There’s no denying…quality leads are hard to generate online.
On the Internet, anyone can easily sign up to what you have to offer with a single click… get your free information or consultation… and never speak to you again.
The problem is you just wasted your time speaking with an unqualified prospect. So here are a handful of ways you can increase the quality of the leads that you get online.
1. Make it harder to sign up
Yes, you read that right.
Make it harder, not easier to sign up.
This is especially true if you are offering your time or a free consultation. You don’t want yourself or your sales team to be wasting time talking to unqualified people.
So what do you do? You qualify them before you let them talk to you.
When we were generating leads for sales teams in various companies, we put up a survey to qualify people. Based on their answers, we would categorize them so that our client never had to speak to unqualified people.
We would also inform unqualified applicants that we could not help them in their situation. In some instances, we also suggest that people pay to have a consultation with you.
The trick is to make sure you have a fantastic proposition that will help people solve their problems.
2. Longer ads
This is one of the reasons why we like to use longer ads, sales pages and/or sales videos.
If people are willing to spend their time reading your 800-word Facebook ad or watching a 5-minute video on your landing page… it generally means they are more qualified and truly want what you have to offer.
In our ads and/or sales page we often mention who the offer is for. We also mention who the offer is NOT for. This way we attract the prospects we want and repulse those we don’t want.
Compare this to the prospect that signs up from a 100-word Facebook ad without going to a sales page. Chances are you will get a lot of people who you may not want to do business with…or are simply time-wasters and not buyers.
A final word on this.
Many people think that people don’t read long ads or watch long videos online. That is true…if the ad or video is poorly done. But if you have a well-written ad or engaging video, the right people will invest their time and effort to consume what you have produced.
3. Sell on Round 2
What do we mean here? The idea here is to have the first set of ads targeting people who have never engaged with you online before.
These ads can be run in the form of a video ad or ads promoting a blog post with a relevant topic.
The main objective for round 1 is not meant to sell.
These will identify for you at a low cost, who is truly interested in the product you have to offer.
In step 2, you would then retarget people who:
- Have watched a certain amount of your video
- Have visited your blog page
Your second set of ads would have a more direct call to action. You will try and sell your product or service.
Since they have indicated a real interest by previously watching your video or visiting your blog post… you should get a better quality lead when you use this 2-step approach.
4. Pay for more leads
A mistake many people make is that they judge the success of their online advertising campaign solely on lead costs.
So when they implement strategies 1-3 above they start complaining that the lead costs have jumped.
But all things taken into account, if you are willing to pay for a higher cost per lead without losing money… you will be able to generate higher quality leads.
For example, which of the following do you think would generate you a better quality lead?
- If someone reads your ad and immediately books a call with you on a landing page.
- If someone signs up for a webinar from your ad and then books a call after going through your 45-minute webinar
The answer is obviously b).
Which lead would be more expensive?
Chances are b) would be more expensive.
So don’t take the cost per lead as your sole measure. Make sure you use cost per sale as a more accurate measure of your online marketing efforts.
5. Build relationships
Very often it is not because the lead you have generated online is poor in quality… it’s simply because they don’t trust you enough to buy from you.
For some products and services no matter how good your sales page is or how great your ad copy is… you simply aren’t going to convert them in the first instance.
This is where you need to employ a strategy of ‘Omnipresence’. Meaning they see you wherever they go online…and even offline.
Consider retargeting your prospects across multiple ad platforms…so that you appear to have a big brand.
Consider also crafting a series of emails to build trust over time… that are not salesy but aim to educate and demonstrate your product or service.
You could also add direct mail and other offline channels if you have the budget.
Over time, if you do it right, your prospect will soften towards you and trust you.
That will make it easier for them to do business with you.
In Summary…
There is no single fix for poor quality leads but if you are willing to change how you measure success and have a proper strategy… it is possible to start generating good quality leads for your business and stop talking to people who are unqualified time wasters.
Start employing some of the strategies discussed here, and you will find that you won’t have to kiss so many frogs online to find a prince!
