Inbound Marketing: Convert

This article is the second in a series on inbound marketing. It is preceded by an introduction post, and part one: attract the visitor.

 

In inbound marketing, conversion marks the beginning of a victory. This should be important to you and your business. It can also play different roles. For example, conversion happens when a visitor subscribes to your newsletter or completes an online request for a submission. Once the visitor is on your site, the goal is to convert them into a potential customer.

To do this, you should be using your website to obtain information on your prospects. At the very least, you’ll want to get their email address.

The goal is to find ways of enticing visitors: you want to generate leads!

In a certain way, conversion is a little like going fishing: you need to be in the right place at the right time, with the right lure. The difference, though, is that your customers are smarter than fish!

Enticing visitors

To find a way to entice visitors, it’s important to change your perspective and put yourself in their shoes. You are often asked for your email address while browsing the internet. And everyone gets several emails a day: promotions, exclusive offers and discounts have been invading our inboxes for a long time. Therefore, people really need a good reason to share their email address.

The good news is that you can make it so that customers actually want to share their contact information with you. If you did your homework after learning about the first stage of inbound marketing, customers will come to you. And if they found you through relevant content on a topic they consider important, they will be a lot more likely to contact you! It’s as though the roles were reversed.

Calls to action and simple forms

During this stage, everything must be put in place to make it simple for customers to contact you. Eliminate a maximum of friction. Your website should feature calls to action to guide visitors to pages that are important to you. Forms should be easy to use. They should contain as few fields as possible to maximize your chances. If certain fields need to be validated, ensure the confirmation system is simple and intuitive. When a visitor contacts you, don’t forget to task for their email address or telephone number so you can get back to them.

Landing pages

There are many successful cases where landing pages were useful in enticing the client. The concept is as follows: pages built around a specific topic catch visitors’ attention. A good landing page includes calls to action that allow you to convert visitors into prospects.

Some companies also use an inbound marketing approach where part of their content is exclusive to people who have shared their email address. For example, you’ll often see cases where the introduction to an in-depth study is available to everyone, but you must share your contact information to access the full report. This enables the company to collect information on potential customers who are interested in a specific topic.

Conclusion

The more relevant information you have on your prospects, the more effective your strategy. If you know or are able to guess what interests your visitors, it will be easier to target them. Your prospects should be saved in a database of potential customers. A CRM or customer relationship management tool can help you with this task.

Every time you add a customer to your CRM system, you’d ideally be able to pinpoint where the prospect came from. This will help you decide where to target your efforts next!

Benoit Domingue
Web Strategy

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Headline photo credit : Nathan Dumlao