Businesses rely on their ability to generate quality leads. Without a steady flow of leads, most businesses will struggle as their existing customers drop off.
Leads alone will not be enough, though, and there needs to be a conversion strategy that turns prospects into buyers.
[Tweet “7 steps to boosting lead generation and conversion rates “]The following system can form the basis of a successful lead generation and conversion strategy, allowing you to tweak it to suit your own individual needs.
Landing Page
Your landing page should be perfectly optimised for the traffic generated later in the process.
Most effective landing pages remove as many distractions as possible, leaving the visitor with only a limited number of options.
As more traffic comes in, optimisation becomes easier as you can split test a number of different pages.
Check out our guide for more information on landing page optimisation.
Lead Capture
Within your landing page, a lead capture form should be added to build a list. Most visitors need to see an offer several times before making a purchase, so it is important to stay in touch.
Many landing pages are focused solely on the lead capture, with the main offer coming at a later date.
Lead capture forms should also be tested for the optimal conversion rate, though limiting the form input options will usually provide the best results.
Lead Magnet
To capture a lead, you will typically require a lead magnet – an incentive to potential customers to handover their contact information.
Most people will be reluctant to give their email without a clear incentive, so you need to make the choice easy.
An effective lead magnet will be closely relevant to the main offer.
You could provide a report, video, training series, software product, or early access to an anticipated offer.
Content Creation
With everything in place to capture leads, you need to start thinking about traffic. Content creation is one of the most effective ways to bring in a consistent flow of leads, but you need to be willing to commit to it.
You can start a blog, create videos, record a podcast, create infographics, and promote yourself on social media.
By creating and promoting quality free content, your audience will become more interested in a paid offer.
Take a look at the “content and copywriting” category of this blog for more information and ideas on creating amazing content.
Advertising
Content marketing is a slow-building process, but paid advertising can achieve results immediately.
Paid advertising obviously comes with greater risk, but it does allow you to test a market for viability.
Facebook Ads are a great way to push a targeted audience to your content
Using platforms like Google and Facebook, you can bring in some initial traffic, test your landing page, and tweak the campaign until it is profitable.
Conversions
After setting up the landing page and bringing in new leads, you should start optimising your campaign.
Each aspect can be tested and tweaked, including your landing page, email series, lead magnet, and even the main offer.
You should start with the bigger elements of the campaign, but you can also see results with smaller factors like opt-in form text and color scheme.
Find out what to do if you suffer from low conversion rates.
O
ptmising and shortening your checkout flow is just one of many ways to boost conversion rates.
Affiliates
The final stage is to start recruiting affiliates. Your offer should have been carefully optimised, so you can work out how much you can afford to pay affiliates per lead.
When you understand your profit margins clearly, you should be able to make competitive offers to the most productive affiliates in your niche. Affiliates can bring in new traffic that is hard to reach on your own.
Conclusion
This system has worked for countless businesses over the years, and it can easily be tailored to work for almost any kind of offer.
Some businesses prefer to make an initial offer and capture lead later, while others might start as an affiliate to test the marketplace.
As with any online business, there are various ways to make a profit, but your leads should form the core of any strategy you implement.
Related: Ultimate guide to increasing conversions
Your Say!
We’d love to hear if you used a similar system for building your own online business? Did you use the same steps? What else should you consider when trying to close leads and boost conversions?