Generating leads is an important part of any business which takes time, resource and money—and it’s frustrating when all that effort falls short of converting leads into sales. If this sounds familiar, then read on to discover how to maximise your chances of turning those hard-won leads into customers.
Do you have a linear sales process?
One of the most important things you can do as a business is to define a simple linear sales process for your team to follow with every lead they touch. A broken sales pipeline is one of the main reasons why leads fail to convert, so building a seamless process should be a priority.
You may believe that your team already follows a defined process—but believe us if you haven’t got this documented and communicated then your sales team will all be working slightly differently—which means leads will ‘leak’ from your sales funnel never to be seen again! To find out more about building a linear sales process, read our blog.
Are you nurturing your prospects on their buyer journey?
We know that managing campaigns, gathering data and qualifying leads is a long process—and during this time you run the risk of them going cold, or even worse, being captured by a competitor.
If you are trying to do this all manually, you’ll know that there are not enough hours in the day and this is where an automated lead nurturing sequence will help you to reap rewards (and free up your time for more productive tasks).
A lead nurturing sequence is an automated series of emails, SMS messages or remarketing activity that helps to keep prospects engaged and informed as they move through the buying cycle.
By creating these touchpoints—which must offer relevant information tailored to the stage of the buyer journey they have reached—you’ll gain the mindshare of your prospects and have a greater chance of topping their list when they make their purchasing decision.
One of the most common questions we are asked is ‘How many emails should I send, and over what period?’ While every business is unique, there is a simple rule of thumb that might help you when defining your nurturing sequence:
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Price of Product / Service |
Length Of Sales Cycle |
Sequence |
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Low Price Point / Impulse Purchase
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Short - Medium |
Send fewer emails, but over a shorter period. These purchases do not require a big decision and you need to prompt them quickly to get them ‘over the line’.
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High Price Point / B2B Services / Contracts
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Medium - Long |
There may be a long decision-making process, so this requires more touch points but spread over a longer time. Case studies and whitepapers are useful resources to establish trust when nurturing these types of leads
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The last part of the lead conversion puzzle lies with the communication channels you use to speak to your leads. Using the correct marketing communication channels in your nurturing sequence will give you a greater chance of making a conversion.
You may be crafting creative Facebook remarketing ads with engaging copy, but if your prospect rarely uses social media platforms then your time, effort—and money—is going to waste. If you choose automated email nurturing, it could be worthwhile to trial SMS messaging to convey information differently.
This part of the process may take time and some testing to get right, but by gaining clarity and an understanding of how your customers choose to communicate, then you’ll be in a better position to meet their needs.
Let our marketing automation experts help
Spending the time, resource and money to generate fresh leads for your business is the right strategy for growth, and by following our tips you’ll soon start to see more leads develop into paying customers.
If you would like advice on how to design a linear sales process or define a nurturing sequence that contains the right marketing mix, we are here to help. Simply jump in on our online chat and say ‘hello’, or send us a message.