Increase Leads (Better Offer)
Consistently growing your leads is not the easiest task in the world, but it most certainly is one of the most important when it comes to building a long-term and successful business. You will face numerous inbound marketing challenges throughout your endeavors due to the ever-evolving market and the constant change of needs from your customers. Whatever changes come your way, at the end of the day, your goals will still remain the same: to increase sales and increase your leads.
So, how exactly does a business increase their leads? One of the most effective methods to this is to make them an offer they can’t resist.
What are they getting out of this?
Figure out exactly how your products or services benefit your customers. The only way to get someone to spend money on your business is to persuade them into believing that you can provide them with the right solutions to their problems. Before you start diving into the features and benefits of your product, you need to ask yourself if you’re actually offering something that solves a problem for your customers and you need to be able to explain how exactly it’s doing so.
A strong and clear value proposition
The key to creating a successful offer is to create a strong value proposition consisting of a clear and concise statement which includes information about what you’re offering, why your services are relevant to your customer’s needs and how you plan on delivering that offering’s promise.
It is so important to hold a strong value proposition which will resonate with your consumers because by nailing that down, you’ll be able to communicate to them that you’re the right company for them. Be creative and come up with descriptive copy, supporting images, relevant graphics and visuals to add more personality to your website.
Whatever it is you’re offering to your customers, make sure that it’s evident that your product or services hold more value than it does risk. Most people will equate risk to a dollar amount, so you need to come up with ideas on how to offer them more value and make them feel more comfortable about spending their money with you. There a few different ways you could do this such as offering free shipping, money back guarantees within a specified time-limit or extra free samples with each purchase.
Focus on your audience
Before you start planning out your offer strategy, you need to have a firm idea of who your clientele is and what it is they actually need. One of the best ways to do this is to use data you’ve already collected from your existing customers to find other prospective clients within the same group. Facebook actually has a tool that can help with this called Lookalike Audiences. It’s essentially users on Facebook who share the same behaviors and characteristics to the customers in your current database.
Nail your call to action
I’ve received a few marketing messages in the past which did not include any call to action. This is honestly one of the biggest mistakes people make when they create their marketing messages. You have to remember that your audience are busy people, and if you’re sending out marketing messages that aren’t giving them that extra nudge to take the next step, chances are they’re going to scroll right past your offer.
Make sure that your craft together a clear call to action with a sense of urgency. For example, you can encourage people to purchase your products now before a specific deadline and then offer them a discount or a free product as an incentive if they are buying before your set deadline. Merely telling someone to buy your products or to sign up on your website doesn’t make for a compelling offer anymore. You need to provide them with information and an answer as to why they should their email to you.
Free and valuable content
People love receiving valuable and relevant content for free. It’s a great way to give them an idea of what it’s like to work with you, to provide them with a sneak peek into what your services have to offer them and ultimately, the chances of them purchasing with you will be higher.
I recommend providing free chapters from an ebook that is available for purchase, a step-by-step guide on something that’s relevant to your niche, webinars, podcasts, and videos. There are countless options out there, it’s just a matter of finding something that’s appropriate for your business and target audience group.
Increase Conversion Rate (Lead Magnet)
If you’re looking to increase your conversion rate and to encourage consumers to opt-in so that you’re able to get your offer across to them, then you need a conversion tool that is either a download or link to incredibly useful and valuable information. You need a lead magnet. What exactly is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is essentially an incentive offered by marketers to potential buyers in exchange for their contact information — name, email and phone number. You can use lead magnets to increase your leads, as well as your conversation rate. There are several ways you can do this.
Ebooks
I’ve noticed that a lot of companies are using free ebooks as an incentive for exchanging contact information. I’ve also noticed that this is a brilliant idea and it works because you’re essentially offering exclusive, value-packed content that can be downloaded and kept for long-term. Just the thought of ownership is enough for a lot of people to want to leave their contact details.
These free ebooks are typically five to ten pages long, so they’re easy to read through and don’t have to be hundreds of pages to be considered useful. You could an even take a chapter out of an ebook that is available for purchase, which will only help to add more value to the content you’re offering.
One-pager
The goal of this particular offer would be to make your subscriber’s life easier by already doing the initial work for them. You might know this type of content to be a cheat sheet, checklist, template or worksheet. The content material which you would be offering would differ depending on your business or niche.
For example, if you’re targeting bloggers or social media influencers, then you could provide them with a marketing template that they could use to map out their own marketing strategy. If you’re catering to someone who is considering to buy a new product, then you could create a checklist of things for them to consider before committing to that specific purchase.
These one-pagers are relatively easy and inexpensive to make. All you need to do is design your one-pager, to brand and save it as a PDF and then you can start sharing it with your audience!
Courses
Providing free courses is another excellent way to encourage more people to opt-in, as well as to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in your niche. This content can be showcased through text, slideshows, webinars, videos, podcasts and so much more.
In this day and age, it isn’t difficult to get access to education resources, but it isn’t easy to find someone that you can trust and fully respect to learn from. By providing free educational resources to your audience, you’ll be able to build that trust and deepen that relationship with your audience. This might, in turn, encourage them to invest more of their time and their money with you.
Member-only communities
This is one of my favorite opt-in methods! Member-only forums and communities are by far one of the best ways to get people to sign up and leave their contact information with you. I’ve come across product websites where I’ve been able to read a few real-life consumer reviews of the products, but then wasn’t able to read into the next page unless I signed up.
It’s such a brilliant concept because once I started reading those reviews from other people like me who were sharing their experiences of the same products I wanted, I was absolutely hooked and wanted to read more reviews. So, what did I do? I ended up exchanging my name and email so that I could access that content!
It’s a great way to attract new subscribers while also getting constant feedback from your own audience.
Increase Number of Transactions
I’ve mentioned quite a few effective methods on how to increase your leads through using better offers, as well as how to increase your conversion rate by offering enticing lead magnets. If you have taken my advice and have tested out those techniques and have found what works best for you, then you’ll now find yourself with an increased number of customers in your business. The next step once you’ve hit this stage is to increase the total value of each of these customers — in other words, to increase your number of transactions.
There are a number of ways to increase your number of transactions; however, these methods do vary depending on what industry you’re in and what products or services you’re offering. Any business can achieve success in increasing their number of transactions, it’s just a matter of putting together a well-planned strategy and consistently maintaining that plan.
There are three incredibly important steps when it comes to working through the process of increasing the total value of each of your clients.
Excellent customer service
Good service equals more business. Sounds pretty simple, right? Although excellent customer service is crucial to the success of any business, there are still businesses out there who don’t always put their focus on this key point.
Always deliver the best customer service to each and every single one of your customers. In order to gain a customer’s loyalty and to build a strong repeat customer base, you need to make that one of your primary focus points. A tip is to actually under promise and over deliver. I find that a lot of businesses over promise and then under deliver, which results in a very unhappy customer and the risk of potentially tainting your reputation. By under promising to your customers and over delivering, you will leave your customers impressed with your service and that will increase the chances of them coming back to repurchase with you or to recommend you to their own network of people!
Another tip that might seem very obvious but one which I would like to emphasize is to make sure that your communication skills are spot on. If your customer has a problem, a question or whatever it is, make sure that you reply to them on time and that you’re helpful at all times. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve come across a business which had fantastic products but terrible customer service. It’s a real shame that their customer service didn’t live up to the services they were offering because I would’ve definitely gone back to them again if I had been happy with their customer interaction.
Regularly engage with your customers
If you manage to stay in contact with your current and past customers on a regular basis, then you’re increasing the opportunity for them to come back and repurchase with you again. I would say that you should contact your previous customers at least every 90 days or so. For current customers, you should keep in touch more often to update them on any new services or products and don’t forget to keep them in the loop regarding the full range of services that you have to offer.
You’d be surprised by how often clients aren’t aware of the full range of services you might have to offer and as a result, they might end up using a number of suppliers. To increase your number of transactions, you need to make it easy for them to purchase with you. Regularly update and market them on the services you have to offer while also working towards building trust and a stronger relationship with each and every one of your customers.
Capacity for more business
Don’t be a business that loses out on business because you’re having to turn away business. Plan for growth and make sure that you have the capacity to make more sales. A great way to do this is to keep enough stock of products so that you never have to turn away new or repeat customers. Take some time to lay down a proper strategy that will allow your business to grow.
Increase Average Transaction Value
I’ve given you some ideas on how to increase your number of transactions, but now how do you even begin to increase the average transaction value of your business? Bringing in more money through sales is important for any business, but it’s even more critical if you’re a small to medium-sized business who has yet to build a large customer base. Increasing the number of sales you make is essential, but you must also learn how to maximize the transaction value of each of your customers.
Here are a few ideas you should consider if you’re looking to bring in more sales.
Figure out your dollar value
Have a look at your numbers and calculate out the dollar value of your average sale. For example, if you’re running an e-commerce website and you have a total of 20 customers, and you make around $1,000 on a typical day, then your average sale would come out to $50. You would then have a better idea of what you need your sales target to be and can create a strategy to hit that target.
By doing this, you’ll be able to see which days you’re making more money and which days your numbers are low as your average transaction value (ATV) will fluctuate over certain days. For example, you might be hitting good numbers through Tuesday to Sunday, but might be receiving low numbers on Mondays. Once you have a better idea of your numbers throughout the week, you could offer a special promotion on the low days to encourage more purchases.
Mix up your products or services
You should change up your product or services every now and then to help grow your ATV. Take for example a business which is only averaging $10 in sales a day because they don’t offer any higher-priced products. If they just added in more premium products or unique limited items, then they could potentially increase their average sales to $20 per day.
Another trick could be to dump your lower-priced items so that your customers are encouraged to purchase something that is priced at a higher rate. If you sell three different lamps, then drop the $20 lamp, and your customers will end up purchasing either the $30 or $40 lamp instead.
Offer products in bundles
People love receiving a good package deal on multiple products or services. At most fast food joints, you’ll find that they will offer special package deals which include a drink, fries and an entre. This concept does very well, businesses such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and many more are proof of this.
You should definitely consider offering some of your products or services in a bundle. Say your business is selling an education course, your bundle offer could be an ebook, videos and course templates. That could encourage your customers to want to purchase your product because they’re getting quite a lot in one purchase.
Showcase all of your products
As I’ve mentioned before in the previous chapter, it’s very common for customers to be unaware of the full range of products that you have to offer. You would be surprised by how much money businesses are missing out on due to not promoting all of their products or services to their clients. You can fix this by regularly keeping in contact with your previous and current clients to keep them in the loop regarding other relevant products or services or any new updates.
Use your social media channels, newsletters, signage or blogs to execute this task. Different tactics will work for different businesses. Although there are a number of guidelines available, there really is no one size fits all when it comes to marketing or creating strategies for your business. Find one that works for you and make sure you maintain it!
Social Proof
In this digital age, social proof is crucial to running a successful online business — especially if you’re new to the game. Social proof is essentially a demonstration or confirmation that other consumers have made a purchase or have partaken in a service or product, and are now encouraging others to do the same. These actions can be by either doing reviews, testimonials or sharing a product or service through various social media channels.
By receiving external validation from real people who have used your products or services, other potential consumers will feel more confident in investing their time and money into your business.
Why it matters
Say you’re deciding between two websites that offer the same exact products, but one has hundreds of great reviews, and the other only has ten. You’re going to instinctively decide that the website with the hundreds of fantastic reviews is the better site. This is what is known as the herd mentality and shows that social proof does give you an edge over your competitors.
Where to find social proof
Herd mentality works. The more likes, purchases, shares, reviews or testimonials a business holds, the more likely consumers are to listen to the herd and to choose that business.
We are all guilty of at some point in our life, having come across a brand with lots of purchases, likes and reviews and immediately trusting them to be a good brand because of all the popularity surrounding them.
Aside from the concept of herd mentality, you’ll find that there are many other sources of social proof. A lot of today’s businesses have recruited celebrities and social media experts and influencers to help them reach new audiences. Website reviews and testimonials also play a significant role in consumer’s forming opinions about a company’s products and reputation.
How to get social proof for your business
To earn positive social proof for your business, you’re going to have to have a genuinely excellent product or service which provides a solution to your customer’s problems. When you are able to provide such a product, you’ll be able to inspire positive reviews, recommendations and social shares from your buyers.
You can also ask for feedback from your previous and current customers, and even ask for reviews! Don’t be afraid to ask people who have used your products or services to share their experiences. This will make them feel like a valued customer and even encourage others to share their own story.
Another tip would be to offer free material, discounts or special shoutouts to people who like or share your products or services via their own social media channels. This is a great way to get introduced to other social circles in which you might not have had access to before.
Display your social proof
Once you’ve gained the social proof you’ve needed for your business, you should showcase key points along your sales funnel so that they will provide potential customers with the confidence to invest in your product!
A few of the best ways to do this is to show subscriber counts on your website and social media platforms or authority badges (as seen in the New York Times).
You can even display your customer reviews and influencer endorsements right on your webpage to make interested buyers more confident about purchasing from you. Make use of your social media channels by sharing essential milestones with your followers. These milestones could be hitting a certain number of followers, success stories from other clients or even getting featured in a magazine.
Social proof is really only one aspect of the process of achieving success in your business (other tips and strategies are included in the chapters above). However, it should be focused on just as heavily as you would while creating more leads, sales and etc. At the end of the day, it really comes down to being able to develop a proper strategy for your business and consistently sticking to it.