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It can be challenging to acquire leads and it can be even more challenging to get those leads to turn into paying customers.

However, here at King Kong we love a challenge and we know how important it is to keep those leads churning through into paying customers.

In fact, conversion rates are one of the top concerns for most businesses and is truly the bread and butter of a well-oiled marketing plan.

Unfortunately, when it comes to boosting or even getting conversions, there are no shortcuts. The process is holistic and there are many moving parts that need to be considered, however it doesn’t need to be painstaking, or even difficult.

(Don’t worry, we will show you how…)

We believe that acquiring conversions can be narrowed down to three processes-

  • Overall Marketing
  • Psychology
  • Technology

To explain, your business has to have a solid marketing strategy to begin with. It needs to have strong copy, landing pages and a presence on social media. This would be your “overall marketing”.

The next step to acquiring conversions is thinking about the psychology behind your demographic and what they are really looking for. When someone comes to your website it is because they have a problem that they need to solve, and your brand can either solve that problem or your leads will be forced to go elsewhere.

The last component is the technology, this governs the current tools and software to help you go about achieving better conversion rates and response rates. This includes programs like Google Analytics, heat maps and more.

Using these three principles, we have come up with 8 smart ways to get your leads converting into paying customers. These techniques, when used as part of your marketing strategy can be extremely powerful and can lead you to awesome, mind-blowing results.

Here are 8 Smart Ways to Convert More Leads

1. Get Savvy With the Journey of Your Customers

A customer comes to your page, then what?

If you have set your website up like a pro, chances are you have a point A to a point Z that the customer needs to take. (Point A being the landing page and point Z being the thank you page after the checkout.)

If you don’t have a clear way for your customer to move through the alphabet and reach their final destination, chances are it is going to be harder for them to complete their purchase and harder for you to get a conversion.

Think about your overall focus, think about your overall journey from A to Z and then start ensuring that it is super, super easy for your customers to move from one point to the next.

Pay attention to any hiccups that you may find along the journey. Is getting from point B to C difficult because the call to action is not clear? Are there too many steps to take to get from point L to point M?

Sit down at your website and go through your entire sales funnel with a fine tooth comb, not as a marketer but as a customer.

Think about your customers journey before anything else and work on making it as simple and as easy as possible.

Testing your customer journey of course is also very important. Once you have it all set up and in place, monitor the journey in order to identify any problem areas such as-

  • Ineffective copy or call to actions
  • Difficulty locating the next step
  • Having to input too many points of data
  • Too many distracting elements on the page
  • Pricing points

If you need help creating a killer customer journey, the software program, UXpressia can help you to a create a professional customer journey in just a few minutes.

2. Know What Your Customers Are Looking For 

We have already loosely touched on this point, but we believe it is so important that we felt the need to go into more detail about it.

Chances are your leads are not lost when they come to your website. Chances are they haven’t been aimlessly wondering around your webpage looking for nothing.

When a lead comes to your webpage they have either –

  • Been redirected to your page through a marketing campaign
  • Are searching for something specific when they came across your website

When you start to understand why your customers are coming to your website in the first place, it can make the whole conversion process a whole lot easier.

Once you have determined the reason, and it should be pretty obvious, you can start tailoring your copy in order to give your customers exactly what it is that they are looking for.

For example, say you run a Coffee Mug online store. You can determine that majority of the people coming to your website are looking for coffee mugs. But, what other factors may they want? Maybe they want dishwasher safe coffee mugs, coffee mugs that are sturdy, coffee mugs that are pretty, coffee mugs that are environmentally friendly etc. etc.

When you are able to narrow down the things that your customers want and address any shortcomings, that is when your customers are more likely to carry through with their purchase.

3. Make it Fun, Fresh and New

In order to stay relevant, it is important that your business creates a sense of newness or excitement around certain products or services every so often.

There are two reasons for this-

1. Customers like things that will make their experience better in some way

2. It helps to keep your brand on your customers mind and helps draw in new leads

In order to do this, simply overhaul some of your marketing messages, page designs or even product images. Think of a way to liven up your page and make your customers feel as if they are part of something even better.

Of course, this is something that you will need to test and monitor to see if it is a step in the right direction for your brand, but often a new coat of paint can do wonders.

If you are hesitant to change anything on your webpage, running a special promotion may also be a great and less invasive way to implement this strategy and create a sense of ‘newness’ to your page.

4. Tie Social Proof into your Marketing Message

Does your product claim it is the best in the world?

Even though this is a bold statement to make, without evidence your claim is worthless.

When a potential customer comes to your website, they want to see proof of your work and how you have benefited and helped others. And the only way to effectively do this, is by offering them real social proof.

Testimonies and reviews are a great way to do this, as is installing a live social feed, a life user count on social platforms like Facebook, user generated content, blog mentions and even stories published about your brand in the media.

Including social proof is one of the best ways to gain credibility on the market, especially if you are in a heavily competitive industry or are just starting out.

If you are really interested in collecting social proof, it may also help to be on sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. so you can scroll through and obtain real customer reviews.

Depending on your services, it may also be helpful to ask your customers to leave reviews, ratings or testimonials.

For businesses with a larger social presence, installing software tools like Social Mention may also be helpful so you can keep track of what people are saying about your brand.

5. Stay Benefits Focused

Your products and services come with so many benefits, can you list them all quickly and effectively?

Customers want results but they also want an experience that feels special, so why not let them know all the benefits that they will receive?

So many businesses seem to get overwhelmed with facts and figures when it comes to writing their product descriptions and sales copy that they forget to include some of the most important benefits that their customers are a looking for.

It may take some trial and error to determine what benefits are really going to be key selling points for your products and services, but the only way to start is to try everything that you feel may be relevant.

Take a moment to make a list of all the main advantages and benefits of your product. Try to avoid using phrases like “it will help you feel great” and instead, talk in more specifics. The more specific you can get, the more likely your customers are to resonate with the benefits.

A clever and seamless way to integrate this into your sales copy is through your call to actions. Consider these two examples for a weight loss ebook:

1. Example Number 1: “Order On Amazon Now”

2. Example Number 2: “I want to Lose Weight Now”

Which would you click on?

Chances are if you were on a weight loss site your goal is probably to lose weight, so the second call to action may seem far more compelling and far more results orientated.

Tying in your benefits and call to actions is a clever and simple way to boost conversion rates and also serves to communicate to your leads that you can offer them exactly what they are looking for.

Remember, selling is an experience, so it is also important to think of what benefits you are going to give your leads as they transform into customers. This includes having a really easy check-out process, a live chat option and an easy way for them to get in contact with you.

6. Include Images

Images are so crucial to the conversion process as they add another layer or dimension to your website. They also add a level of emotion that text can sometimes just not convey.

We all know that a picture paints a thousand words, and including images on your landing pages is a great way to tell a story and convey emotion.

There are four main ways that images can help enhance the appeal of your brand and boost your conversion rate. These include-

Images of your staff: Showcasing images of your staff helps to convey trust and gives your customers a face to pin to the business. Often when we can see the business owners face, it helps to make the brand seem more personable and less threatening. It also can be more welcoming and reassuring for leads that are hesitant about purchasing.

Images of your products: This goes without saying, but if you are in a product based business than having clear, high res images of your products is crucial. For maximum results, we recommend having images that show your product at different angles and sides. It may also be helpful to have an image that can be zoomed in, so leads can see all the finer details.

Image of a mascot: Having a mascot that compliments your logo may be a great way to build brand recognition and get your customers interested and engaged with your site. This is especially true if your mascot is rememberable in some way. It may seem far fetched, but having a loveable, cute or emotion stirring mascot could be what sets you apart from the competition and helps customers to chose your brand over another.

7. Aim to Collect Emails 

Getting visitors onto your email list is a great way to increase your chances of conversion. Studies have shown that email list subscribers are also naturally more engaged and more interested in the products and services that your brand has to offer.

When you can continually market to your leads through emails it also gives you far more opportunities to convert them into paying customers and educate them about your brand, products and services.

Of course, you can’t necessarily expect to convert a lead into a paying customer with just one email, but over time and with some informative emails, you could be on your way to conversion gold.

Target your landing pages to collect emails using a simple sign up form and a catchy call to action. We recommend an email opt-in pop up, exit form, or even posting your opt-in form on your sites sidebar.

You may have to experiment to see the best location for your opt-in box and where your leads will respond to it the most.

Another great way to collect emails is by offering a freebie of some kind. This could be an ebook, coupon code, special discount or even a free sign up to a webinar or e-course.

Remember, getting people to sign up to your email list should be viewed as an exchange. In order for your leads to enter their email they also have to be receiving something of benefit to them.

Think about what your customers may enjoy or may be tempted to sign up for and then work on delivering it in order to increase your email sign ups.

8. Share a Story 

Stories are instantly relatable, especially when the story is tailored towards your target audience and uses your ideal customer as your hero.

To do this, think about a common issue faced by your main demographic and then target your story around the scenario and how your brand, products or services is able to help counteract or solve this problem.

Keep your story simple but also detailed so readers can visualise the events and how your business may be able to come in and save the day.

Alternatively, you may also want to experiment with creating a storyline around your business and how it was created. This also gives you an opportunity to teach your customers about your brand philosophy and how you have helped others in the past.

There are really no rules when it comes to creating a compelling story, but just remember to be relatable to your demographic and showcase how your brand can really aid and assist them.

If you are having trouble coming up with a story or are not sure where to begin, there are a few software programs that can help such as ZooBurst, StoryBird and even ACMI Storyboard Generator.

Summary 

Increasing your conversion rates is really a fine combination between psychology, marketing and technology.

When these three factors come together as part of your overall marketing plan, it can truly turn your landing pages into well-oiled conversion machines.

Testing, analysing and finessing your landing pages is also always recommended in order to continue the good fight in getting more of your leads converting over.

Using the 8 tools we have provided for you, along with your own special branding tweaks, you can be on the way to developing a killer business strategy and sales funnel.

To recap, here are some of the top things that we recommend in order to get your leads converting:

  • Get in on your customer journey, assess, review and travel through your sales funnel using the eyes of your customers.
  • Help your customers to get from A to Z by keeping your sales funnel process simple, easy to navigate and short.
  • Know what your customers are looking for, narrow it down to a few specifics and then be sure to deliver.
  • Tailor your copy to include how your products and services are going to help solve your customers problems.
  • Keep your landing pages fun, fresh and inviting. Try to stir new interest and excitement around existing products and services through offering specials, deals and promotions.
  • Without overhauling your entire webpage, work out ways to introduce new landing pages, colour schemes or images in order to show to your leads that your products are relevant and being improved.
  • Improve your customer experience by tailoring your website to deliver your customers a special experience that they feel safe and secure about.
  • Integrate social proof into your marketing messages seamlessly by showcasing reviews, testimonies and your social media profiles.
  • Consider experimenting with adding a live social feed to your webpage so prospective customers can be assured that your business is trusted and reputable.
  • Stay benefits focused and be sure to communicate the many benefits that your brand may deliver to its customers.
  • Experiment with using your benefits in your call to actions and in your copy in order to make it clearer to your leads what they can expect.
  • Include images in order to tell a story and to stir emotion. Images also make your brand more recognisable in the long run and could sway your customers away from your competition.
  • Aim to collect emails in order to increase your opportunities to turn your leads into paying customers. Include opt-in forms as a pop up, exit pop up or in the side bar of your landing pages.
  • Share a story and make your ideal customer the hero. Stories are relatable and will be able to paint a picture of how your leads can benefit from working with your brand.

There are many strategies out there that will help you to boost conversions and increase your profits that you can experiment with and tweak for months, however the most important thing to remember is that you are here for your customers.

Without your customers you wouldn’t have a business, so be sure that any changes or strategies that you implement have your customers in mind.

It may also benefit to make your customers feel significant and ask them for feedback on a regular basis. Get them involved in the company and in the process. Not only will they appreciate it, but it will also help your business to boost its reputation and receive more word-of-mouth customers.

Reminding your customers how important they are will also help them to feel valued and rewarded for doing business with your brand. You may want to do this through a loyalty program or through offering discounts and incentives to long standing customers.

The better you treat your customers, the more likely they are to return and the easier it will be to acquire new ones.

If you are struggling to convert your leads into paying customers, we would love to help and talk strategy with your business. Why not contact us here for more information.