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Lead conversion metrics are vital to measuring the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. When you know what those metrics are, you can determine which marketing channels are converting so you know where to focus your time and energy.
There are many sources of advice out there on how to increase your lead conversion rates. What’s reliable, and what can you safely ignore? This guide explains what you should be doing to boost your lead conversion rate for greater success.
Your first step is to determine your organization’s conversion rate. Below are a few formulas to help you figure out the conversion rate given your companies goals:
Next, you’ll need to set benchmarks for lead conversion rates that are backed by data. Before you can set those benchmarks, you need to be able to answer two questions:
When you know what a conversion is and how valuable it is, and you know exactly who you’re converting, you can start spending your time, money, and effort in a more productive manner.
However, those benchmarks must be realistic. You need to understand what good lead conversion rates look like for your industry. What’s good for one industry might be below average for another. When you know you’re meeting your average lead conversion rate, you can take steps to improve it.
Watch our on-demand webinar to learn how Kim Roman at Talkdesk used Conversica to increase conversions and sort through a sea of less-than-qualified leads.
Once you set a company-wide standard for lead conversion, you need to take steps to continuously improve your lead conversion rate. How do you do that?
There are a number of actions you can take:
Did you know that companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month get almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish 0-4 monthly posts? Blogging is an excellent way to boost your lead conversion rates.
Remember that blogging will only work if the content is useful and provides value to your leads. What will they find useful and valuable? That requires research on your part. Examine what phrases or words they’re searching for, and build your blog posts around those. Keyword research can easily be done using online tools such as Moz, SEMRush, Google Keyword Planner or by looking for trending topics using BuzzSumo or Google Trends.
Paid search and paid social media campaigns play an important role in improving your lead conversion rates. Almost 65 percent of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online.
Paid search and social media campaigns expand your reach so you can get more leads to convert. That being said, make sure that your paid search and social media campaigns are optimized. Perform A/B testing to see which messaging resonates with your audience—the wording could make a huge difference in attracting more leads.
What place does traditional PR have in boosting lead conversion rates? It plays a greater part than you might think. Public relations is a component of your marketing strategy that promotes goodwill and communication between company and customer. It builds relationships with your consumers. You can use PR methods to urge a lead to take action by promoting credibility, promoting brand purpose and educating prospective customers to move down the funnel.
For example, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago ran a contest and advertised it on TV with an SMS call to action (CTA). Even though the SMS CTA only ran in 25 percent of the ads, it generated 52 percent of the entries.
Your landing pages and websites represent a crucial tool in increasing lead conversion rates. These tools can be optimized without increasing your advertising spend (unlike some of the other methods mentioned in this post).
For a start, make sure that your ads are relevant to your landing pages. When your leads are taken to a landing page that doesn’t relate to the ad they clicked on, they won’t be interested in your product or service. A/B testing can also help optimize your landing page and website. Even a detail as small as the color scheme can affect whether someone converts.
Forms and CTAs are vital components of your lead conversion rate strategy. A form that offers leads something they can’t resist is one that converts, while a powerful CTA motivates leads to become customers.
Place the form above the fold of your website for better visibility. Make it simple so it doesn’t deter leads. It should also include a powerful CTA. Your CTA is built upon a hook (something the lead can’t possibly turn down, such as a free, valuable resource), enticing copy, and attractive design.
By 2020, the global use of email will top three billion users. Marketers can’t neglect this channel, and there are ways to use email to boost your lead conversion rates.
It’s just as easy for emails to sabotage your lead conversion rates, though—poorly designed and written emails wind up straight in the trash. To prevent that, add a captivating title and a clear CTA, and make sure the email is well written. Segmenting your emails helps them get to the right leads, increasing your likelihood of success.
Nearly one-third of the world uses some kind of social media platform on a regular basis. Overlooking this powerful channel for lead conversion is folly for marketers.
How do you leverage social media to increase lead conversion rates? Remember that social media is about connecting with leads, not necessarily about selling them something. Share content that informs and educates so that they feel more confident about choosing your product or service. Take advantage of user-generated content—it’s a form of social proof and can convince leads who are on the fence that your product or service is right for them.
You might have many leads, but if they don’t convert, they won’t help you. Increasing your lead conversion rate garners more customers.
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