What exactly is speed to lead? Speed to lead refers to the amount of time it takes from the moment a potential customer fills out a lead form until they are first contacted. In the digital era where online consumers have endless options and little patience, every second matters when it comes to how fast you respond to leads. You may have built a beautiful website with all the bells and whistles, but the speed at which you respond to the leads you generate may have the biggest impact on your success. Let’s take a deeper look into just how important speed to lead really is. 

If You’re Not First, You’re Last 

Odds are a prospect that has filled out a lead capture on your site has done the same on a few other sites as well. You are most likely offering comparable products and your potential client has similar interest in both options. This is where speed to lead becomes crucial. 

According to a study done by LeadConnect Marketing, 78% of customers will do business with the first person that responds to their inquiry. You can see just how important speed to lead is from this statistic alone. Anyone who reaches out to your business is already interested in what you have to offer. By reaching out quickly, you are building confidence with your potential client by showing them that their time and interest is of the highest importance to you. From there, if you can meet their needs, there is little reason for that person to repeat the process with another sales rep.  

If you’re not the first person to respond to a potential client, you have all but lost that client already. A competitor that places top priority on speed to lead, and who reaches out immediately, is most likely going to close that sale.  

So Just How Fast Do You Need to Be? 

Ideally, the best time to respond to a lead is the moment that lead reaches you. A potential client may submit a lead, and within 10 minutes, they may be unreachable. Perhaps they filled out your lead capture while on a break and had to return to work before you could contact them. Your window of opportunity quickly closed and within that few short minutes, you may have lost that client for good. Of course, it may not be practical to drop what you are doing and contact a lead within seconds. Let’s see what the odds of success look like the longer it takes to contact a prospect. 

LeadConnect’s study shows that there is a 391 percent increase in conversions if a lead is contacted within the first minute after their submission. However, if you wait longer than 5 minutes to respond to a lead, odds of qualifying that lead drop by 80 percent! The difference that just a few minutes makes when responding to a lead is shockingly drastic. Another study conducted by Insidesales.com shows that the odds of qualifying a lead when you call after 30 minutes is 21 times less likely than if you were to call after 5 mins. When it comes to speed to lead, it is clear that every second counts. 

Increasing Your Speed to Lead and Ultimately Your Conversions 

Now that you understand the importance of speed to lead, what can you do to improve upon yours? Here are a few simple things you can do to decrease your speed to lead and increase your conversions. 

Improve Your Lead Capture 

The most effective use of your sales rep’s time is selling. If they are spending additional time doing research and gathering more information about a lead or prospect, speed to lead will be negatively impacted. 

Designing quality lead capture forms that gather the information your sales reps need to qualify and contact leads will significantly improve your speed to lead. Consider giving leads a score so that if you get backed up, you can contact leads you believe will have the highest chance of closing. 

Automation 

Automating simple tasks like the assignment of new leads can be one of the biggest improvements you make if you don’t have these systems in place. If you do not, consider making the investment in software that will allow you to do so. 

Use automating software to assign leads to your sales reps. Ensure that they are being sent to their phone’s, email, and any chat programs your company may use. Make sure you have automated email responses when a lead is submitted. This will get the contact process started and buy you a few moments to directly reach out to your prospect. Use this opportunity to let them know what your typical response time will be so that they can be prepared and not distracted when you call.  

Organization and Preparation 

It can be easy to simply assign leads to sales reps in a particular order. However, it is not uncommon for a sales rep to become bogged down while others are searching for something to do. Have systems in place to assign leads to your reps that can reach out to them the fastest. A round-robin distribution may work for you most of the time but be prepared for when you need to reassign leads so that they are contacted in the appropriate time frame. 

Have a plan in place for when a lead can’t be reached. Even if you reach out to a lead instantly, they may not be available to speak over the phone at that moment. Set specific protocols for when follow-ups should take place and what type of secondary communication should be sent.  

Do not underestimate the importance of speed to lead. If you know your speed to lead needs improvement, start making changes today. Invest your time and resources into software upgrades, training, developing new procedures, and any other areas that can decrease your speed to lead. The results will be worth the effort. 

The post Just How Important Is Speed to Lead? appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Whether you are just starting out in the marketing world, or have been running successful campaigns for years, you want to make sure you have these five areas covered.

Logo

One of the most important components of any landing page is making sure that your branding is present and visible. Whether you are marketing to loyal customers or a fresh set of potential customers, making sure your logo is visible is essential. While you may feel it’s not necessary to have, it is important because it helps people know they are in the right place and sets them at ease. They will not feel bait and switched, and will feel comforted knowing that the logo matches whatever source they clicked from. Another benefit is that it helps promote your branding.

Matching Merchandise

When sending people to a landing page, it is crucial to make sure that they have an easy way to access what they were searching. This means making sure that you have landing pages that match whatever ad send them there. Imagine a client clicks on an ad for a property search in Hollywood, but is taken to a landing page for homes in San Francisco. The visitor will have to try to figure  out how to navigate to Hollywood properties and will most likely leave the page. Making sure that the potential customer can easily find what they were searching for is key to making sure they are able to convert to a lead or customer.

Call to Action

What are your visitors trying to accomplish when they get to your landing page? Making sure your call to action matches this is important. From starting their free quote to making a purchase, make sure you have a powerful message that is easy to see on what they should do next. While the text you use to make the call to action stand out may be something you have to experiment with, it is a must to have one on there.

Brief Form

Even if you are just giving a free white paper to help spread your brand name, it’s important to get something in return. Even if it is just collecting their name and email address, you can use this information to send them customized email campaigns down the road. If you are taking the time to get people to your landing page, it’s a necessity to not give your offer away for free. If they are truly interested in what you are offering, they will be willing to hand over some contact information.

Security Information

With so many concerns about protecting information online, it is more important than ever to reassure your customers that their information will be secure once it is handed over. It’s a no-brainer that you should include security seals, but that’s not the only thing you should display. Testimonials from past clients and badges for any partnerships you may have with other companies can let people know that you are a trustworthy company. Anything you can include to show that your company has a solid reputation will make them more likely to move to the next step.

Landing pages are very important to your business because they help cut down on confusion and help you focus the visitor’s attention on the most important part of your offer. They are a good way to add more content to your website and have a way to track specific campaigns and how successful they were.

Need help assessing your current landing page to see if it is performing as well as it could be? Our marketing specialists are here to help you make your current landing pages better or add on to your collection with new ones.

To get a free consultation, contact us today at 1-877-220-6584 or click here.

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The post 5 Landing Page Musts for More Conversions appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Good marketers know that numbers are everything.  Like any scientist, a marketer must test what works and what doesn’t.  Experimenting is a characteristic that separates the good marketers from the bad ones.  However this doesn’t mean that you need a PHD in chemistry to be a successful marketer.  There are several small tests that when done properly, can have a huge impact upon a business’s bottom line.

Small tests such as changing a color on a landing page can have a major impact upon a business’s ability to convert traffic into leads.  When it comes to optimizing a website’s performance, the lead conversion percentage is king.  The 220 Marketing System turns clients into great marketers by giving them access to test the following small changes on landing pages quickly and easily:

When it comes to landing pages, lead conversion is simple.  A person fills out a form, receives a thank you email, and instantly becomes a new lead.  However, what if this person has previously filled out a lead form?  You wouldn’t want them to receive the same canned email that no longer seems personal.  Instead you can add a button that allows existing leads to “Pay with a Facebook Post.”  This means that they have to post a link to the landing page on Facebook in order to receive the offer.  This increases exposure and gives existing leads a new look at an old form.

Another test that can have a big impact upon lead conversion is how new leads are contacted after they fill out a form.  Are they sent an email? Do they get directed to a thank you page?  220 Marketing Clients have the ability to set up automatic email responders, links to a thank you page, or both.  Testing how clients prefer to get contacted will allow businesses to optimize their lead conversion.

Think about the last time you filled out a lead capture form.  Was the form long or short?  The length of a lead capture form can have a huge impact upon lead conversion.  People are more likely to complete shorter forms however these shorter forms produce lower quality follow up calls.  Finding the appropriate length of a lead capture form can make all the difference when improving lead conversion.

Look at your landing page.  What color is the submit button?  The color of your submit button can increase the likelihood that people know what you are trying to get them to do.  It can also set up proper expectations for those filling out lead capture.  Testing the color of the submit button is a simple test that can improve business volume.

Another way to improve the lading page is changing the copy of the submit button.  There are many different ways to explain what will happen when a potential lead fills out a lead capture form.  Changing “submit” to something such as “download your e-book” can set up proper expectations for what happens when the form is filled out.

An additional test that is very simple is changing the headline.  Is your title compelling? Does it explain what the landing page is about?  Making sure that your title explains exactly what you want the potential lead to do will have a huge impact on lead conversion.

Some other changes that can have a large impact upon lead conversion are the way the landing pages is laid out.  Modifying the layout can seem like a big change however simple changes such as moving the quote form or reformatting the content can make a world of difference.

With the explosion of social media, marketers now have to take into account what people are saying about your company.  Consumers are much more likely to work with a company that their friends have recommended than a company they randomly stumbled across on the internet.  Adding social media links on your landing page can improve trust and connect with potential leads on a more personal level.

The last test that can make a large impact is adding trust seals.  People like to work with businesses that are certified and trusted by organizations such as the Better Business Bureau.  Having these types of logos can increase credibility in the eyes of potential leads and could have a positive impact upon your conversion rate.

220 Marketing gives their clients the tools and knowledge needed to become top notch marketers through simple techniques such as experimenting with small changes on landing pages.  Please contact 220 Marketing at 877-220-6584 for more information about optimizing lead conversion!

The post The Science of Lead Conversion appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.

Using the analytics on your site that you are already gathering, you can pinpoint the pages that are contributing to giving that final push that drives the customer to hand over their information and replicate that success through out the website.

What is a Conversion Assist? Why Should I Care?

In the marketing world, the term Conversion assist references the page that a customer viewed before filling out a lead capture tool or purchased something on your site.

Finding and understanding these pages will help you go a long way with generating more leads. If you notice a common trend among these assist pages, you can replicate that to other pages to try and get that success from more pages. This can also help you pinpoint what is not working on successful pages so that you can make the necessary corrections.

How to Analyze Your Conversion Assists and Improve Conversions

So now that you know what a conversion assist is, you probably want to learn how to identify and benefit from them. Here are some steps to make this happen.

Step 1: Identify Your top Conversion Assist Pages

If you don’t yet have AdWords Conversion tracking set up on your site for the campaign you’re running, you will want to set this up first. Once you have the code in place and have given the campaign a chance to generate some information, you can check your results but using Search Funnels to find out what customers did after clicking on your ad.

Keeping track of this information is important, especially since your time and money are going into these efforts. Click here to learn a little more about understanding these reports.

Step 2: Identify Patterns Among Your top Pages

So you have used your reports to identify the top pages in your site; now what? Using simple logic to identify what is working on the page is a good start. If you notice that the top conversion assist page is the price page, it’s obvious that seeing the cost of your product or service will move them to make the final leap.

Using simple logic like this on the other pages that rank high for conversion assist will help you discover common trends. Looking at your most successful landing pages is a good start. Is there something that all of them offer (newsletter updates, ebooks, etc) that is the same? Is there a common topic that all of them talk about? Are they in the same format? The same questions can be applied to your blog posts that contribute to leads. Are they all about the same topic?

Once you have identified the elements that make the successful pages work for you, you can take a look at the pages that get the least amount of results and make some fixes. Sometimes something as simple as adding or removing a picture can make all the difference in the world.

Step 3: Leverage Insights From top Pages to Improve Lead Nurturing Efforts

Now that you know the content and topics that are generating the best results within the website, transfer this over to your lead nurturing campaigns. Tweak your email campaigns to include the successful keywords and content. This will allow you to see a higher ROI and convert more leads.

Step 4: Create More Content on Topics Similar to Those Pages:

If you discover that certain types of offers or topics covered in your content help in conversion assists could be a good indicator that your target audience is looking for a certain format or certain subject. Use this insight to create your future content and write it for your target audience. Making sure you include what your audience is looking for will help gain more customers and give you more business. It will also make content creation a little less daunting if you already have knowledge of what you should be including.

Step 5: Improve Calls to Action on Poorly Performing Pages

This step will force you to analyze your worst performing landing pages and take a closer look to the calls to action on that page. The theory here is that if the page is not driving people to take that step to provide their information or purchase something on the site, it is probably not getting people to click on the call to action, or it is not directing the client to a page that will help assist in the conversion.

To find out where the problem lies and how to fix it, there are some simple steps you can take.

Problem 1: If your call to action is linking to a page that usually has a high conversion assist percentage, the problem most likely lies in the call to action failing to generate a click through. Are your directions clear on how this product/information will benefit them? Is the button located in an easy to find place?  Does the button get lost in the rest of the content or lacking something in its’ design? A great way to test this is to play around with the button by putting it in different places on the page and different designs. Test the page in different forms with others and see which layout they find the most appealing.

Problem 2: If your call to action is pointing to a page that has a low conversion rate, this probably mean that the page has nothing much to offer for your customers. Sometimes changing the link the landing page directs to can mean a big improvement in your results for that landing page. Point towards a page that has a high conversion assist rate to get more out of your efforts.

You can take this one step further by linking to a page that not only has a high conversion assist percentage, but also is the most relevant to the offer you are putting on the landing page and has different things for both customers that are at all stages in the buying process with you.

Analyzing your conversion assist stats can help improve all parts of your marketing efforts by helping you see both strengths and weaknesses. Taking the time to follow these steps will help you develop better lead gathering and lead nurturing campaigns.

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The post How to Get More Leads From the Best Pages on Your Site appeared first on 220 Marketing Group.