Lead Generation: Going Back to Basics
Lead generation is one of those areas of business that you will always need to think about. You’re probably asking yourself every week if the inbound strategies you are using bring in high enough conversion rates. What’s going to happen to your business if conversion rates drop below 3%?
While I can’t say what will change, I can say that nothing should change about your lead strategy just because of a two-month dip.
Don’t Overthink Your Lead Strategy
Stressing about your lead strategy can be a healthy obsession. Part of your overall inbound marketing strategy, lead generation is the crucial second step in the chain that begins with organic traffic and ends in a sale. Figuring out the best way to turn visitors into interested customers is part of the magic of business, and definitely requires a lot of strategizing and execution.
Recent data shows that average ecommerce conversion rates hover around 4%. Or consider that the average lead generation conversion rate in the travel industry is 5%, while in business services it’s 3.4%. So, it’s likely that your work fits right into your industry’s average. Point being: it’s hard to generate leads.
Go Back to Basics
The only way to put your mind at ease about your lead generation strategy is to bring it all back to basics.
It might be that you are over-extended in your lead generation attempts. Or perhaps the actual content of your outreach efforts is not resonating with enough people. In both of these examples, making small changes to your approach will not make the difference you are looking for. To greatly improve your sales numbers, you may need to change the entirety of your lead generation strategy.
Where is Your Call-to-Action Button?
It might be time to change the location and design of your CTAs. Is it being ignored on your blog no matter how many views the blog gets? Then try putting together a direct messenger campaign on Facebook that targets people who have reacted to your posts recently. Or simplify your web design to make your CTA stand out more.
Landing Page Optimization Shift
This might be a concern for the web design team, but without your input it will undoubtedly suffer. A landing page needs to have a few components to be successful: a catchy headline, a short batch of text that is easy to read, and a call to action button that stands out from the rest of the content. Without these basic features shining through it’s very possible your landing page is the weakest link.
The Offer Needs to Have Impact
Here is where you can be creative and unique. The whole point of a lead is to collect the personal information from potential customers. In order to receive this information, you need to make an appealing offer, and perhaps your offer just is not appealing enough. Get brainstorming and figure out what incentive you can provide your customers. Offering a spreadsheet or free consultation in exchange for signing up to a mailing list might be the change you were looking for to keep things rolling!
Conclusion
So, don’t get discouraged by your lead generation conversion rate. It’s a hard bargain to generate interested customers no matter what business you operate in. When things get overwhelming, the key to success is returning to the basics, because it will remind you what it is that makes your company unique.