as the one you offer.
Offers Discounts or Freebies
Who doesn’t love a free gift? That indecisive customer might willingly buy your product when you entice him/her with a freebie or discount, no matter how small. That would give such customers a memorable experience with your brand. Freebies and discounts also have a way of giving information about customers’ preferences, and what attracts them to your product. So, you can create future email messages to appear personalized based on that information, thereby turning more leads into sales. Offer each customer a unique coupon for better results.
Learn to Use Call-to-Action (CTA)
You can trigger your leads to take a desired positive action towards buying your product. That is, by inserting call-to-action buttons on every web page of your site. Don’t leave visitors guessing what to do next; direct them specifically to do what you expect them to do. Direct calls to action such as ‘Get yours now’ or ‘Download’ are quite good. But softer nudges such as ‘Contact Us Now’ or ‘Send Us a Message’ would sound even more friendly and encouraging to a prospect.
Showcase the Reviews and Testimonials of Satisfied Customers on Your Website
Do not hesitate to invite satisfied customers to speak about their positive experience with your brand. Create such opportunities on your website and social media (and other communication) channels. This would serve as a catalyst to encourage newer leads to trust your brand and eventually convert, boosting your sales.
Use the Power of Social Media to Attract Leads.
You can harvest tons of leads that can potentially convert into sales from your social media handles. Because millions of users regularly visit social media, and practically every second. The level of interaction and socialization on social media platforms (such as Facebook or Instagram) is much higher and relatable to potential customers. Interaction on social media gives potential (and existing) customers even more satisfaction than they can get on your website.
You can also get quick feedback and give more personalized customer support to potential customers on social media. Thus, you can better nurture beneficial connections there, and eventually turn them into sales. Your new buyers would naturally draw more leads to your brand, when they broadcast their happy experiences to their friends and loved ones.
Finally, choose the best platform(s) that resonates with your target audience the most (from your observation and research). The type of content your target audience enjoys the most, and their most preferable social platform for conversations, can easily be revealed. But only if you care to investigate further.
Optimize Your Web Content
With the aid of search engine analytics tools, find out and choose high-converting keywords to draw web traffic to your website. Also make use of SEO-optimized web elements on every web page.
Always Write Quality Content
We have said this before – we cannot overemphasize the value of relevant and meaningful content. You can use relevant content to provide valuable information to your prospective customers and establish your brand as an authority (in its professional field). Which means you present your brand as a dependable solution provider to prospective customers with your content. Thus, you encourage them to come to you in times of need.
Quality content should be deployed on all your communication channels. Be it website content (videos, manuals, blogs, product demos, pictures etc), social media, email messages, or any other. And the same content or message should be promoted at once on all channels. Consistency is very vital to the successful conversion of leads into sales.
