In this series we will explore the different ways you can generate solid leads for your business. Not all leads are created equal. You want to ensure that the leads you are receiving are qualified and ready for the next step on their buyer journey. You can do this through thoughtful and targeted communications. Leads aren’t much good to you if they aren’t actually interested in your product or service because they misunderstood what the offer was.
This first post in the series focuses on capturing and converting leads in five ways: ad management, live chat, conversational bots, forms, and pop-up forms.
Ad Management
There’s no denying it, ads through Google or social media networks are proven to work for capturing leads, when executed effectively. When advertising on one of the social networks like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, first ensure that you have done your research about the demographics of the audience that hangs out there. You need to be in the right room with the right people first, then tell your story.
Experimenting is the name of the game when it comes to digital advertising. Test out different images, different headlines, and different call-to-action words to see what performs the best. You should eventually hit the sweet spot and end up with a bunch of leads that you wouldn’t have otherwise obtained from other sources.
Live Chat
Adding the option of a live chat window to your website adds a human element to the digital world. This can be a good option if you are at your desk during most of the day, or at least comfortable responding on mobile as well. Giving your prospect the option of chatting to a real person, when they want to, can give your company that extra boost in customer service. If a person visiting your site has a question, they can quickly have it answered by you and that may just help make their final decision to purchase from you. Just ensure that you are ready and willing to respond quickly when that chat notification pops up!
Conversational Bots
On the other side of the coin, there’s always a computer that can step in when you are not available. Conversational bots, or chatbots, can take the place of live chat and can be customized to fit your business and answer the most frequently asked questions. And it’s best to let the bot be a bot and not attempt to make it sound human. Visitors would most likely rather know they are chatting with a bot than feel tricked. One thing to keep in mind when programming the bot is to ensure it’s customized enough to help with a variety of needs.
Forms
Forms are one of the easiest things you can implement to gain leads. If you are following inbound marketing methodology then you are regularly adding new and relevant content to your website. Give some thought as to which pieces of content should be ‘gated’, or placed behind a form requesting a bit of information from the visitor. Long-form pieces of content, such as ebooks, are a great thing to put behind a form because it’s a good chunk of valuable content that a person doesn’t usually expect to get for ‘free’. Other content that could be gated is presentations, videos, whitepapers, guides, or checklists. Just don’t ask for much information on the form; a name, company and email address are usually enough.
Your form shouldn’t just stand alone on any old page though, it needs to live on an attractive and concise landing page customized to the offer. The text on the landing page should clearly describe the benefit of giving up personal information (arguably the most valuable commodity now) to download the content.
Read: 5 Elements of an Effective Landing Page
Pop-up Forms
The last method we’ll discuss for capturing and converting leads is the pop-up form. You likely know it well, even if you haven’t implemented it on your site. Pop-ups started as annoying ads on websites long ago, but have since evolved and matured. They can be used on your site in several different ways. It could be a prompt to sign up for your e-newsletter, or a sale that gives a code for a discount. They can also be used on product pages to offer to answer questions, or offer a sizing guide or more information. As with anything, the goal is not to pester your web visitor and have the pop-up intrude at the wrong time. Spend time inside the mind of the visitor and how they move through your site. Think about what information they might be seeking, and when. If they just landed on your home page they probably aren’t ready to sign up for your e-newsletter; let them get to know you a bit first. The bottom line is, use pop-ups judiciously and ensure they are offering value to the visitor, at the right time.
The next post will focus on understanding your leads through contact website activity and list segmentation.
