Company A has been working tirelessly on attracting leads to their site using different kinds of strategies and methodologies. Despite their best efforts, however, their lead conversion process hasn’t been successful. They haven’t experienced the conversion they’ve been expecting — no phones ringing, no customers buying the product/service. Instead, there are more frustrations than congratulations.
If this sounds like your story, here are a few account-based marketing tips that will help you improve your lead conversion process.
Understanding the Need is the Key to Conversion
Psychologist Abraham Maslow has enumerated the five basic needs of man — physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. He mentioned that these needs are what motivate people to do the things they do.
The reason why people work hard, do certain hobbies, make friends with a certain group of people, or buy certain things is to fill one of these needs. In other words, if a person thinks one of those areas is not enough, he will do something to fill it up. Until that need is met, the person feels discomfort, even pain.
In the same way, businesses and organizations buy products/services because they believe it answers a specific need they have. By acquiring the product/service, they are able to remove any pain or discomfort in the company/organization.
Therefore, if you want to CONVERT someone, you need to remember these 2 things:
- Know what causes them pain or discomfort — research is the key to accurately determining what the pain is.
- Provide a solution to ease that pain/discomfort — make sure that what you have to offer is what your prospect needs. If he needs tea, there’s no use offering him coffee, no matter how good your coffee tastes.
At the heart of determining pain and providing a solution is the creation of your buyer persona — your ideal client.
- Who are they – are they women or men, young or old, etc?
- What is their job – are they sales reps, CEOs, IT officers, etc?
- What are their interests – how do they spend their day outside work?
- What do they value most – is it price, quality, service, etc?
- What are their pain points – what challenges do they face and how can you help them?
The above are just some of the questions when creating your buyer persona. Without a clear target audience, it will be like chasing the wind. On the other hand, having a clear picture of the type of client you want helps you focus your energy and resources where you want them.
Creating an Effective Lead Conversion Strategy
Once you have your buyer persona and you have identified their pain points, your next challenge is introducing your product/service to your target audience and eventually, convert them to become paying customers.
Here are 4 surefire techniques that can help you with your lead conversion:
Make Information Easier for Your Prospects to Find
Remember! You are here to make your prospects’ life easier by helping them solve their pain points. And where to start best than making content that is accessible and engaging to your target audience.
Part of the research when you create your buyer persona is to find out where your target audience usually hangs around and the kind of content they read as well as the path they take when looking for a solution.
Create a content strategy so you can deploy the right kind of content at the different stages of the buyer’s journey.
Related: Amplify Your Leads with These Content Distribution Tips
Understand How Group Buying Decisions are Initiated
The buying process, especially in the B2B arena, has greatly changed. The buying decision is not dependent on one person anymore but on several people/stakeholders. Thus, even if you are able to convince the CEO, he has to present it to a number of people who can influence whether the purchase is a go or no-go.
One of our earlier articles, The B2B Buying Process Has Changed: Here’s How Not to Get Left Behind, explains it well. If you want to influence everyone who is involved in the buying process, you need to focus on these seven components:
- They believe that you can solve the problem.
- You’ve built an emotional connection with them.
- They’re convinced that your price equals the value you’re offering.
- You have a credible ROI.
- They should feel the urgency to make a purchase now.
- You have social and logical proofs of what your product/service has achieved.
- They should feel that they are heard as well.
Deliver a Consistent Experience Across All Channels
Consistency equals loyalty. A single well-written blog might impress your target audience but if your quality is a hit or miss kind of thing, they will soon tire of it and abandon you.
A good metaphor to a consistent experience is the Avengers/MCU movie series. The audience is left wanting for more every time the end credits roll. So they wait in anticipation no matter how long it takes and before a new movie is released, all tickets are sold out immediately.
Related: Multi-channel Marketing and Why Your Business Should Embrace It
Put Every Touchpoint in Context
A touchpoint is when you make contact with your prospect or customer during the buying process. Some of the most common touchpoint strategies to attract and convert clients are content, email, events, phone calls, meetings, and social media. There are more strategies aside from what was mentioned.
No matter how many strategies are available, your GOAL is to convert your prospect using as fewer touchpoints as possible.
To do that, you need to know how to mix and match different touchpoints and use them to every prospect. Careful planning is needed, nothing is left to chance if you want to increase your conversion rate.
When you create a touchpoint plan, you need to consider the following elements:
- Responsibilities – who is in charge of each touchpoint?
- What medium are you going to use?
- Schedules – how often should you do it?
- Message – what’s your key message for each touchpoint?
- KPIs – how will you benchmark and measure success?
- CTAs – what do you want your prospects to do?
No matter what touchpoint you mix and match, it should always be in line with your customer journey to fully utilize it to attract and encourage your prospect to purchase your product/service.
Related: Winning High-Value Accounts with Multi-Channel ABM
In Conclusion
We all hope that we have the “holy grail” of lead conversion where one touch causes prospects to convert immediately. But although none exist, getting the conversion and ROI you expect is not unattainable. All you need is a team who will help you devise a strategy that works for your company needs.
