(This BrandPro article is the fourth in a series of five articles that discuss the process of “Turning Prospects into Lifetime Customers.”)
During the Engage phase of the Marketing Funnel, you maintained your prospects’ attention and enticed them to interact with your brand online. Once you have engaged a prospect, he or she is more likely to convert into a warm lead—but only if you ask them to and show them how.
Website
It’s important to set your website up for success and turn it into a lead-generating machine. One easy way to do this is to incorporate calls-to-action on every web page. A call-to-action (CTA) is an instruction to website users to perform a desired behavior. Examples include “Contact Us Today,” “Request a Quote,” “Schedule an Appointment,” or “Watch the Demo.” On a website, CTAs should always link to a web page where users can perform the behavior you asked them to do. This might be a form where they submit their information, question and/or request. It might be an exclusive download. Whatever it may be, users should get something of value in exchange for their contact information.
If you send marketing emails or e-newsletters, it’s beneficial to prominently display a sign up form on your website. This is often a small field where website visitors simply submit their name and email address and are automatically added to your email distribution list. Instead of labeling the submit button “Submit,” it may be more effective to use a creative CTA such as “Gain Instant Access!”
Whenever website visitors send you their information, it’s a good idea to create a page that confirms their information has been received. Use this webpage to keep track of online conversions.
Blog
Similar to a website, it’s important to incorporate CTAs throughout your blog and blog posts. On a blog, it’s imperative to make it easy for people to subscribe and receive your emails. You may also want to direct your readers to other similar articles, white papers or e-books you have published.
Customer Service
Last but not least, your leads need to experience exceptional customer service. There is no point in collecting information from your website visitors if you’re not going to respond or deliver what you promised. Have a system in place so that the proper contact at your company receives a website inquiry and responds in a timely manner. Ensure that automatic responses and downloads are functioning properly. And don’t forget to follow up! Lastly, if a person signs up to receive emails from your company, make it easy to unsubscribe if he or she no longer wants to receive emails from you. Not doing so will violate anti-spam laws and potentially create a very frustrating customer experience.
In the last article of the “Turning Prospects into Lifetime Customers” series, we will show you how to turn leads into customers, and how to turn current customers into lifetime customers. It all comes down to fostering relationships during the Nurture phase.