For many businesses, one of their biggest struggles is lead conversion. Stats reveal that while 91% of marketers consider lead generation as their most important goal, unfortunately, only 21% of leads actually convert into sales.
Learning how to convert leads into customers is a must for a business to grow. Strategies, such as uncovering their needs and taking advantage of contests and giveaways, will help you stay relevant for years to come.
This article covers lead conversion — what it means, how to calculate it, and tips for improving your lead conversion process (whether you’re new to it or need additional insights).
What Is Lead Conversion?
Lead conversion in digital marketing means helping a lead or prospect to turn into a paying customer. For example, imagine this scenario: Someone signs up to download your lead magnet, which is a free ebook. After receiving your free ebook, lead conversion looks like purchasing your expert course or program, which you’ve linked to from the ebook.
Don’t confuse lead conversion with lead generation. Lead generation focuses on turning website visitors into prospects by asking their contact information (e.g. email address and phone number), whereas lead conversion focuses on getting customers.
Bonus Tip: Need help optimizing your lead generation process? Watch this video ⬇️
How to Calculate Lead Conversion
Figuring out your lead conversion rate is easy. All you need to do is divide the total number of conversions you got (within a specified time frame) by the total number of leads you got (within the same time frame). Next, multiply the answer by 100.
Lead conversion rate = (Total conversions / total leads) x 100
Consider this example: Imagine that you generated 300 leads in June, and 75 of those leads converted by making a purchase. Using the formula…
(75 / 300) x 100 = 25% conversion rate
…your conversion rate would be 25% for the month of June!
Strategies to Convert More Leads
Optimizing the lead conversion process takes work — not to mention, a lot of experimentation to see which approaches are most effective for your business. Below are some proven tactics to try. They’ve provided great results for me and others who have used UpViral for lead generation.
Take advantage of contests and giveaways
Contests and giveaways are wonderful strategies for driving conversions on your website by letting people win some free products. The key is to offer your own product as the giveaway prize. What’s great about choosing your products is that they help increase brand awareness and encourage sales down the road.
One successful example is Silvia Llop, a psychologist who offered her products — courses and coaching sessions — as prizes to participants who shared her campaign with their friends and collect points!
You can check out her UpViral contest where she was able to generate 2395 direct leads and 2934 referral leads in 30 days. Those who joined her contest also received daily emails that warmed them up to her products.
Another smart way to convert leads through online competitions is by holding a sale at the end of the campaign. This gives non-winners a chance to purchase your product for less than its usual price — for a LIMITED time. ⏳
Using this strategy, David Fraser, who sells bunkies, generated over $1.5 million in sales from 3 contests, plus a ton of other amazing results. Check out his success story.
Conduct surveys
Surveys may not be the first thing on your mind when it comes to lead conversion. However, finding out more about your audience will help in addressing their pain points. That said, make sure to build surveys in such a way that lets you gain a ton of insights.
Questions you can ask include:
- What problems motivate you to purchase [type of product]?
- If we were to close tomorrow, which of our products would you buy now and why?
- What are you using [type of product] for?
- What would make your decision to buy easier?
- What are your biggest obstacles in finding the right product?
- Are there other products you would like to see us offer?
Don’t limit yourself to product-focused questions. Great surveys also uncover an audience’s demographics (age, gender, income range, etc.) and psychographics (interests, hobbies, and challenges).
👏 Here’s a pro tip: Combine the excitement of winning something and learning about your audience by doing a survey within a giveaway. UpViral lets you reward giveaway participants with extra points, for more chances of winning, by completing a survey. We wrote a blog post to explain this in detail.
Send lead nurturing emails
Lead nurturing emails are created for the purpose of helping your leads become customers. These people on your email list may have shown interest in your offer; however, they haven’t committed to buying yet.
Here’s a sample scenario:
One of your leads added an item to their shopping cart. But for some reason, they left their cart and didn’t come back to complete it. Win them back with a series of lead nurturing emails where you remind them about the item/s they left. At the bottom of those emails, include reviews from satisfied customers.
To further encourage them, mention the benefits of using your product and include a discount code. You might consider sending them related items they might also be interested in!
Run retargeting social media ads
Retargeting is an effective strategy for bringing back visitors on your website by showing them ads on social platforms they’re on. Examples are Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Ads can be shown to them based on the pages they previously visited and products they viewed. While there are many ways to convince them to come back, a powerful one is urgency. This would look like showing last-minute deals and huge discounts on their first orders.
Create the best educational content
Content is still king. Whether it’s email content, blog posts, or videos you’re sending out — be sure to provide content with the answers they need. Let them know how your product can make their lives better.
Let’s say you’re selling wild-caught salmon fillets. You could create different kinds of content where you discuss tips on choosing salmon like a pro, the differences between wild-caught and farmed salmon, and reasons to include salmon in their diet.
Since people love stories, consider publishing case studies showing customers’ successes with your product. Case studies serve as proof that what you’re offering works!
Don’t forget social proof
Leads rely on social proof to make purchasing decisions. If people notice that others are endorsing your business — such as leaving positive reviews and recommending your products — it sends the message that you’re the right brand for them.
Boost your conversions by adding these different types of social proof on your website, social media, email communication, and other marketing materials:
- Reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers
- Certifications
- Trust badges
- User-generated content (e.g. shared photos on social media showing your customers enjoying your products)
- Logos of clients you’ve served or partners
- Celebrity endorsements
- Mentions from the press
If you lack social proof, start reaching out to existing customers or previous clients to ask for them. You can also run a giveaway that asks participants to leave reviews for your business. We make this possible at UpViral using our Online Reputation Engine template!
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this guide inspires you to improve your lead conversion. No matter which strategies you’re implementing, UpViral takes them to the next level through the power of giveaways and referral campaigns! 💪🏻
Discover how we’ve helped solopreneurs, brands, and marketing agencies drive massive leads, sales, and more. See our case studies!
