Lead conversion is the final step in your inbound marketing strategy, but it's not easy. Consumers increasingly have the means to learn about the services or products they are looking for and can easily compare them. This makes their conversion more complicated. But don't worry! We will give you the right tips for an effective conversion of your leads.
Reminder on the different lead categories
A lead is an individual potentially seduced by your company's products or services. This individual can be a prospect who, while visiting your site, left you his email address or who subscribed to your newsletter or filled out a contact form…
There are three types of leads:
- Cold lead: the individual is not interested in your service, but he may have visited your site only to document and acquire information about your company.
- Warm lead: unlike the cold lead, it issues a request that focuses on a specific product of your company.
- Hot lead: the individual has the necessary budget and demonstrates a close timing to take action by already having in mind a specific product. It is also in the decision-making phase.
But why dwell on these details would you say? Quite simply, the classification of your leads is essential in your sales development strategy. When you know where your lead is in their buying journey, you can properly optimize your conversion efforts. Here are the steps to follow to complete your conversion journey.
1- Find key information about your leads
In order to sell your services, you need much more than just contact with your prospects. Indeed, it is essential to “nurture” the commercial relationship you have with your contacts. Through this, you will be able to obtain additional information about them, as and when. One of the best ways to determine your prospects' needs is to look at the links they've clicked on. Depending on the problems they face, you will organize your inventory as much as possible.
The main key information you need to collect on marketplaces include:
- Geographical location
- Email address
- The existence of the company
- Recognize the identity of the client (professional or individual)
- Does the demand match the types of products or services in your company?
Apart from that, you can also chat with your contacts from time to time, for example by exchanging emails or adding them on LinkedIn. Remember that B2B email mailing remains an effective technique to maintain a relationship with your leads. On LinkedIn, you will have the opportunity to determine the decision level of your contact, for example.
If you can identify the needs, but also the concerns of your lead, you can easily adapt a proposal that meets all this so that the added value is more than obvious.
2- Rate your leads to optimize your conversions
Give scores to your leads, a very practical and effective way to know the leads to consider first. Among the leads you have acquired, some are able to close a purchase while others show less interest in your services. The purpose of lead scoring is then to identify the leads who are the most qualified and therefore those who have the highest purchasing potential. The rest must go through a maturation phase or lead nurturing.
Lead scoring allows you to score your leads based on information obtained using a marketing database . This can be personal information about individuals (sector of activity, type of position held, size of his company…) or behaviors they have vis-à-vis your brand (the frequency of their visit, the time he spends on your site…) .
3- Establish an effective lead nurturing strategy
The purpose of lead nurturing is to gently encourage your prospects to conclude a purchase. You need to motivate them to take the next step. How? By presenting yourself on your best angle, by relying on psychological triggers, by creating links between you… Social selling is an effective strategy for connecting with your prospects.
4- Your responsiveness: an essential element
Responsiveness is an important function for both the pre-sales and after-sales phase. How to do it? You should keep the amount of time you spend processing your prospect as much as possible. The sooner you respond, the greater your chances of winning the deal. As this response time varies from one company to another, a faster response from you will surely favor you.
Remember that most prospects file applications with different companies before making their choice. Thus, as soon as a prospect contacts you, you must answer his questions. Your potential customers may be impatient and if you are late for a return (the delay is 5 to 30 minutes after visiting your site), they can turn to your competitors. Answer him first, that's the key! You have to show him that you are interested in his problem and that you value him as well.
5- Use a marketing automation platform
In case you can not ensure a good responsiveness, marketing automation tools exist on the market. They have the ability to make it easier for you by systematizing the entire response process so that you do not miss any solicitation, as in the case of email marketing automation .
Also, the marketing automation platform automatically collects concrete data for each marketing automation campaign carried out, and further optimizes the transformations of your leads into customers. It shortens your sales process by collecting the ideal data and giving the right content to your targets. It also helps you target your prospects.
We have subscribed to the main methods among many others to optimize the process of transforming your leads into customers and thus increase the sales force of your company. It's up to you to fine-tune them as best you can, because most of the work rests mainly on your teams.
