Millions of leads surf online, searching for services or products that they require. So, as a business owner, it’s your duty to get their attention and convert them into paying buyers. This is the primary goal of lead conversion.
But what is lead conversion, and how do you make it happen? Below, we’ll expound more on the concept of lead conversion and the strategies you can use to convert your leads.
Understanding the Concept of Lead Conversion
Leads in marketing are prospective customers for whom marketers constantly search. In fact, 53 percent of marketers use half of their marketing budget to gain quality leads. Once they get these leads, they try to convert them through lead conversion strategies.
Lead conversion occurs when the leads purchase your services/products or take up any desired action, such as:
- Requesting more information
- Signing up for a newsletter
- Downloading an app
Lead conversion is a crucial metric for organizations. Why? It impacts their business growth and revenue generation goals. When you have a high lead conversion rate, it shows that your marketing efforts are paying off.
On the other hand, if you have a low conversion rate, it shows that you need to improve the customer journey and the sales funnel.
So, one of the main goals of your business should be to convert leads. Why?
- It indicates the success of your marketing tactics in turning interest into action.
- Lead conversion directly affects your business’s bottom line. Thus, this financial impact should be your key focus if you intend to grow.
- Lead conversion can ensure customer loyalty and retention. Customers, especially satisfied customers, can be valuable assets in your business. They can ensure repeat purchases and provide word-of-mouth referrals.
In short, lead conversion shows the effectiveness of a company in engaging, attracting, and persuading prospective customers to complete a specific action. It is integral for the success and growth of your business.
9 strategies for boosting your lead conversion efforts
An excellent lead conversion strategy is vital for the growth of any company. Below are a few practical strategies that you can use to boost your lead conversion efforts;
1) Determine who your target audience is
Knowing your target audience is the basis for any successful lead conversion strategy. So take time to understand who your ideal customers are, their pain points, their needs, and how to meet those needs. You must not use outdated assumptions or guesswork when creating a lead list. Instead, focus on accurate insights and data.
You can do this by identifying your customer base using the following;
- Demographic data, such as employment, education level, gender, age, role in the family, etc
- Purchase behavior, like buying triggers
- Socio-economic data, such as social class, lifestyle, attitude, and personality
- Geographic data, like country, region, address, and location
After researching, segment your leads with a suitable profile for your company. This segmentation will help you to understand your prospective customer’s buying decision. Also, it can help you to know the best time to post your offers.
2) Understand lead progression
It is essential for a business to understand the lead progression process from the moment a lead comes across your website. Why? This will help you to know how to pave the way for your leads and ensure they successfully convert.
So, begin to understand the process from when a visitor takes an interest in your content, visits your landing pages, and engages with your site. This process can help you to know how to improve your website in preparation for lead conversion. Also, it can ensure you create the best content for each stage your leads are in.
For example, you can develop campaigns around targeted content for every stage, from introductory emails to landing pages.
3) Create content for lead progression
Your primary goal in content creation should not just be about lead capture. You need to invest in creating content with lead progression in mind. Most companies spend a significant amount of their budget getting people to be aware of their business and not converting them.
So, to enhance your conversion rate, create content that encourages lead progression from the initial interest to the buying intent. Ask yourself;
- What content can I create to help leads convert?
- What content do sales teams use to help leads progress to the next level?
Note that you should have a clear call to action with each piece of content you create. This call to action can encourage leads to take the next steps. Also, it can ensure you maintain a healthy relationship with prospective customers. For instance, you could write a blog post on a bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) topic and link it to your product. Alternatively, you could provide a downloadable PDF, created with a PDF editor, to collect email addresses in exchange for the download.
4) Engage in lead-scoring
Lead scoring is a vital element of lead management. It involves the process of giving a score to your leads based on their action. Generally, lead scoring comprises the use of numerical value to provide lead value for specific acts.
For instance, a lead that clicks on a paid ad to reach your landing page may get five points. On the other hand, a lead who fills out a form on the landing page and gets downloadables may earn 20 points in your system.
When you use the lead scoring system, you can set a threshold that shows when a lead should move onto your sales team. Why? This ensures that your sales team focuses on the most engaged leads instead of anyone who gets into your sales funnel.
Thus, lead scoring can do great things for your company. In fact, it can increase your return on investment by 77 percent.
5) Optimize lead capture
One essential thing to note is that before you convert a lead into a paying customer, you must first change a website visitor to become a lead. It means that you should qualify the lead and capture their information.
The key to lead capture and conversion is to get the correct information beyond your lead’s email address and name. You can use the following methods for lead capture;
- Appointment scheduling app
- Website popups
- Email capture app
- Lead capture form
- Lead capture page
Once you select a lead-capturing method, you can optimize it to convert more leads. Some of the lead capture optimization strategies that you can use include the following;
- Adding a valuable offer that matters to your website visitors
- Tailoring a CTA to the lead capture method and message
- Ensuring that the technique you use preserves your marketing promise
- Customizing the lead capture techniques for particular campaigns
Note that lead capture optimization can enhance the quality of your leads and can increase your conversion rates.
6) Enhance your lead qualification efforts
Lead-to-sale conversion is enhanced when you have quality leads. So, if your main goal is to improve your lead conversion rate, you should spend more time qualifying leads before converting them. This requires you to answer the following questions;
- How do I differentiate between sales-qualified leads and marketing-qualified leads?
- What is needed for a sales-accepted lead to be a sales-qualified lead?
- What actions show that a lead is sales-ready?
- Who is responsible for confirming the quality of the leads?
This lead qualification ensures that you will spend less time on leads less likely to convert. Thus ensuring better lead conversion rates.
7) Increase your lead response time
Did you know that leads are 8* more likely to lose contact if the first call response time is after 5 minutes? On the other hand, leads are 21* more likely to convert if you have a response time of five minutes rather than half an hour or a day.
This means that your lead response time is significant when converting leads. The faster you make contact, the more likely the lead will convert. One way to increase your response time is by using a scheduling app.
This app lets your leads book a specific time to speak with you or your sales rep. It facilitates a higher conversion rate.
8) Use multiple channels for your lead conversion efforts
It is vital that you use multiple marketing channels if you wish to enhance your lead conversion rates. For instance, in outbound selling, you can focus on using popular channels like;
- Emails
- TikTok
You can focus on SEO and content marketing for inbound marketing methods to boost your lead conversion rates or outbound channels like email and linkedIn for lead generation. When you use multiple channels, you increase your chances of converting more qualified leads.
9) Ensure your sales team has the right resources and tools
You can divide your sales staff into two. One team manages new leads, and the other handles your present customers. Also, use an effective customer relationship management system to track the sales progress of your prospective customers.
You can have specialized personnel to monitor leads using the right resources and tools. These tools and resources will ensure your sales staff can manage all incoming leads. Also, it can help them supervise the sales funnel leads in the entire purchase process. It is also important to ensure that your sales team is equipped with tools that cater to post-purchase upsell offers, such as AI meeting assistants.
One such plugin is one click upsell funnel for wooCommerce, this helps to boost Average Order Value (AOV), customer retention, and increased sales.
Bottom Line
Lead generation should not be the last step of your marketing and sales campaign. Instead, it would help if you went beyond lead generation to lead conversion. If done right, by using the above strategies, lead conversion can lead to the growth and success of your business.
