Lead Conversion: Tips to Transform Potential Customers

Businesses can’t exist without lead conversions. If there are no leads, then there is no one to convert, which is why figuring out what it is and how to calculate is so important.

If you spend more on attracting leads than actually converting them, then you need to focus more on your lead conversion rate.

Whether you’re just starting or just someone who wants a refresher on how to use lead conversion to your advantage, then, look no further than this article.

💡Note: Before you start reading up on how to best convert leads, take some time to look at our mini-book on b2b sales leads generation, “The Ultimate Guide to B2B Lead Generation”. Click here.

Lead conversion is the process, marketing strategies, i.e, social media, optimization etc., of converting a lead into a customer, preferably one who purchases. Lead conversion also answers, with your product or service, every desire that a lead may have, to convert them into a customer. It's the next step after lead generation in digital marketing.

But, what is the lead conversion rate? Lead conversion rate is the rate of successful conversion of leads into prospects, and then subsequently prospects into customers.

Obviously, the more people that visit your website, the more leads there are to convert them and therefore more potential for clients. Having a good lead conversion strategy facilitates sales management.

In order to measure your company’s goals, you have to have a set of coherent strategies designed to help you achieve them.

Here are a few strategies you might want to implement:

• Research an audience:
  • You’re probably aiming to attract leads that correspond with your companys’ core values and beliefs or using the client portfolio. Not everybody’s going to like your service or product, so don’t waste your time chasing after those people.
  • Look at what your competitors are offering, how are your competitors using their marketing strategies. How can you differentiate yourself and be the one to change leads’ minds and accompany them to the buying stage?
  • Try to get the most information on them as possible. Classify the leads into categories if you can, it makes for easy follow-ups and personalized marketing.
• Take care of landing pages: You only get one shot at a good first impression. The first thing a visitor notices, when they arrive at your page, is the landing page. It should be inciting, making the lead want to know more. The landing page should work efficiently as well, for when the lead clicks on a button, it directly leads them to the link they clicked on.
• Use Content Marketing:
  • It is what the reader or lead reads to educate themselves about your brand, product or service. It must be an easy, coherent, concise read while at the same time detailed enough for them to see if what you have is what they need. This could be a dealbreaker.
  • Be unique, use different types of content for different types of products or services you have. Every audience has different preferences. It could be blogs, webinars or even an e-book. Make sure the message pertains to what they are looking for.
• Social Media:
  • It is what companies and customers check to find out about your company. LinkedIn is the prime example of this. A lead can research whatever business or industry they want. It is a perfect way to engage with leads.
  • If you are present on Twitter, which you should, use or create hashtags to help your company stay trending and expand its influence. Use videos, GIFs that people can mostly react to, like and repost. Keeping in mind that reposts bring awareness.
• Email Marketing:
  • It is an efficient way to grow your business marketing. Email marketing is a good way to let the leads and customers know that you are interested in answering their needs and willing to be their problem solver. Even though leads can come from different sources, your emails must be personalized, you must address each lead differently according to their browsing history, gender, location etc.
  • Segment them if you have to, that way the emails to the leads that are a part of the same can be simultaneously sent out. Don’t forget to make eye-catching headlines, promos.
  • Use tests to optimize, such as the email marketing, to see what works in your emails and what does not.
• Phone Calls: Though it might seem like a waste of time when it comes to B2C contacts, phone calls are way more effective for B2B deals. Being able to relate and be personable, even if it’s just on the phone goes a long way in securing and converting a lead.
• Chatbot: for when you can’t always be there. Chatbots are a good way to always have answers to your lead’s questions. Chatbots are the best way to avoid your leads becoming disillusioned or uninterested in your company and it’s offer due to response wait time.

There are a few lead conversion metrics to use to track your lead conversions as well as the performance of your site.

You have:

Lead Conversion Rate: it’s used to track leads’ interactions, browsing or purchasing, and the number of visits you’ve had to your website or social media pages.

Value of a Conversion: is the amount of money you assign to a conversion, that it would cost to convert a lead, in the hopes that you get more from the profits of ad clicks, on your ROI. Basically, it’s so that you make more money back than you spent. You don’t want the cost per conversion to surpass the value of conversion you get.

Cost Per Conversion: is the comparison between the ad performance and how much it actually cost to convert a lead into a buying customer. It’s used to check whether your ads have met their goals, reactions they were supposed to, rather than how much it cost to make.

Lead Value: it measures how leads can be beneficial to your business.

Lead-To-Sale Conversion Rate: the probability of a lead converting into a purchasing customer. Basically, your business making a sale. This shows the importance of customer visits.

Return Visit Conversion: Chances that a lead returns to your website.

To calculate conversion rates, you take the total number of new customers acquired, divide it by the number of possible leads and then multiply it by 100.

For example, if you gain 100 new customers and see potential with 50 potential leads, you will divide those 45 possible leads by the 100 new customers and multiply the result by 100, giving you:

(50/100) = 0,50 and when 0,50 is multiplied by 100, you have

0,50 x 100 = 50%

So, your lead conversion rate will amount to 50%.

It varies depending on the industry your company is a part of, the presence you have on the market and the audience you are trying to reach. But, a successful conversion rate is considered to be on average between 1 and 3%.

Though there are some companies that manage to surpass that percentage and find themselves above 5%, the big players usually get higher than 10%.

Obviously, the ideal would be to compete with the top dogs, but, needless to say, if you find yourself at 2%, then you are considered to be right on track.

Optimizing your lead conversion may seem pretty obvious, however, it can be neglected. Lead conversion optimization focuses on leads that will result in loyal customers.

To get to this point you will have to, at least, research some information about them, for your product or service to correspond to their needs and vice versa, ensuring that they align with your vision. Also, pay attention to the CAC customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value calculation to balance your budget. 

Automate Your Leads: which can provide data of success or failure of your conversion strategy. And even better, if you add a CRM, you could streamline the whole process, collect the leads’ demographics and save those records to solve problems, but also anticipate them and any questions that may occur.

Make Promotional Offers that the right target can’t resist.

Incorporate Customer Testimonials: The Majority of leads read reviews before they buy or invest their money into a company or brand, so customer testimonials are a way to demonstrate your legitimacy and competence.

Reinforce the value of your product or service to your lead

Suggest Guarantees: Reinforce the value of your product or service to your lead. Let the lead and customer feel like they have a choice to return the product if they’re not satisfied. That way, it takes some pressure off the buying phase and feels like you have a security blanket.

Implement Call to Action: where customers or leads can directly click on an ad and be directed to the link. It's a big deal because you can measure the number of clicks as well as get a return on investment.

So, as you’ve read, Lead conversions are essential for keeping an eye on the company’s spending as well as evaluating the company’s lead acquisition strategy.