Lead Nurturing: Making the Conversion from Lead to Customer

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Successfully generating leads for your business is a vital part of the client acquisition process. Once you've generated leads, however, your job is far from done. Lead nurturing-- and ultimately converting those leads to customers-- is where many businesses fall short. In fact, it's estimated that nearly 80 percent of marketing leads are not converted into sales. How can your company close the gap between lead generation and client acquisition? Let's consider seven tips for converting your leads to customers:

Do your research. To determine how you can best fulfill a potential customer's needs, you must first do your homework. Understanding your prospect's company and industry helps establish credibility. Stay updated on the latest industry developments and keep track of company news.

Be responsive. If a prospect sends an inquiry email and has to wait several days for a response, conversion chances are slim. Your competitors are likely reaching out to your prospects too; thus, you can't afford to have a slow response time. Research shows that you're nine times more likely to convert a lead into a customer if you respond to inquiries within five minutes.

Make a connection. You want to avoid making your prospect feel like they're just another sale to you. Try to establish a personal connection based on common ground. Maybe you share an alma mater or root for the same football team. Use these commonalities as an ice breaker to get the prospect talking. Once rapport is established, he's more likely to share his challenges with you.

Increase social media presence. While meeting face-to-face is an important part of nurturing leads, so is maintaining an active presence online. A strong presence on social media demonstrates to prospects that your company is modern and relevant. Facebook leads the pack in both online orders and conversion rates. A regularly updated blog is also an excellent way to increase your presence online.

Incentives matter. Let's face it: people like to feel like they're getting a good deal. Consider offering a discount or special to a prospect to help encourage the conversion to customer. Make sure that the offer is valuable and available for a limited time only. This encourages a sense of urgency on the prospect's part.

Make the conversion process easy. If you're making your prospects jump through hoops to work with your company, they'll likely move on to a competitor. Make the conversion process-- and every interaction with your company-- as simple as possible for your prospects. This begins with a user-friendly, uncluttered, and easy to navigate website. Make sure your message is clear and your links are easy to click. You want each prospect to have a stress-free experience with you from the start so they're more likely to stick around for the long haul.

For more information on converting leads to long-term customers, please contact us today!