In order to learn how to generate more leads from your website, you first need to fully understand your website visitors.
Not everyone who comes to your website is on the same level of the buying process. It’s critical to the success of your lead nurturing campaigns that you understand and cater to each level of buyer while staying persistent.
Only 23% of your visitors will buy within 6 months of inquiring about your product/service. 67% still intend to buy but are not ready yet.
At IMPACT, we typically experience three different levels of buyers. Those that are interested, those that have identified a need, and those that are ready to buy. The overall goal is to produce sales ready leads by nurturing interested prospects down the different levels of the sales funnel. The reason? Nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads.
The following is an inside look at how we approach lead nurturing here at IMPACT.
Interested Buyers (Top of the Funnel)
Prospects at the top of the sales funnel have only identified an interest. They’re still not sure themselves if they have a need or how to address it. As a result, this type of buyer doesn’t want to listen to a sales rep blabber on about something they’re not even sure they need yet.
Top of the funnel leads are still learning what they need and how to solve a problem. So, how do they do this?
Through online research. More and more internet users go to Google to conduct research on products and services before they even think of making a purchase. In fact, 90% of consumer buying decisions start on the web.
An example of an introductory offer aimed to convert top of the funnel leads.
Therefore it’s important to supply these buyers with introductory offers to help them identify their need and push them in your direction.
Some examples of introductory content:
- Top of the funnel Ebooks: “The Beginner’s Guide to…” or “10 Things You Can Do Right Now to…”
- Blog articles
Need Recognized (Middle of the Funnel)
Thanks to all of your top of the funnel offers and blog articles, these leads have now recognized a need. Now they’re simply asking, “why should I buy from you?”
During this stage, your leads are focused primarily on learning as much about you as they can and whether or not you can satisfy their need. At this point it’s important to introduce offers that focus on your company and why they should choose you.
Case studies play a huge role during this stage, as it provides your leads with real results that your company has produced. There’s no better sales tool than proof of results and word of mouth; a great case study will provide both.
Ready to Buy (Bottom of the Funnel)
These leads are sales ready. They’re also looking for a deeper understanding of your company and the potential working relationship they will have. In fact, they’re expecting a sales rep from your company to contact them. They’ve identified and understand their need and have qualified you as a potential vendor to help fulfill that need.
Examples of bottom of the funnel offers:
- Request a demo
- Free Trial
- Free consultation
- Request a quote
Attracting Prospects at all Levels of the Buying Process
It’s also important to ensure that all of your offers are appealing to all levels of the buying cycle. You can do this by creating a variety of offers that aim to further qualify your leads and push them down the sales funnel.
Most of your leads will come in at the top of the funnel, your goal is to use marketing automation to move them along in the sales process.
Push Leads Down the Sales Funnel
Here’s where marketing automation and lead nurturing begin to play a significant role in the process. Without it, your leads are worthless. In fact, research shows that 79% of marketing leads never convert to sales due to lack of lead nurturing.
The goal here is to nurture as many leads through these stages so that they’re sales ready. While everyone likes to focus on the end result of a sale, it’s important to practice lead nurturing throughout the entire buying process, starting with top of the funnel leads who are still conducting online research.
After your prospects have read your Ebooks that introduce a solution, be sure that at the end of the offer you’re featuring a case study so that you’re providing your lead with that solution, and how it’s worked for your other clients. It’s at this point that you’ll want them to convert again, where you can capture even more information about your lead.
Keep in mind that they may not convert after reading your Ebook. Continue to nurture them using marketing automation to schedule emails days after they’ve converted on your intro offers in hopes that they convert on a middle of the funnel offer as well, therefore advancing their sales process.
This process should be repeated again in an effort to push them towards your bottom of the funnel offers.
With HubSpot’s marketing software, we’re able to successfully plan and execute successful lead nurturing campaigns and monitor the success of each of them.
Lead Nurturing/Marketing Automation
A successful lead nurturing campaign is one that begins with content mapping, deciding which leads receive which types of offers, and at what time during the buying process. It may seem confusing, but when done correctly, will play a huge role in lead conversion.
Using the contact information your leads provided during the introductory process, automated emails featuring middle of the funnel offers are sent out in an effort to further qualify these leads and push them further down the sales funnel. It’s also important to make sure your automated emails are spread out as not to annoy your prospects.
If your leads aren’t converting, it’s important to stay persistent. In fact, according to HubSpot, 50% of leads are qualified but aren’t immediately ready to buy something from you.
So if they aren’t converting on the particular offers you’re sending to them through your marketing automation, send them different offers. Stay on top of them (without annoying them) until you can successfully push them further down the sales funnel.
As discussed above, one offer connects to another. So when your leads are downloading middle of the funnel offers, you should then be pushing them towards bottom of the funnel offers to further qualify them as a lead.
Ready to Buy
Once a lead downloads one of your bottom of the funnel offers, they are now sales ready. They may also be deciding between you and one or two other vendors at this point, so it’s important to stay engaged so they buy from you. Whether it’s a free assessment or a free quote, once they are on the phone with you, they’re sales ready. It’s now time for your sales rep to connect with these leads if they haven’t already.
Your lead nurturing campaign and marketing automation has paid off.
Key Takeaways:
- Not everyone who comes to your website is on the same level of the buying process
- Top of the funnel leads don’t want to hear from a sales rep; instead, provide them with the basics of your industry with offers
- Using lead nurturing and marketing automation, push leads down the various levels of the sales funnel to further qualify them
- Once a lead reaches bottom of the funnel, they’re looking for a deeper understanding of your company and what to expect from working with you
Need Help?
If you’re interested in implementing a successful lead nurturing campaign to keep more of your leads, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.
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