96% of people are not ready to buy from you!

We can agree that most businesses are looking for ways to drive new and repeat sales. If you’ve already invested in SEO, PPC and Social Media, then congrats! Getting found online is the first step.

According to Kiss Metrics, 96% of people are not ready to buy from you the first time they visit your website. Today’s prospects will typically visit your website, check out your online reviews, checkout your social accounts, then visit your competitors site long before ever contacting you.

The objective is to capture and engage your prospects as early in the buying process as possible. First, by engaging with your prospect early you’re more likely to be a forerunner in their selection process. And secondly, early engagement allows you the opportunity to provide any valuable information they need to make an informed buying decision.

Below is a typical process that many of your prospects go through before making a buying decision:

Most prospects only want to engage with a sales rep in the last third of their buying process; the decision or buying phase. So, for two-thirds of their shopping and research process, they want to remain anonymous while they research and gather information. Think about it, don’t you do the same?

The last time a sales associate asked “May I help you?”, did you say “No thank you, I am just looking”? Chances are you did. Chances are also good that the sales associate didn’t catch your name, your info or what you were looking for in the first place. You were in the research phase of a buying decision and likely made a purchase from someone other than the nice sales associate who asked “May I help you?”

So how can you setup your website to capture prospects early in the buying process? Simple.

Use these 3 keys to bring in more sales leads:

Use Lead Forms – Make sure your website isn’t just a pretty brochure. Sure, you need to cover the basics like info about your product or service, why you’re different and how to contact you etc… but you should also make it easy for the web visitor to give you something. Capturing contact information doesn’t have to be a chore for you or your prospect. Make sure to include at least one lead form on your website. However, the best way to increase lead conversions is to have multiple offers and lead forms throughout your site. Remember, you never know which pages your visitors will enter your site from or what stage of the buying process they are in. For any lead form, only include the minimum number of fields you need to fit your sales process

Give Value – Everybody likes getting something free or of value. So offer something of value in exchange for their info. When a prospect visits your website, think about what challenge they might be facing? What information could help them? What would they find valuable? It’s not about you and your products and services, it’s about your prospect and what they need. Consider offering an educational guide, video or free webinar. People don’t mind giving up their name and email address for something valuable.

Don’t Sell…Nurture – Once you capture a lead, help and don’t sell. People don’t want to engage with a large number of sales people early in the process for good reason. They don’t want to be hounded or “sold”. So don’t do it. Instead, nurture them.

Lead Nurturing is the process of communicating with your prospects in a consistent and relevant way by providing them with information that helps their selection process. This will help position your company as the “go-to” once they are ready to buy.

While newsletters have their place, don’t just treat every prospect like an email address or number. Remember, each prospect is a potential customer and has unique needs, wants and interests.

Stats show that relevant, personal emails drive BIG results over typical, monthly newsletters. “Relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails.” (Jupiter Research)

Keep in mind there is a big difference between email marketing and lead nurturing. Think of email marketing as “one to many communication” (ie: monthly newsletters, e-blasts to your database) and lead nurturing as “one to one communication”, (ie; personalized emails) based on past engagement with you or your online content.

Contact our SEO Company today and learn how to nurture your clients with our sales automation solution and never miss a beat