Business.com aims to help business owners make informed decisions to support and grow their companies. We research and recommend products and services suitable for various business types, investing thousands of hours each year in this process.
As a business, we need to generate revenue to sustain our content. We have financial relationships with some companies we cover, earning commissions when readers purchase from our partners or share information about their needs. These relationships do not dictate our advice and recommendations. Our editorial team independently evaluates and recommends products and services based on their research and expertise. Learn more about our process and partners here.
9 Lead Conversion Tips For Success
Are you yearning to convert your prospects into customers? Here are nine lead conversion tips that can secure the deal.
Table of Contents
Lead generation for your small business can deliver impressive results — if you can transform potential buyers into clients. Without effective lead conversion strategies, any leads you get from various marketing efforts may not bring you the desired outcome.
Audience research also plays a big role in generating new leads. Let’s look at how lead conversion works, and what strategies will turn those leads into ongoing customers.
Editor’s note: Need CRM software for your business? Fill out the below questionnaire to have our vendor partners contact you with free information.
What is lead conversion?
Understanding how lead conversion works can be your business’s ultimate tool. “Lead conversion is a marketing process of engaging and converting prospect leads into paying customers,” said Juwairiya Kembo, content marketing manager at seoplus+. “This process prompts customers to buy products or services and push them towards a purchasing decision.”
Lead conversion insights become invaluable for your marketing and sales teams within this process because they are crucial in propelling potential customers toward sales opportunities. Their aim, guided by these strategies, is to establish a bond with potential customers, facilitating their progress along their buyer journey. This, in turn, simplifies the task of converting leads into sales. [Learn More: You’ve Got Leads, but Why Aren’t They Converting?]
How to convert leads
We’ve sourced insights from industry professionals to present their tried-and-tested strategies for transforming potential clients into actual customers. Here are nine lead conversion tips to turn your leads into sales.
1. Deploy the power of freebies or discounts.
Everyone appreciates a complimentary offering or a discount. Providing giveaways serves as a robust lead conversion tip to spark enough interest in your business to eventually result in a transaction. The freebie needn’t be particularly grand or costly, but it should serve as a memento of your company.
The role of giveaways extends beyond just enhancing lead conversions into sales. They can also aid your business in determining what elicits the maximum brand engagement and retention from clients, according to Ronald D’Souza, a content marketer at fjackets.com. Armed with this insight, you can tailor subsequent communications and offers to amplify the conversion of existing leads into additional transactions.
“Personalize your email and make it appear as if the discount is only available for them,” D’Souza said. “You can do this by generating a unique coupon code only for your email subscribers.”
2. Research your audience.
Understanding what your customers desire and their preferred modes of engagement with companies can significantly enhance your lead conversion rate. Pedro Campos, the founder of Advertongue, noted that lead generation and conversion rely on similar sets of “core fundamentals.”
“Oftentimes, when I see entrepreneurs having a hard time converting strangers into leads or leads into customers, it all comes down to the quality of their offers,” he stated. “If you have a bad offer, what that tells me is that you don’t know your ideal client well enough.”
The solution for better lead conversion? Pinpoint your target audience, and familiarize yourself with them. With this data, devise offers that lead to effective conversions.
“Remember that nobody has ever succeeded in business selling something that people don’t want,” Campos said, highlighting the importance of understanding the customer’s needs for successful lead conversion.
3. Prioritize consistent follow-up.
At first glance, this might be self-evident, but the significance of follow-up in enhancing lead conversion can’t be overstated. Even a straightforward email or phone call inquiring if a potential client has questions can often ignite the conversion process.
“Follow-up is the best way to make your prospects feel important,” said Hima Pujara, a senior digital marketing specialist at Seasia Infotech. “Regular emails related to your service will leave a brand impression in their mind, and later, when they need a related product, they will surely consider your business.”
To amplify the effectiveness of converting your leads, if your follow-up calls are not answered, consider leaving a 15-minute gap between each attempt. This strategy can improve the chances of leads answering, explained Anthony Martin, owner of Choice Mutual.
“Lots of people won’t answer phone numbers they don’t know,” he said. “However, when they see you call back again, they’ll suspect that you’re calling for something important. You would be amazed at how regularly people answer when you call back 15 minutes later.”
4. Use calls to action.
Sometimes, the catalyst to lead conversion is a gentle push in the right direction. Introducing a clear call to action within your marketing endeavors motivates potential clients toward a decision.
In the absence of a persuasive call to action, new visitors to your website “don’t know what the next step to take is and have to guess on their own,” as pointed out by Thomas Griffin, co-founder of OptinMonster. Regardless of your end goal, intriguing calls to action using specific verbs or phrases can significantly enhance your lead conversion rate.
“We don’t just place verbs like ‘Download now,’ ‘Act now,’ or ‘Get free’ – you must admit that sounds like an order,” said John Breese, founder and CEO of HappySleepyHead.
According to Breese, a mixture of idioms and call-to-action verbs such as “First come, first served,” “Contact us today,” or “Buy it off the shelf” is employed throughout their site as part of an effective lead conversion strategy.
5. Enhance your web experience.
Your website’s optimization shouldn’t be limited to just the content. To maximize your lead conversion rates, you need to diligently work on SEO, effective keywords and compelling calls to action as these elements guide potential leads towards a purchase.
It’s crucial you leverage potent keywords and SEO best practices to enhance your lead conversion from online sources. If you’ve identified your most effective keywords, streamlining your pay-per-click campaigns and managing your Google Analytics score becomes easier, as David Reischer, CEO of LegalAdvice.com pointed out.
“The keywords selected for each ad group should be based on a narrow category to be targeted so that the campaign can more easily be monitored,” he said. “We carefully monitor all campaigns and either tweak or discontinue those keywords that do not convert.”
Another crucial aspect to consider for improving lead conversion is your website’s bounce rate, session duration and average number of pages visited. A prolonged user stay on your website increases the likelihood of them making a purchase, thereby enhancing your lead conversion.
“Organic traffic is heavily influenced by user site experience,” said Earl White, co-founder of House Heroes.
In the context of lead conversion, White suggested that if you’re driving leads on your site through paid traffic, it’s advisable to direct paid and organic traffic to distinct landing pages. “You can then optimize SEO pages and pay-per-click pages without the purposes of each page competing against each other,” he said. This strategy can further bolster your lead conversion tactics.
6. Harness social media.
No matter how impressive your website might be, it isn’t the sole platform for your online visibility. People from all demographics turn to social media for updates and trending topics. Therefore, incorporating lead conversion tips into your social media strategy is paramount.
One pivotal lead conversion tip to remember is identifying your brand’s most suitable social media channels. Let’s say you run a boutique stationery store; Instagram could be a vital lead conversion tool for you.
“You don’t have to market on every platform out there — just carefully select a few channels that your audience uses,” advised Logan Allec, a CPA and founder of Choice Tax Relief Inc. “The most efficient way to do this is to build buyer personas based on your target audience. Identify their age, gender, the type of content they prefer and the networks they use most.”
7. Implement CRM strategies.
For many enterprises, top-notch customer relationship management (CRM) systems frequently assist in transitioning leads to customers, a critical component in lead conversion. Implementing CRM software that enables the automation of your text and email interactions can optimize the entire lead conversion process.
“Some people are more responsive to texts, others to phone calls, and some prefer emails,” Martin said. “Engaging prospects with all three methods provides the greatest possible opportunity for eliciting their response. Manual handling of these interactions is not feasible, given that your team members, being human, cannot ensure 100 percent follow through.”
Establishing rules within a CRM automation system can simplify outreach to potential customers for your sales team, thereby enhancing lead conversion. But exercising caution is advised when your team begins relying too heavily on automation, according to Joe Goldstein, director of SEO and operations at Contractor Calls.
“One of my preferred lead conversion tips to enhance success rate is to abandon marketing automation as soon as the prospect requests a free consultation,” he shared. “By eliminating most forms of marketing automation from our mid- and lower funnel, we’re able to interact with leads on a more personalized basis, qualify good leads quicker, convert them more frequently and retain them longer.”
8. Craft quality content.
Building enduring relationships hinges on trust. By creating quality content, you present to your customers a reliable brand that can cater to their needs. Such premium content elevates your brand as an industry leader, a one-stop source for pertinent industry knowledge. With the continued implementation of this lead conversion strategy on your website and social platforms, you’ll witness a steady increase in your business’ recurring revenue.
A crucial part of improving your lead conversion rates involves retaining your audience’s interest. This can be achieved with attractive website copy. Captivating copy keeps your audience more engrossed in your website and, consequently, your brand. In addition, the content on your website needs to be informative and instructive.
This includes a variety of content forms such as e-books, blogs, white papers and product demos. As your customers glean useful information from your website, their confidence in your company’s quality surges.
“There’s content, and then there’s quality content,” said Rob Gabriele, managing editor and home security expert at SafeHome.org. “If you want your website to stand out from the competition and truly capture the attention of your audience, you need to invest in high-quality content writers.
This often means seeking out subject matter experts (SMEs) who are also skilled writers. It might sound like a daunting task, but these experts are out there. And it’s worth the effort to get this right.”
This underlines the importance of this lead conversion tip: Quality content is king.
9. Categorize your leads.
While your enterprise might generate dozens, or even hundreds, of leads a month, this does not equate to them all being high-quality leads. To optimize your leads, it’s paramount to distinguish and categorize those leads you ascertain are most likely to purchase your products or services.
Having identified your valuable leads, conducting meticulous research becomes pivotal. Seek to understand their goals when they interact with your website. What are their behaviors once they’re engaged with your platform?
Extract insights from their most recent sales activities based on your website’s data to optimize lead conversion. It’s crucial you establish communication with these potential customers. This way, your team can focus more effectively on pursuing these high-potential leads, a proven way to improve lead conversions.
Lead conversion metrics to track
Numerous lead conversion tips can elevate your metrics, giving you a more insightful analysis of your sales and marketing outreach while amplifying customer engagement with your promotional content. Here are some lead conversion metrics you should track:
- Rate optimization: Your lead conversion rate reflects the volume of individuals engaging or interacting with your website’s landing pages. It’s a robust barometer of your ability to acquire fresh customers. As stated by Sid Berry, founder of 71Three, optimizing this lead conversion rate provides answers to vital queries, such as:
- Were you successful in maintaining their interest?
- What kind of actions did they undertake?
- Cost efficiency: This lead conversion tip relates to the cost-efficiency of securing a potential customer who is likely to become a buyer. It’s a critical element of your lead conversion strategy.
- Optimizing traffic sources: Traffic source analysis is a valuable lead conversion tip as it allows you to discern where your consumer traffic originates. It’s an effective method to optimize the allocation of your marketing budget. It also facilitates understanding the answers to important questions like:
- Where are the potential customers originating from?
- Where did they learn about your brand?
Applying these lead conversion tips can aid in nurturing your leads, enhancing your understanding of your company’s buyer personas, and facilitating customer progression through your sales pipeline.
How to track your lead conversion rate
Your lead conversion rate measures how many of your website visitors eventually turn into leads. You can calculate this metric using the following formula:
(Total number of leads / total number of website visitors) x 100 = lead conversion rate
Best CRM software for managing leads
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from using the best CRM software to track and manage their leads. The right CRM ensures you capture accurate information about your leads, store this information securely and turn them into customers more effectively. Here are the four best options to try:
- Salesforce: Salesforce is a great option for businesses needing a scalable solution. It lets you score your leads, send mass emails and store detailed information about each prospect. [See more in our Salesforce review]
- Hubspot: Hubspot offers a free CRM that’s better than many companies’ paid versions. Adding and updating contact information in Hubspot is fairly intuitive, and the software integrates with dozens of third-party apps. [Learn more in our Hubspot review]
- Pipedrive: Pipedrive is a customizable sales tool that uses AI in each of its pricing plans. This allows you to automate the majority of the sales process, and turn more leads into customers. [Read more in our Pipedrive review]
- Zendesk: Zendesk Sell is a CRM solution with advanced reporting and deal tracking features. It allows you to set goals for your overall sales as well as specific contacts. And you can use the Zendesk Reach tool to find new prospects to contact. [Find out more in our Zendesk Sell review]
Jamie Johnson and Sean Peek contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
