It is possible that when implementing an online marketing strategy, you notice that your leads do not have the appropriate quality, or that the conversion ratio from lead to customer is very low and this discourages the sales team in charge of closing the sale. If this is your case, you have found the appropriate post.
The key is in the information
If there is a key point to improve our lead-to-customer conversion ratio, it is undoubtedly the information we have collected in our lead capture process.
At this point, it is not enough for us to have a high number of leads or potential customers if they are not of quality, since if they do not have enough interest, our sales team will have difficulties to close the sales process and, consequently , you will be wasting your time.
That is why we have to facilitate the task of our commercial colleagues and work in alignment to achieve between both departments the achievement of the objectives set .
Therefore, the basis of this article is the importance of having the specific information of our leads to nurture them correctly during the purchase process and make sure that those who reach the end are potential customers.
With the techniques that we are going to see below, we can improve the quality of the generated leads to increase the percentage of sales of our commercial department. And it is that, although it is possible to reduce the total number of leads generated, surely the completion of sales will be greater.
Read Also: The 5 Critical Components of Fantastic Lead-Capture Forms
5 actions to take to improve the quality of lead acquisition
1. Define the buyer persona well
One of the keys to inbound marketing is to clearly define who our buyer persona is , in order to know how we should treat them and reach them.
It is not enough to know your gender, age or social class. You have to stop long and do an in-depth analysis to really know your ideal customer.
2. Know well the characteristics of those people who convert to customers, as well as the reasons for the leads who do not
Only by knowing our buyer persona will we be able to understand their concerns and, in this way, provide them with the informative solutions that satisfy their needs. So do not worry about “wasting” the necessary time at this point, since in the long term you will surely appreciate it.
This point, which is closely related to the previous point, consists of continuing to obtain information from our ideal buyer person or client. To do this, we can draw on the information that the commercial department has.
Thanks to the commercial department we will be able to know some more specific features of all those leads that have finally become sales, to define even better the characteristics common to them.
Another good idea to improve the collection of information from our buyer persona is to speak with the customer service department (if it exists within the company). They also have a lot of information on current customer needs and we can take advantage of it to anticipate their questions and give them the information they ask for in advance.
3. Analyze these new properties and incorporate them into our forms
At the end of the lead capture process, that is, just in the final step before providing the lead generated to the sales department, the collection of information about it must be as accurate as possible.
A good technique to categorize the leads that are generated is by incorporating new fields in the commercial request form. This, which may seem counterproductive at first, can cause the absolute volume of leads to decrease, but surely those who fill out the application form are really more interested. In addition, in this way the sales team will have more information that allows them to face contact with the potential client in a much more appropriate way.
A practical example would be that of capturing leads for the completion of a postgraduate master’s degree: if to do a master’s degree you have to have a budget X, what we could do is incorporate a question in the form in which we ask what the budget is they have to dedicate to their studies.
In the following real case of one of our clients, we incorporated into the form three new fields (approved studies, estimated budget and prefix, and second contact telephone number) and these were the reasons why we did it:
- Approved studies: we detected, in our collection of information together with the commercial department, that many people were backing down at this point, so it is good to have it detected in order to approach it in a different way (as it can be explained well during the chain of lead nurturing).
- Estimated budget: we detected that many clients did not close due to their purchasing power, so if we already have this information we can approach the commercial call in a different way. Or even if they do not meet the minimum requirement, send an automatic email advising the user that we do not have any program that fits their budget.
- Prefix + second contact telephone number: we detected that another problem was the complexity of contacting those leads from other countries, so we added these other fields.
4. Take into account these new properties in contact nutrition
Thanks to the information collected in the lead capture form seen above, we can create new specific lead nurturing for cases that meet some specific specifications.
For example, following the case of the master that we have seen previously, if we know that due to budget there is no program that will fit you, we can let you know in advance and prepare a specific email where we give you the option to rectify that information through a link.
Another case could be that it did not have validated studies, which is why we can do a lead nurturing explaining that we can help you validate them, or simply explaining how you can do it directly.
5. Activate actions to ensure the interest of the lead
Surely at this point, where the lead has already sent us the form with the necessary information, we believe that everything is perfect for its transfer to the commercial department. However, it is not entirely true. We can still ensure a little more the quality of this generated lead to facilitate the task of our commercial colleagues. How? With a couple of actions that will show the real interest of the lead generated. Put them into practice!
1. Optimization of the landing
It is important that the contact is clear at a glance that you are going to fill out this form to request information, for example. That is to say, consciously detect that you are in another phase of the process.
To do this, it would help us with the following actions:
- Have a clear differentiation in terms of the design of the commercial landing with the rest of the pages and previous landings of the process.
- Optimization of the copy of the commercial offer: c omo we know, we want people immediacy and going very fast on the internet, so only with a different design is not enough. That is why we must incorporate a text that literally states that what you have requested you already have (for example, a download of an ebook) and that in this case we are offering you something different (such as receiving information from a master’s degree).
- Direct download on the thank you page: Sometimes, while the user waits to receive the download he has requested, he fills in the new form that appears after it, without knowing that he already has his download in his mailbox. For this reason, it is good to create a t hank you page in which you indicate that you will receive the content automatically and, thus, prevent you from filling in another form.
2. Implement a double opt-in
The double opt-in is an action that the user performs and serves to verify their email. In our case, rather than to verify the user’s email address, we will use it to confirm their interest in the commercial request that they have just made.
As you can see, by applying these techniques or tips in our lead capture process we may be able to increase their quality and improve the closing percentage of our commercial department. And you, what techniques do you use to improve the quality of your leads? Let me know!