SolarOften when business owners review their marketing plan they leave out a few simple key questions which could transform the performance of their overall marketing strategy. Apart from the obvious one being “How to convert more leads into sales” below are some additional questions to consider.
[togglegroup][toggle title=”How can I ensure more leads convert into a sale the first time they visit my website”]
The answer to this question is in 3 parts:
1. Targeting better quality leads from the start is the simple answer however just part of the solution. Ensuring your are not paying for information traffic and only for traffic in the decision phase of the buying cycle is a simple solution. This is done through careful keyword selection.
2. Even if you target better quality leads you will find that most are still in the early stages of the purchase funnel and will no doubt compare and review your brand or service even before they contact you. This leaves you with little control except to implement a powerful offer with an expiry window to build urgency. Consumers never like to miss out on a great offer even if it is just the perception of value crafted through clever brand positioning. This could be offering entries to a competition that expires this week or providing additional warranty or providing a price guarantee for making a decision right now. Price guarantees are a great way to get a commitment to buy now with out having to shop around. Remember people always first enquire about price but make a decision based on value. Don’t be afraid of offering a price guarantee even if you are not the cheapest. For the few that take you up on it versus the increased business you have gained you will always win in the end. Just be sure that you provide superior value and the price will quickly be of second interest to the consumer.
3. The third part of this equation is to ensure your powerful offer is promoted well on the phone, via email and remarketing banners. If you want to convert more leads into sales then it pays to know what your competitors are saying to your leads. Business is won or lost at the point of sale. Next time the phone rings implement a system for recording calls so that you can review sales performance on the initial enquiry. Mystery shop your competitors and record what they say and how they say it. Then gather all your staff into a sales training workshop and play back all calls and review them against competitor sales calls and begin working on how to improve. This is a common sense approach of realising simple solutions through revealing obvious problems. Ask your staff the following questions after listening to these phone calls:
- How can we sell ourselves better on the phone.
- What would a great offer be to get a commitment on the spot.
- How can we assure people they don’t need to keep shopping around for a better price or value.
- What was good and bad about each phone call?
- What did the competitors offer that we didn’t?
If you want a good phone tracking and recording solution our consultants will recommend a few alternatives for you. This will be one of the most profitable exercises you can do in your business.
[/toggle][toggle title=”How many of my leads are also contacting my competitors and which ones”]
Knowing how many leads are being lost to your competitors is very difficult to know however at the same time one of the most valuable estimations you could ever make. If you can estimate which of your competitors are taking your leads and turning them into customers then you can now problem solve how to stop this from happening. If you can reverse this with your top 3 or 4 competitors you can potentially transform your entire bottom line revenue and profit.
To answer the headline above really depends on your industry and how competitive your industry is online. However we do know that each potential customer will review and compare your business on average with 3 of your competitors. You will also find that these competitors are also likely the ones who are appearing in the top 3 positions of Google at the same time or when you are not appearing. We call this the overlap rate and is a key indicator we use to find out who your online competitors really are. In fact we use an advanced analysis tool to look at a number of keyword competitor metrics. These include “Position above rate”, which measures what percentage of the time your competitors are appearing above you on Google for one or a group of keywords.
We are also able to see who these competitors are and also see what percentage of the market they are appearing to compared to you. This is called “impression share” and is a guide to measuring how many leads you could be losing to your competitors overall and roughly how much budget they may be spending to do this. Combined with Google trends and Google insights we can cross compare this trend behaviour to forecast who your competitors are and what opportunities there may be to stop losing future business.
Once you have identified who your online competitors are then it’s time to start investigating. You should be looking at each website and writing a full SWOT analysis of each site with the help of someone neutral who is not biased toward your product or service. Ideally a marketing qualified person or one of our team can do this for you. It’s important to get an honest comparison of all your competitor websites and mystery shop their sales process. This means both over the phone or if they have a shopping cart, run through the user journey and critic as you go. Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer and what experience and first impression would they receive from your competitor compared to your business.
[/toggle][toggle title=”How can I ensure my competitors don’t convert my leads into a sale?”]
Remember most business is lost at the point of sale and the key to converting more leads into sales at the point of sale is to create more opportunities for a point of sale to occur. Simple yes? But how?
First is accepting a fact that most people do not contact or buy the first time they visit your site. So using Remarketing is crucial, in fact with out Remarketing I would not invest another cent into paid advertising. Remarketing is a second chance opportunity to convert leads into an enquiry allowing for another point of sale opportunity to occur. We often call it second chance marketing. You can also think of it as a second offer for those who did not convert on the site and having something else of value to build urgency especially while or before they start calling all your competitors.
Many marketing gurus talk about the law of attraction marketing. I am sorry but this is nothing but false hope and baloney. Business success requires data, strategy and technology with intelligent targeting tools to achieve maximum profit potential and business growth.
If you implement a well planned Remarketing strategy backed by an integrated email marketing strategy and throw in some SMS, social media and direct mail you will be creating the most amount of point of sale opportunities needed to convert leads into sales.
Keep in mind that a lead is simply a person who has demonstrated recent interest in your product or service and you have the ability to communicate with them. So build more POS opportunities and watch your business sky rocket.
[/toggle][toggle title=”How long does it take for my leads to make a buying decision?”]
Now does this mean from the first time they contact you or the first time they visited your website? Most business owners tell me that they convert over 30% of their leads into sales and usually with 1 to 3 days. However very few will be able to know how many times each customer visited your website or how long it took for them to contact you after first searching online. It could be a few days but it could also be several weeks or months until someone is ready to make a buying decision. Often when people first contact you it when they are ready to make a buying decision and often they have already researched you, read reviews or asked their peers about you. So ask yourself the question, what are people saying about you before they even contact you?
Nearly everyday I see a comment on my Facebook with someone asking about a product or service or asking for recommendations. Understanding how people make buying decisions for your industry is crucial and should lead the way you deliver information and sell yourself. At Kick Media we used advanced path to purchase technology tools to understand what your consumers want and what journey they take leading to an online enquiry or purchase.
Before a lead even contacts you we can know what they actually search into a search engine and how many times they typed in different search terms that leads to an online enquiry and as of recently also a phone call. Sounds amazing and it is. The technology available today is so advanced we know what questions your customers asking before they contact you and how long it takes on average before they contact you.
With this information we have developed some very exciting marketing strategies tailored to individual businesses and industry types. [/toggle][/togglegroup]
Many of the above questions and solutions are included as part of all our services at Kick Media. Our approach to marketing is a holistic solution that looks at the outcome required with a reverse engineered step by step pathway to achieve your business goals. Each of our marketing packages are transient in that we will go above and beyond to help you grow and prosper, whether that be developing a new plan, coaching you on a new conversion strategy or simply giving you some new ideas for your next promotional offer. Paid Search, SEO and Social Media are just tools that we use very well however are just part of the puzzle required to achieve success. Each person who works at Kick Media is marketing qualified and then groomed with with the latest creative lead gen and conversion tactics to beat your competitors and help you innovate your way forward.
Try our service today and see the real impact our experts will have on your business.
