Let’s face it: marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are the difference between a truly aligned sales/marketing effort and a clogged sales funnel. Allocating leads followed by deciphering between suspects and prospects are some of the more tedious parts to the buying process. However, when a sales team is handed that MQL, things speed up rather quickly.
So how do you gain more MQLs?
Going the extra mile in your marketing strategies will ultimately be what attracts your potential consumers more often than not. These are some practical, yet specific places to start:
- Magnetic, cohesive content – This is branding 101. It should all look universal, represent the company accurately, and have high quality imagery. People might not be deterred by inconsistency, but it definitely won’t attract them either. In fact, 78% of consumers will trust your brand if you create more personalized content. Try establishing fonts, colors, photography, and editing styles up front. That way they can be implemented ahead of time when building out content.
- Video, video, video – Video marketing is a non-negotiable. Businesses saw a 66% increase in leads when using video on their channels and website. While we’re gearing toward high-intent leads, this is where high quality video geared toward the right demographic and audience can truly capitalize on the leads that will eventually purchase.
- Call-to-action buttons – This seems like such a simple answer. But many don’t include their call-to-action buttons where they should. Do you scatter pricing or booking buttons throughout your website and blog? Are they obvious and noticeable? Are the buttons easy to understand and straightforward? Are they strategically placed (i.e. next to or under a video or ebook)? Take a look at your platforms and take notice of your CTAs. Would you click that button if you were the consumer? Read more tips on CTAs with statistics to back them up here — https://www.protocol80.com/blog/2019-cta-statistics
- Nurturing and follow up – Ah, the dreaded hand-off between sales and marketing. This is typically where the most high quality leads get dropped or lost. Asking marketing to nurture and qualify leads is a heavy-duty task, one that requires lots of attention and bandwidth. However, CRM tools should be of assistance for your teams to manage customer interactions. Fixing lead nurturing issues can lead to a 79% increase in conversions. The fortune is obviously in the follow-up.
Talk to a Verse Lead Conversion Specialist to see how we can help
“When creating your lead nurturing strategy, do not think about nurture in isolation. You want to deliver coordinated, relevant, customer experiences across all of the channels your buyers use.” –Marketo
The Secret Sauce to MQLs
Following up and nurturing all of your leads sounds like a distant dream. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, it shouldn’t be. All of that hard work, money, and time put into generating those leads should mean every lead goes through qualification and follow up.
There should be conversation revolving around the transition to the middle of the funnel. If these leads are already engaging with your content, they are likely more than happy to engage in a quick follow up and lead qualification.
However, the reason it feels like such an unattainable goal is due to the bandwidth of human teams and businesspeople. It’s inevitable leads will slip through the cracks at the hands of sales and marketing.
Fortunately, technology is much more efficient and effective.
Using a lead conversion software like Verse can substantially spike rates in lead conversion for sales and marketing teams. With this kind of lead management, every lead not only gets contacted with an omnichannel approach, but qualified and converted into appointments much more seamlessly. This guarantees a solidified sales funnel and a maximized ROI on all marketing efforts. Not to mention, it’s stress off of your teams’ backs to juggle all the conversations and follow-ups on their own.
If you really want to see more MQLs and simultaneously get the biggest bang for your buck, outsourcing a lead conversion contact center is going to be your surest bet. Verse’s software integrates with any CRM tool, so any data from qualifying conversations can go straight back to marketing to better evaluate and adjust their lead generation strategies.
Content is the fire. A lead conversion platform is the real gasoline.
