3 Tips To Progress Leads Along Your Buyer Journey

Leads are great, but they don’t make a difference in your business until they complete their buyer journey. But how do you actually get them from lead to customer? Many business owners are frustrated by low lead conversion rates, but unsure how to improve them. To help you compel your leads to take action and progress through your funnel, here are some tips.

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Get Focused

Gone are the days of casting a wide net and trying to be everything to everyone. Today, in order to turn your leads into customers, they have to be the right leads in the first place. This means getting hyper-specific about who you’re targeting and how.

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Most companies by now are aware of the need for buyer personas, which offer a great way to narrow your focus. But to actually get something out of the exercise, you have to go deeper. Create your personas and then map your messaging to those specific individuals. The more relevant you are, the more likely leads will take the next step in the buyer journey.

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Additionally, take the time to research where people that fit those personas spend their time so you can be more efficient and effective with your ad spend. It’s just as important to know who you don’t want to target as those that you do, so you can avoid paying for ads that have a low probability of succeeding.

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Understand Intent

You can have the most detailed buyer personas out there, but none of it will matter if an individual and their organization are not primed to buy. This is a necessity particularly in the B2B world, when buying cycles are clearly defined.

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Here’s an example. Let’s say you sell financial software to businesses. Your buyers likely have a clear process for how they find and purchase the right product. If you catch them when they’re in the research or consideration phase, you just might make a sale. But if they just finished purchasing another solution, you’re not going to get anywhere with them.

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Depending on the types of systems you have in place, you might have access to intent data, which helps you better understand which of your target customers are “in market” (A.K.A. ready to buy). But even if you don’t, you can look out for “high-intent” behaviors. These are things like requesting a quote, clicking on your blog post about why buying in the current season is a good idea - and so forth. When you discover certain leads taking actions that indicate they’re close to buying, you could be close to a sale.

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Play the long game

Whether a lead moves forward in their buying journey as quickly as you want them to, or if they stay stuck in the awareness phase, remember they still might progress later. Don’t spend your finite time and money trying to convert people who aren’t ready, but also don’t write them off completely.

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When you focus more on providing value, rather than pushing a sale, some slow-to-move leads just might eventually decide to move forward. Either way, you’ll avoid alienating leads by treating them all with respect and with the possibility of turning them into future customers.

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Having low lead conversion rates can be frustrating, but think of them as warning signs about potential problems. If you take the time to be thoughtful about how you’re moving folks from lead to customer, by getting focused, understanding intent, and playing the long game, you’ll be all but guaranteed to improve those rates and get better results.

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Need help on this journey? We’d love to talk!