Collecting leads is the first stage of Lifecycle Marketing, which is the process of sharing the right content, communication, and experiences with your audience as they transition from prospects to customers to brand ambassadors, that will launch your journey to growth.
There are several strategic methods to assist in targeting, attracting and capturing customers based on current customer data and other statistics including age, gender, location, etc.
Let’s explore how to collect leads by leveraging the following strategic phases:
Target
It’s imperative that you clearly define your target customer so you get a better idea of who they are, what their needs are, how your product will help them and where they go to find answers. Investing in identifying accurate targeting within the right channels will help your business narrow down an audience for your niche market and use your advertising/marketing dollars more efficiently, ensuring you’re catering to those who will benefit from your business the most.
The best way to define your audience is to create a customer avatar. Here’s a great template you can download that will help you determine what your target audience looks like. Here is how to create a customer avatar:
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Start by asking the right questions around how your product or service will influence or improve the life of the avatar:
- Where are they located?
- How old are they?
- To which generation do they belong? (Baby boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, etc.)
- What is their relationship status?
- What is their highest level of education?
- What is their job title?
- How much do they make in a year?
- Do they own or rent?
- What’s the size of their family?
- The next step is gauging the avatar’s interests.
- Third, would be to identify the avatar’s shopping behaviors.
The most effective client avatars are created with information based on market research as well as information that you gather from your current customer base.
Gathering the most accurate information possible to develop your business avatar can be accomplished by:
- Using surveys to capture feedback from your existing customers.
- Adding a Custom Audience Pixel to your website, which helps small businesses track and learn more about people who have visited.
- Interviewing customers to reveal their motivation behind certain buying behaviors.
Creating a detailed profile of your ideal customer will yield the optimal ROI with sufficient data based on how they’ll respond to the right product at the right time.
A customer avatar will also help you more effectively advertise to your target audience by knowing which social media platforms they use. You can leverage this information to target the right people on the right channel so you know how to create your content and come up with better product placement that will fulfill your customers’ needs.
Take Keap's Lifecycle Marketing Assessment to identify growth opportunities for your business.
Attract
Knowing how to leverage lead magnets to attract prospects will give your small business a competitive edge. This is especially true when you understand the needs and motivations of your target audience, helping you create powerful lead magnets.
The first place you want to start is ensuring your website provides valuable content that will attract your target audience. Some great examples of robust content include:
- Webinars
- Infographics
- Podcasts
- Guides
- Virtual conferences/events
- Visual commerce
- White papers
- Ebooks
- Surveys/quizzes
- Product tutorials and demos
- Easy social media access/icons
- Fleshed out product descriptions with purchase links
- Blog posts demonstrating solid SEO
- Product videos
Entice your target audience to access your content, then collect their contact information with a submission form by programming an interstitial, or a pop up, on your landing pages. If the content is gated with a form, the lead will fill out the form to access the enticing content, and their info will be added into your CRM so you can stay in contact with leads and nurture your relationship with them over time.
Some best practices to apply to your interstitials include:
- Gauging how many fields will be sufficient for initial data gathering. Fewer fields yield more participation. You don’t want to intimidate your audience members with too many fields initially, 1-3 typically suffice for the first submission form.
- When asking them to sign up for a newsletter, only start out by collecting their email address.
- Exit interstitials can be more effective than entrance pop ups, as they won’t interrupt the customer’s browsing experience and discourage them from spending more time on site.
Capture
The final step in collecting leads involves carefully strategizing lead capture methods that will guarantee success. Collect contact information and organize it in one central place for later follow up, such as Keap’s client relationship management (CRM) system.
A CRM will help you be more efficient and impress your clients by leveraging a system that keeps all your business organized with one integration tool. A CRM like Keap allows you to:
- Create landing pages with webforms so you can capture leads
- Automate messaging and data entry
- Book appointments
- Keep track of invoices and payments
- Help you view and manage your sales pipeline
The first step in lead capture is ensuring your website is relevant and offers value to the target audience. Think of your website as a “lead capture machine,” converting prospects into solid customers by moving them through the sales funnel.
Your website’s homepage is where you’ll make your first impression. Make sure its terminology is relevant to your target audience and includes SEO keywords they’re searching for. Google’s free keyword tool, Wordstream is a robust method for searching top keywords relevant to your industry and location.
You also want to make sure your business’ contact information is accurate and easy to find on the site. Do a spot check every so often to see if images and links are relevant and directing customers to the correct place.
If you’re going to attract leads by enticing them with a special offer, make sure it’s not open-ended. Make it as specific to your target audience as possible so the visitor knows exactly what they’re getting and your business doesn’t appear too impersonal.
Ensure that your content is compelling enough to prompt your visitors to relinquish their contact information willingly and be excited about doing it, knowing they will get something great in return.
Keap will help you organize all your customer information in one centralized place, making it accessible to your whole team. Never let another lead slip through the cracks ever again. Generate more leads, more clients and more growth than ever before. Check out Keap’s Lifecycle Marketing Assessment to determine where your business stands among the industry’s top performers.