Business To Business (B2B) marketing involves many factors, but the end goal is always the same: making money. And to make money, you need lead conversions.
For most marketing professionals, this is a big challenge. Even the best lead gen campaign in the world won't help you convert leads to opportunities. And if you manage that, you'll still need to turn these opportunities into deals.
If your lead conversion methods are lacking, you'll find yourself in a catch-22. Your marketers will generate false demand, and your sales reps will chase bad leads. Meanwhile, your business will keep bleeding money.
Want to know how to increase your lead conversion rate? Here are seven methods that can help you make this your best year ever for closing sales.
1. Quality Standards
In recent years, B2B marketers have realized that lead quality is far more important than lead quantity.
If you want your business to follow suit, start by creating a framework for the buyer's journey. Then, create a set of definitions for lead qualification. Have your sales and marketing teams use these definitions to achieve their goals.
As for which things to focus on, start by defining a "sales-ready" lead. First, you'll want to know which criteria indicate intent and interest. Then, look into the demarcations between sales qualified and marketing qualified leads.
2. Information Capturing
Are you getting the right lead information? To figure that out, look into your main lead entry points such as landing pages and web forms.
The key here is finding the right balance. If you ask too many questions, your prospects may get concerned about their privacy. Ask too few, though, and you won't be able to place them in the right stage of the funnel.
When it comes to web forms, three to five fields is the accepted number. Keep in mind that two of those will go on the prospect's name and email. Depending on your goals, you should be able to fit in a custom question.
As for landing pages, there are plenty of ways you can make them more effective. If you could use some tips in this area, you can learn more here.
3. Targeted Content
These days, most B2B companies use some form of content marketing. Of course, that doesn't mean they're all doing a great job.
Content is how you get your leads and prospects interested in your brand's story. Sure, attracting new visitors and getting social media shares is useful. That said, the main point of content is to offer value and educate your readers.
In other words, you should tailor your content library to different stages of the funnel. For instance, if you have a white paper on email marketing practices, feed it to the top of your funnel.
4. CRM / MAP Integration
Have you connected your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing automation platform (MAP) yet? If not, you're likely making a big mistake.
Two-way integration between these systems benefits both your sales and marketing teams. For starters, it allows them to share lead intelligence and work from a unified plan. This helps optimize the lead-to-close process.
Sales reps can use CRM/MAP integration to learn more about specific leads. They can see how long the leads were active, where they originated, and how qualified they are.
For marketers, this is a great opportunity to track conversion metrics more closely. Many B2B marketers don't keep track of how their efforts affect company revenue, so this is a big improvement.
5. Follow-Up Timing
When it comes to low lead conversion rates, marketers take most of the blame. In some cases, however, the fault will lie with the sales reps.
Of course, we're talking about the art of the follow-up. If your sales reps don't handle the conversation well, they may not get the lead to convert. The other common issue is they don't follow up in the right time frame.
Follow-up timing is all about being careful. You shouldn't pressure the lead by following up too soon, but you need to do it while your brand is still top-of-mind. Also, the sales rep should be knowledgeable about the lead's professional role.
Keep in mind that a follow up doesn't have to be person-to-person. Using auto-responders is fine, as long as your message is relevant to the prospect.
6. Lead Nurturing
A lead nurturing program takes your leads and runs them through the buying stages. Then, it picks out the ones that are most likely to convert.
What purpose does this serve? Simple: by qualifying your leads before you send them to sales, you're making their job much easier. After all, it's common sense to earn people's trust before asking them to buy something.
For the best lead nurturing results, use marketing automation software. According to recent studies, this approach leads to a 451% increase in qualified leads. Don't neglect the tried-and-true methods such as email personalization, either.
7. Data Verification
A lot of B2B leads suffer from substandard data quality. This includes issues such as duplicated data, missing form fields, and invalid formatting.
Needless to say, using a database of inaccurate lead profiles makes it harder to reach your leads. In the long run, this will torpedo any lead gen campaign. It can lead to email deliverability issues, botched personalization, and so on.
If you want to improve your lead database, clean it up on the regular. This involves taking out old and inactive leads and removing any duplicates. Also, take out any leads whose email is invalid or those that have no email at all.
More on Lead Conversion Methods
No business can improve in all seven lead generation and sales areas we've outlined above, at least not all at once. Still, some effort in the right places can make all the difference in the world of lead gen and sales.
In the long run, your conversion rate will depend on how much you commit to it. The more you invest in your employees, money, and technology, the better results you'll get. Adapting to market changes is another key factor to keep track of.
Want to know more about the lead conversion and digital leads generation process? Visit the Sales section of the Bootstrap Business Blog right now!
