How To Solve The Biggest Problems With Transform Leads To Customers.

Today we explore, how to identify when a lead is ready to make a purchase and when you should follow-up. Let's say you're considering replacing an aging appliance in your home.

Stage in the buying process

You start with some brief research online to evaluate options, you find a couple of options but decided to hold off on that purchase for right now. The next thing you know, salespeople begin to contact you but you're not yet ready to buy.

In this example, the salesperson who contacts you won't be welcomed. But if you were further along in the buying process, let's say you've conducted all your research and evaluated options by reading product descriptions, pricing, reviews, or even downloading sales brochures. Wouldn't you be more receptive to engage with a salesperson now? So, how does a business determine when a customer is ready for sales contact? By Lead Scoring. This is identifying when a lead is ready to buy

Customize the experience

Customized experiences make people want to be your customer. It's sort of like when you go into a coffee shop and the person knows exactly what you want and starts making it the second they see you walk through the door. The concept of a personal touch has been a really effective sales strategy for years. Studies show that knowing and using a customer's name and knowing their preferences will help you close the sale. Luckily, today's technology gives marketers more ways than ever to personalize a customer's buying journey.

Let's review a few tips to customize follow-up communications to prospects when they're getting ready to buy. When you created your lead form, you collected lots of data about your leads. This data you collected and stored in your marketing database can now be used to create personalized content. The first step to personalization is segmentation. That's dividing up your marketing lists into segments, based on customer information. Your segments could include geography, product interests.

Nurture leads through email marketing

Once you've identified leads who are ready to buy and have relevant, customized content, how will you deliver this personalized message and information? Well, e-mail is a really effective, targeted tool to nurture relationships with your leads. Let's review some e-mail best practices., for an inviting, effective layout, an attention-getting subject line, and concise copy. Let's start with these layout tips. Be clear and consistent with the From label. Typically, this would be your company name or recognizable employee name.

Most importantly, the From label should be the same in all your e-mails. Consistency helps people recognize where the e-mails are coming from and build trust in the source. The pre-header texts should augment and align with, but not be the same as, the subject line, which we'll discuss in more detail in a moment. The pre-header text invites the reader to open the e-mail. Include a link so people can forward to a friend. Many e-mail vendors include this as a simple option in their services.

Make social media and website link clear.