Convert or Desert: What Do YOU Do With Leads?
What Happens After the Handoff?
With all the steps in the sales funnel, lead conversion is practically an Olympic sport. Let’s call it the Race to Revenue, and it’s 2-part relay. You already know which direction you want to run, by selecting specific demographics parameters like gender, age, income and geography. Now the first leg of the race, focused on lead generation, begins. Right from the starting block, this is where SignUp runs well ahead of the pack — our hyper-targeted ecosystem is the perfect environment for generating traffic that delivers highly qualified leads. And because we base campaigns on a CPC (cost-per-click) basis, your brand gets guaranteed performance.
Once that traffic from us starts flowing to you, it’s time for the second half of the race: conversion. The final step of the customer journey, this is where SignUp passes the baton — and your brand’s part of the work typically begins.
80% of sales require five follow-ups after the initial contact1
But in keeping with the Service portion of our 5S commitment to every SignUp client, we are those awesome teammates who stay to cheer for your half of the race. In that spirit, we’ve put together some tips about best practices for lead conversions. Here’s how to help your brand break those records and achieve gold-medal results.
Hand out some swag. Forget the race t-shirt — in this event it’s all about rewarding your leads with awesome landing pages. If prospects take the time to click, they’re interested in you. Make sure that you have created a welcoming, inspiring space that encourages them to start a relationship with your brand — like downloading compelling content, registering for a webinar, sharing a video, requesting a free sample, etc. Optimize the web experience to reduce your bounce rate, and capture email addresses so that you can maintain a connection.
Keep those leads in good shape. Retargeting can help generate initial leads and convert existing leads into customers by keeping your brand top-of-mind as they travel the buyer’s journey to other web destinations. It’s also important to have a well-designed nurturing strategy in place — remember that statistic about 5 follow-up contacts before a sale? This is where content — the inspiration, motivation and perspiration of conversion — becomes a major factor. You want to provide high-quality, relevant and compelling content that is tailored to each part of the sales funnel. A good CRM (customer relationship management) tool can help you plan and automate your content and other contacts.
Don’t forget about micro conversions — any incremental action short of purchase that users take to show interest in your brand2
Remember that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. With some exceptions, leads do not become instant customers — they move from step to step through the sales funnel. As their prospects move from awareness to interest to decision and finally, action, brands have the opportunity to build interest and trust. And just like on the track, some leads run faster, some run more slowly, and a few stumble right out of the blocks.
Get your analytics in shape. Every good athlete has to figure out what the best routine is for his or her peak performance. Conversion rates work on much the same principle — you’ll need to find your brand’s sweet spot by testing different campaign components. This means having reliable analytics tools and a process to track leads and conversions on your site, before the campaign starts. Then experiment with variables such as channel, day or time of contact as well as the headlines, hooks or offers you display. You can also vary your call to action to see what’s most effective.
Learn from your mistakes. It’s OK to not finish first every time. You can still get that gold medal by using what you’ve learned to adjust your strategy and catch a second wind. This is also the perfect time to make sure that marketing and sales are in alignment on goals, and enable sales by sharing your new insights with them.
A SignUp digital campaign can help you win at any point of the customer funnel, from awareness to product consideration to action on your site. Partner with SignUp now to get fresh eyes that you can convert year-round!
References:
1https://www.business.com/articles/9-steps-to-lead-conversion-success/
2 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/micro-conversion
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