Lead conversion
What’s the secret to convert leads?
It’s not an easy question to answer.
To make it easy for you, here are 10 actionable hacks that will help you convert your sales leads into paying customers. FAST. Check out the new guide.
A big, fat, juicy database full of sales leads is a marketer’s dream, but sales leads don’t make successful businesses; clients do!
Here are the top 10 hacks to convert leads into paying clients faster and better.
Lead conversion Hack #1: Begin with The End in Mind
Taking a page from Stephen Covey, marketers would do well to follow his sage advice.
- Know your marketing goals.
- Decide what actions you will take to achieve those goals.
- Then do it!
Sounds obvious, right? Well, it isn’t.
While most of us jump into work to get things done, it’s better to have a proper plan in place. Without a plan, you are simply throwing darts in the dark.
Most of us send newsletters (or email blasts) to our subscribers to keep them updated with new stuff, promotions etc. What’s the marketing goal? Generate sales? Ok. But this is the end goal; there is a lot happening before that, like email opens, clicks, add to cart, page views, and sale.
By understanding the steps the customer is going through, you can plan your actions to achieve the end goal, one step at a time.
In this example, you can track email opens to identify response, track email clicks to identify interest, and track conversions to identify the sales readiness.
Each of those customer’s responses should direct the users on a different path. Recipients who didn’t read your emails will keep getting your weekly newsletter. Contacts who clicked your emails will get follow-up emails based on their interest. People who clicked and abandoned will get a special promotion and so on.
You can read more about customer segmentation here.
Lead conversion Hack #2: Give Them What They Want
Every purchase we make results directly from one of two catalysts: avoid pain or gain pleasure. Ask yourself what issue or desire is driving your potential customers, and then clearly show how your product/service can solve/fulfill it.
Feed the need for knowledge. Give them information, clarify what you are offering, and make it easy to access the answers they’re looking for.
For your product/ service, you know best. Tell your potential customers how awesome your service/ product is, so they will know why they should buy it. Don’t give it all at once. Every email should contain one or two new details on your product and a nice offer to close the deal.
But what if you offer multiple products?
If you have more than one product, you first must understand what product your customers look for. If they look for shoes and you tell them how great your shirts are, well. It won’t get you anywhere. If your lead is looking for shoes, focus your messages on shoes. No more, no less.
- If they buy the shoes, BAM! Now give them a special offer on shirts.
- If they don’t buy the shoes after 3-4 emails, then you can also try offering them your shirts.
Lead conversion Hack #3: Psychological Warfare
Besides the previous tactic, use the human psyche to motivate your sales leads towards “customerdom.”
Utilize curiosity, controversy, anticipation, excitement, and other emotional triggers that make us do what we do.
When people get emotional, you get their attention. On Hack #1, we talked about sales leads, who are not opening your emails. Now, this is where emotional triggers can help. Get a great emotional subject line to grab your sales lead’s attention.
For instance,
Here are samples for subject line, based on the emotion they trigger:
- Asking a question triggers curiosity – “Have you seen today’s shoes offers?”
- Adding a statement adds excitement – “Our biggest shoes coupon ever!”
- Using time trigger adds urgency– “Ends Today: special coupon for shoes”
Use all the above as part of your plan. So, email #1 gets their attention, email #2 make them excited, and email #3 is their last chance to buy (you can also add email #4 “Offer extended” if you need one more try).
Lead conversion Hack #4: Real-time Personalization
This is, without a doubt, the most powerful tool to move someone forward through the sales funnel.
Everyone wants to feel special, catered to, unique.
Customizing your marketing message, content, or campaign to fit a lead’s needs, behaviors, or wishes will go a long way towards making them feel that tingle.
- Add specific details about the lead (city, gender, other demographic),
- Tailor messages based on recent activity (purchases made, sites visited),
- Incorporate a recent communication within the body of your correspondence (a comment left on social media or blog).
Remember, personalization alone is not enough! Relevancy is the key.
You need to send the right message at the right time WITH personalization.
Lead conversion Hack #5: Exclusivity
Like we said, everyone likes to feel special, so build on this desire. Make your service something only elite members can access.
This can be done with a free trial, limited membership, or partial access to your website. Don’t limit all your content/tools; reserve this technique for juicy bits that will make people feel the need to sign up.
Lead conversion Hack #6: Testimonials and Case Studies
This time, tell them what to expect. Show them the success others have had and what you can/will do for them. Standard “These guys are great!” comment on your website is not enough.
When it comes to testimonials,
There are 3 things you need to have:
- Proven record. The impact of your testimonial is much better when it relies on a nice case study. Don’t just share the results; share the process. This will be easier to connect and will make it clearer to the customer.
- The statement. Now that your sales leads know what to expect, it’s time for the punch. Make your clients’ testimonials describe how they feel about the added value you brought to them. Again, try to avoid “They Rock!” quotes. It’s better if they describe the benefits from using your product/ service.
- The person. This is simple. Try to get influencers or high level positions to give you their testimonials. This will increase the creditability of the testimonial.
When you have a bunch of nice testimonials, choose juicy testimonials based on facts and put them all over your site. You can also use emails to get more exposure by adding a nice testimonial at the end of the email.
Lead conversion Hack #7: Showcase Your Credibility
This can be through an impressive display of logos (of companies using your service) or with accolades won, awards received, or other great press that highlights how awesome you are.
These are meant to increase creditability, so your sales leads will feel safe to buy from you.
It’s not bragging; it’s branding!
Lead conversion Hack #8: Social Proof
We are more willing to jump on the bandwagon if someone we know is doing it too; it’s human nature.
Show your sales leads that their friends are on board, and they’ll be grabbing a paddle just to be alongside them.
This can also work with raw numbers (5000+ subscribers this week), but they must be impressive or you’re not gaining anything.
Lead conversion Hack #9: Speed
Start convert leads as soon as they visit your website. Would you believe your conversion rate drops by 7% for EVERY SECOND a page response is delayed?
Make sure your website uploads fast and smoothly.
With emails and SMS, the idea is simple. Identify the need in real time and take immediate action. Think about it as a chess game. Your lead makes a move; now, it’s your turn. Make the right move and hit the clock fast.
Here are some immediate actions you need to take:
- Welcome new sales leads when they subscribe to your newsletter or register to your service.
- When someone visits your website and looks for a specific product or service.
- When someone respond to your emails, identify their interest and send information.
You can always follow-up every message you send, but you MUST send the first message.
Lead conversion Hack #10: Constant Communication
Always be in touch via email, newsletter, promotional marketing, whitepapers, social ads, whatever. Use any excuse to be around and available to fill the need when it arises.
However, Don’t SPAM your leads!
Always listen to your sales leads and act, once your lead makes a move.
To demonstrate, here are situations and solutions you should consider:
| Situation | What to do |
| The lead is not opening my emails | Use a better subject line, check your inbox placement and send messages offering free added value like a free eBook.
Also, you can show them social ads and/ or send SMS |
| The lead is opening my emails, but doesn’t click | Send a weekly / monthly newsletter and show social ads. |
| The lead is clicking my emails, but doesn’t close the deal | Use a promotion to close a deal. If someone clicks your emails more than once but doesn’t close a deal, consider a phone call. |
| The lead turned into a customer | Keep using the same channel and send upsell offers for 10 days after a purchase was made.
Also, consider lifecycle prediction. Say people replace their shoes every 3 months. Engage with the lead 2.5 months after the purchase and win your customer again. |
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