Leads Not Moving Through Your Funnel? Look For These 5 Mistakes

I think most marketers would agree that getting new leads is really exciting. It makes you feel like you have all these potential suitors or admirers just waiting for you to share your products and services with them… and you can’t wait to wow them. But when those leads don’t convert? It can feel like a personal rejection. Many of our clients come to us after running into this problem, over and over again, with no idea how to fix it. They get a lot of leads, but then lose them before they convert into customers. What gives? If you’re losing leads and having conversion problems, we can help. Keep reading to see if you’re committing any of the following top 5 most common mistakes we see.

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You’ve got the wrong leads

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This might sound so elementary, but even advanced marketers sometimes fall prey to this mistake. Either they’ve advertised somewhere that isn’t really a fit, cast too wide of a net or made their Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) criteria way too loosey-goosey. However it’s come about, the volume of leads is high but they’re not the people who actually care about what you’re selling - so of course they won’t convert.  If this is your problem, work to be more targeted with your advertising and customer acquisition methods, and tighten up your MQL criteria.

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Marketing and sales are not aligned

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If customers despise one thing these days, it’s being annoyed. You don’t get to play the three-strikes-you’re-out game anymore; if a prospect is irritated by you for any reason, they may be gone forever. This sounds dire, I know, and it kind of is. But there’s a lot you can do to ensure you’re not alienating or annoying people. First? Get marketing and sales on the same page.

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Think about this… Marketing is sending promotional emails and other email communications, but sales doesn’t have insight into their email list. Sales is sending onboarding emails, offer emails and such to new customers, and marketing doesn’t know what they’re sending and when. Do you think it’s possible that a new customer is getting bombarded with emails from both marketing and sales, potentially with conflicting messages?

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Absolutely! This actually happens a lot, but is totally preventable. Make sure you have a hand-off process outlined, and ideally great transparency in your marketing and sales systems, so that customers are not getting competing (or tone-deaf) emails from different people within your company.

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You’re forgetting that you’re not the customer

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This is another biggie. Your messaging and graphics must be crafted with your customer in mind, or they will run for the hills. People don’t have time right now to sift through copy that is clearly intended for someone else or doesn’t quickly hit on what matters to them. They also can see who you’re trying to reach based on graphics and photos you use. You need to remember that even if you like certain messaging and imagery, you are not the customer. The customer needs to like it.

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So, make sure everything from your social media posts to your website copy to your website imagery reflects your ideal customers. The messaging should be clear and speak directly to your target audience’s pain - and your solutions. The imagery should look like your ideal audience.

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The offers you extend aren’t compelling enough

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You know your leads are qualified, your team is aligned and everything is buttoned up with your funnel. Yet you’re still not able to move your prospects downward toward conversion. If this sounds familiar, consider how you’re enticing them to move forward. Are you sending offers that actually incentivize them or help in some way? Or are you offering things like a $5 Amazon gift that isn’t even worth the time it’ll take them to fill out your form?

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If you’re extending monetary offers (discounts, promos, free gifts, etc.), make sure it’s valuable enough to convince them to take an extra step. If you’re offering more intangible benefits (consulting time, a free add-on service, etc.), it needs to be obviously valuable. Ten minutes for a free consultation won’t usually persuade someone to give up their name and email address. But an hour-long workshop on how to fix one of their most pressing problems sure might.

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You’ve made simple things too hard (or time-consuming)

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Finally, check your calling systems and web forms to see how easy you’re making things on your customer. Is your automated voice answering system unnecessarily long and putting them to sleep? Most people will hang up and move on, rather than waste time listening to a recorded message. Keep your automated messages short and sweet, and offer live chat on your site if possible.

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Are you requiring interested prospects to fill out a web form that’s 14 lines long, and requires detailed information they may not have on hand? Change it! First name and email address is usually about all it takes, and will reduce the chances that your own lead capture tools are a barrier to leads progressing through your funnel.

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Conversion problems are common, but they don’t have to be your reality. Check if you’ve been making any of the mistakes listed here, and fix them ASAP. Then, give us a call! We can help you make sure your funnel is optimized and your customers are converting.