Max Cyrek – CEO of Cyrek Digital SEO expert, web designer, and digital marketing consultant with over 10 years experience.
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Leads are what propel internet marketing. Since most sales these days take place on the internet, it makes sense that today’s huckstering must also be done online. A lead is nothing more than a first point of contact with a potential client. One might say that a lead is proof of a potential client’s approval, which may eventually lead to the ultimate goal of the marketer: the sale of the offered products.
All representatives of an e-commerce business have to account for their leads. The more they generate, the better their marketing and sales results. Therefore, it is so crucial to acquire them. One might say that gathering leads is the e-marketing competition.
What is a lead?
Acquiring a lead means getting the contact data of an individual or a company that might use your offer. This data typically includes the individual or company’s name and, in many cases, includes their phone number, email address and/or their purchase needs. Gathering all of these small achievements can be the beginning of more advanced sales talks.
Sales and marketing teams compile lead data so they can encourage prospects to buy a certain product or service. Lead lists include all possible potential buyers.
Why acquire leads?
Of course, the main goal of acquiring leads has already been established: the conversion or the finalization of a sale. It is also obvious that the more qualified leads we acquire, the more clients we are likely to get. But there are additional advantages. One of them is the savings we might make on the costs of additional promotions and commercials. Saving lead data and interacting with them is a form of promotion itself.
Types of Leads
Leads are often divided via temperature—into “cold,” “warm” and “hot” leads. Each of these types describes the level of engagement of a potential client toward the offer.
• Cold lead (long lead): This type of lead is the least eager. In other words, they are potential clients not engaged with the offer at hand. Therefore, contact with them is initiated only once in a while.
• Warm lead (marketing lead): This type of lead includes the people and companies that show interest in making a purchase but for some reason do not want to decide right away. These leads should be well observed by the e-sellers. It is worth it to keep encouraging them to use the offer.
• Hot lead (sales/short lead): These are leads with the highest demand. Hot leads are very interested in what the company does and in the products and services offered. Hot leads are typically customers who have previously done their due diligence on the e-commerce company.
How To Acquire A Lead
There are many ways to acquire leads online. Here are some of the channels my team and I have found to be really helpful in finding qualified leads:
Social Media
In my experience, there is no better communication channel than Facebook or Instagram. These will work well for most stores operating in the B2C model. Of course, depending on whether you sell necessities or high-cost products, the buying decision may take longer. So it’s important to take care of appropriate remarketing campaigns. However, if you are just starting your social media activities, then Meta advertising service capabilities can be a great choice.
Creating an account on one of these portals can help build a community of consumers around your online business. Clients can exchange opinions and experiences with your product or service. It is, of course, important to keep the shop active by publishing posts and stories. To gather potential customers around your brand, you need to attract them with content. It’s also worth analyzing your FAQ section and the questions your customers ask you face-to-face. These are likely to be issues they want to read more about.
Blog Posts
Online stores have a place on their website for blog articles, advice and specialized texts. A blog should catch the attention of your clients, interest them with a problem, and answer questions connected with the purchase. Blog texts can suggest or slightly propose the purchase of a product. Here are my tips:
• Avoid writing long, uninteresting or inappropriate content, and keep topics relevant to your business. You need to realize that whoever came to your site came for specifics.
• Make sure your content is trustworthy. Exaggerating the advantages of your products or services can paradoxically distract from the benefits. Your products may be judged as unreliable.
• Prepare an appropriate text structure. It is important that the text is divided into short paragraphs. It should also contain headings and isolated graphical elements.
Mailings
A mailing is nothing more than a newsletter or message sent to the e-mail address of a potential client. It includes promotional material and clearly encourages the buyer to purchase with a dedicated “call to action” button. Mailings reach those who were not interested in the product before. Therefore, its persuasive power has to be high.
Webinars
This is an increasingly popular form of acquiring leads. A webinar is a type of online presentation or lecture during which an expert shares information about a product, brand or the whole sales market. In order for your webinar to attract as many valuable leads as possible, you need to know what your potential customers want to hear about. Use your channels to ask them about the problems they have. You can increase attendance for webinars by inviting speakers who have a strong personal brand.
Remember, in order to effectively use the leads you acquire from various sources, you need to be sure that your sales force is top-notch. Make sure your salespeople know how you acquired the contact and how to monetize it.
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