The lead conversion rate is one of the most fundamental KPIs in digital marketing. It represents the acquisition of a customer and is the metric that accuses the results of its actions.
You should already know that the road to lead conversion is long and full of challenges. But don't worry, we're here to make your life easier and simplify the process. In the following paragraph's, you'll see how to improve the efficiency of your marketing campaigns in order to achieve more substantial results! Let's get into it.
1. Place conversion forms in the content
In the midst of digital marketing strategies, there is a performance methodology that was created to understand the target audience and, from there, develop actions that attract them to your company. This methodology is called Inbound Marketing and it is designed to optimize the sales processes in a sustainable way.
Content marketing which is likened to be an ally to inbound marketing has proven to be an essential weapon in this battle. Remember it's through your content that customers will reach and interact with your company. It is, therefore, the gateway, the first step on the path to the sales process.
In order to optimize the benefits of content marketing and take the full potential of this strategy, one of the most effective actions is to add registration or lead capture forms to the published content pages.
In blogposts, for example, you can add forms offering access to other developed content, such as e-books, podcasts, downloadable materials and many other freebies. This is a very simple but efficient way to capture the lead in order to add it to a nurture campaign.
2. Use pop ups on the site
A very underestimated weapon in digital marketing strategies is the use of pop ups on websites. With a simple and practical method for capturing information, pop ups can be used to complement your overall digital marketing strategy and increase the effectiveness of campaigns.
However, it is important to know how to use them wisely, otherwise it can become inconvenient for the customer and they will bounce! Why? Customers are already bombarded with too many forms and ad messages on a daily basis.
3. Build landing pages focused on lead conversion
Landing pages are pages created exclusively to convert the visitor into a lead. They are the main element for capturing leads ( information such as name, email and/or phone number). It can also include the name of the company website where the visitor works, depending on the business or industry sector.
To optimize your site, you think about creating attractive landing page templates that will entice the user to register. Remember landing pages have a very important function: to start the relationship between the company and the consumer.
These pages must be filled with great content to show Google or Bing's search engines that it is relevant in order to rank on the first page. This way, you will have a page focused on turning visitors into customers among the main ones indicated by Google. To learn how to get your website ranked on the first page of Google check out this article for more information.
3. Use CTAs on pages
CTA means "Call to Action". They are common on websites and advertisements to indicate to the user the action the company expects from the customers. Usually they are colored buttons highlighted with verbs that task the visitor to take action, such as: download, learn more, sign up, etc.
This, despite being a very basic feature, cannot be ignored or you will lose the chance to convert more users into leads and, as a result, you will leave money on the table. Therefore, always have a flashy CTA that takes users to fill out a form, register on a landing page or even a “contact us” button.
4. Place contact forms on product and service pages
Closing the tips on capturing leads, we will once again talk about the forms. But this time, we will use simple contact forms, not content (as previously stated).
Leaving a form like a "contact us" within the services and products pages decreases the effort that the user has to go through in order to become a customer. Therefore, always keep a contact form on either you service or product pages to capture a new sale opportunity.
Now that we've talked about how to increase lead capture, it's time to learn how to increase their conversion and turn prospects into customers.
5. Segment leads
The results achieved by inbound marketing over the years showed that personalization of service is paramount to success. In this sense, for your company to be able to strengthen the relationship with the potential customer, a company needs to know its audience to be able to offer the best solution.
In another article, we explain the benefits of identifying your company's persona. It is worth reading. Returning to the central nexus of this article, it is worth mentioning that the premise of inbound marketing is to attract a large amount of people to offer them the best solution.
But to do so, it is essential to gain knowledge about the customers that you are dealing with. Based on the history of access to your company's website, it is possible to map the subjects of interest to the user. But for that, it is important to collect basic information in this process.
The collection of information is usually done through registration forms to access exclusive content, news and newsletters, in order to make that visitor to the site a lead.
Having captured the data, knowing the search history and identifying the lead profile among the documented personas, you can segment your company's digital marketing actions ( e-mail marketing , lead nurturing, paid media campaign etc.).
This segmentation will allow the best treatment of customers whose profiles point to certain solutions, in addition to helping to define the best language for contact in order to optimize communication with the lead and growth the relationship between your brand and the customer.
6. Nurture leads
After segmenting leads by profiles, it's time to start the contact that will later lead you to the purchase decision.
Called lead nurturing, this is a fundamental step in the conversion process that your company cannot ignore. But to understand how lead nurturing works, it is necessary to present a characteristic of selling in the digital market. Before a customer decides to purchase a product, they take a few steps down the path of the sales funnel until they feel ready to make the purchase.
In digital marketing, this path can and should always be guided by your company. For this, you must understand the place where the customer is in order to influence then down the funnel. This process is known as the Journey of Purchase and is a path divided into 4 stages:
1. Learning and discovery
2. Recognition of the problem
3. Consideration of the solution
4. Purchase decision
The customer's purchase journey is an element of digital marketing that helps your company build a more robust and logical path using content in a lead education process.
This is where lead nurturing is needed. By sending relevant content to your lead you will prepare it for the ideal moment of a commercial approach. Thus, your company will not skip steps and will have a better chance of closing a deal, optimizing the work of the sales team.
That is why the marketing and sales departments are increasingly integrated into companies.
7. Automate processes
With the constant innovations in the market, digital marketing has benefited from the development of tools and platforms that assist in the processes.
Today it is already possible to automate a good part of the routine of a Marketing campaign so that the gear works continuously.
Through CRM, your company can program the entire communication process of leads, segment them efficiently, qualify them through interaction analysis, educate them with nutrition rules and even develop a relationship for retention. All of this in an automatic way, without many daily manual efforts.
In addition to helping in your company's routine, this automation optimizes the conversion process since with it you will be able to make immediate contact with the lead who is ready to become a customer.
It is proven that offering immediate service when the customer is willing to make a purchase increases conversion rates. For this, the automation of processes is necessary, after all, we cannot let the lead "cool down" and must keep them "hot!"
8. Track results
One of the differentials of digital marketing is the possibility to follow the performance of your actions easily. And this is not an option! In order for you to increase your business rates, it is essential to measure them.
You need to be aware of the most obvious indicators to diagnose a problem and define the solution. Below, we list the metrics that everyone should track if they want to increase lead conversion.
- Organic traffic
- Clickthrough rate (CTR)
- Cost-per-click (CPC)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per lead (CPL)
- Funnel conversion rate
- Cost of acquisition per customer (CAC)
- Time on page
- Bounce rate
- Email opening fee
9. Use Heat Maps
A website heat map is an visualization of user mouse movement, scrolling, clicks, and taps on your website. Heat maps are used by web designers, UX specialists, and marketers to discover website usage patterns and make data-informed optimizations to increase conversion rate and revenue by to teaching you to focus on areas where users are not clicking and spending time on your site.
Heat maps use colors to indicate the intensity of visitor engagement on different sections of a page from warm which caa be symbolized by the color red to represent areas where users spend the most time and the color blue for example, where users spend the least amount of time.
If you want to figure out which section of a webpage has the highest visitor engagement, where visitors are clicking the most, if or not visitors are clicking on the CTA, whether they reach the bottom of the fold, and many such visitor behavior insights, using website heatmap tool like Hot Jar is the way to go.
Website heatmaps gather all the data on how visitors behave on your webpage and help you make informed optimization decisions. They eliminate the confusion caused by numbers and represent data in an easy-to-understand manner.
In addition to these indicators that measure traffic and the relationship between users and your company, there are also general metrics that can evaluate the entire marketing strategy, such as Return on Investment (ROI).
The fact is that to achieve an increase in the conversion of leads into customers, your company has to prepare itself to adopt measures based on best marketing practices, test campaigns and measure the effectiveness of these actions. The work will be, above all, of analysis, knowledge and present opportunity.
If you haven't mastered the most important tools to make the digital marketing engine at your side, don't worry. A16 Studios specializes in tailored solutions, planning and developing campaigns focused on customer needs, delivering results!
Get in touch and tell us a little about your company, we are here to serve you.
