Remington Begg
Your inbound marketing strategy is only as effective as the number of potential customer’s contact information you are acquiring. Without a healthy number of solid leads, your remarkable content won’t be translating into sales. Since the eventual purchase is your primary goal, understanding the lead conversion process is crucial. It is comprised of three main steps:
Call-to-Action (CTA)
Whether it’s a blog or an eBook, the content should give way to a call-to-action button. Not sure what to put as your CTA? To answer that questions ask yourself “What response do I want the viewer to complete?” A clickable button should be action-oriented, saying something like “Download”, “Register” or “Sign-Up”. To create a sense of urgency, phrases like “ Offer Expires Soon” and “ Limited Time Only” can be very persuasive.
It also needs to be attention-grabbing, which is where the design portion of your content makes a big difference. This can be handled in a few different ways, including the placement and coloring of the CTA. An effective CTA is the first step toward acquiring your lead. If this isn’t implemented correctly and your button is not clicked, the process ends here.
Landing Page
When the visitor clicks on your CTA, it should take them to a well-designed landing page. This lays out the offer for them and provides a form to provide their information. An easy way to think about it is “you give something, you get something.” The visitor gives their name, email address, and phone number so they get the product they want. It can be a trial download of software, a free demo, or content offer. Whatever you decide to offer, make sure the information the viewer needs to give you matches the value of what they receive. A name and e-mail may be sufficient for a three-page white paper, but more specific, and therefore beneficial, information will be more appropriate for a 200 page eBook.
As a general rule, your landing page should be converting 20% of the time. If you are getting significantly fewer forms filled out than this, you probably need to rethink your landing page in some way.
Thank You Page
Congrats, your landing page converted a visitor to a lead! Now is the time to deliver your offer and tell your new customer exactly what to expect. Will you be reaching out to them in the next 24 hours? Can they follow a link to download the eBook? Thank them for taking the next step, but also tell them what that next step is. Nothing is worse than leaving a customer thinking “I did my part, now what?”
The thank you page doesn’t have to stop there though. You can also add an additional CTA if appropriate, and include icons for social media sharing. A thank you page can be the first step in turning your first-time buyer into evangelists for your brand. Once someone expresses interest in your brand or product, it is your time to begin the lead conversion process and make the all-important sale. An effective process will make getting the final sale much easier while an incomplete or incorrect process will make your efforts exasperating. For more tips on developing your entire inbound marketing strategy, download our free eBook:
