Is it more effective to use an end-of-blog image call-to-action or a HelloBar dropdown at the top of a window to increase conversions? Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s why, and more importantly, how to create a high-converting lead capture strategy.
Why Over 70% of Website Visitors Don’t Make a Purchase
AdWords can create a deceptive sense of effectiveness. It seems to work almost flawlessly. However, the straightforward “Search > Click > Convert” pattern rarely applies elsewhere. Not in content marketing, social media, or especially not in Facebook ads. The reality is that a significant portion of your website visitors, typically around 70-90%, will leave without buying anything and likely never come back. As if that wasn’t concerning enough, if your product or service is complex, like consulting or expensive software, your conversion rates might plummet below one percent. This doesn’t mean these strategies are ineffective or that advertising is a waste of money. It’s crucial to understand the challenge you face and plan accordingly. Most website visitors are simply exploring, researching, and evaluating rather than making immediate purchase decisions. In essence, they’re at various points along the “customer journey”:
Despite being a well-worn concept, this model is valuable because it provides a framework. It offers a consistent system for connecting your promotional and content efforts to every customer journey stage. This strategy has two main goals: Firstly, it aims to attract as many potential customers as possible at the beginning of the sales funnel. Ultimately, a larger volume can offset a low conversion rate. Secondly, it aims to maximize “micro”-conversions at each stage. This includes actions like eBook downloads, newsletter sign-ups, webinar registrations, free trials, and more. While it might seem like extra effort, stats show only about 3% of your target market is ready to buy now. In contrast, 56% aren’t ready yet, and 40% are just starting their buyer journey. Importantly, nurtured leads who progress through your entire funnel tend to make purchases that are 47% larger. Additionally, individuals who have already familiar with your brand are more likely to convert, making those “micro”-converting leads highly valuable.
While tactics like welcome mats, exit offers, and other modern, attention-grabbing techniques can help you secure a few extra leads each month, ultimately, successful conversion hinges on presenting the right offers to the right audience at the right time. Let’s examine the crucial stages and how to structure your lead capture strategies accordingly.
Stage 1: Converting Browsers with Problems into Leads at the Top of the Funnel
At the top of the funnel, individuals are just beginning to recognize they have a problem (entering the awareness stage) and seeking solutions. They aren’t searching for specific product or brand names yet but are looking for information related to their pain points, often focusing on symptoms. Take, for instance, men’s fashion. As the weather turns colder and we transition from tank tops and sandals to more substantial attire, what should we wear? What are some suitable casual boots for the office? How can one master the art of rolling up jeans without looking like a hipster (or Urkel)? Enter this helpful eBook from Primer:
Top-of-funnel offerings like reports, guides, eBooks, and whitepapers are ideal for individuals engaged in researching, troubleshooting, preventing, or improving. Fortunately, this benefits marketers too. Promoting top-of-funnel content is significantly easier than promoting bottom-funnel, sales-focused content. Consider this: Getting a journalist or blogger to link to your product page is nearly impossible. However, offering valuable content like an infographic, free tool, or a free Excel workbook to assist people with current challenges is much more enticing. While eBooks can be effective, a saturated market might require something more distinctive. For instance, Lowe’s offers a Lawn Care Plan that provides a customized year-long lawn maintenance program. Users simply input their location, grass type, yard size, and a few other details into a lead capture form. In this case, they’re not targeting individuals ready to purchase new sod immediately but are cultivating a future audience they can nurture and convert over time.
You’ll notice that many of these early-stage offers have minimal requirements: usually, just an email address and sometimes a name. Phone numbers are rarely requested. This is because the level of commitment you request should correspond to the value you provide. Since potential customers are not yet examining pricing, demanding their job title, address, or (certainly not) social security number is unreasonable. You can gather this information (well, except for their entire identity) later in the process.
Stage 2: Capturing Leads in the Middle of the Funnel Who Are Actively Researching
Prospects in the middle of the funnel now understand their problem and are exploring potential solutions. They’re in the crucial “Zero Moment of Truth” phase, researching and evaluating options. This means they are actively searching for solutions, providers, suppliers, tools, and resources like yours. However, they’re still not ready to discuss pricing. They’re assessing the landscape, and comparisons, demos, or videos can help them evaluate the available choices. PayScale excels at crafting compelling lead capture offers, such as this free salary report.
People arrive at this lead capture form specifically seeking valuable and often hard-to-find data. This enables PayScale to employ a comprehensive opt-in form that captures additional information about the individual’s company role and industry, which they can then compare against their own customer persona data. Some of the most effective lead capture examples at this stage are performance graders, such as the nexus-security AdWords Grader. These tools effectively highlight a prospect’s problem while also emphasizing the potential opportunity they might be overlooking or even wasting.
Impact Branding & Design provides another excellent example. They utilize an ROI calculator to demonstrate the effectiveness of inbound marketing. Mentioning inbound marketing to those unfamiliar with the concept often results in blank stares. However, visually demonstrating how minor adjustments to traffic or conversion rates can lead to substantial revenue increases makes the concept tangible and understandable.
Performance graders like these allow prospects to instantly grasp the value proposition of your offerings compared to alternatives. Moreover, graders used in the middle of the funnel provide the added advantage of real-time lead qualification. Given that 61% of B2B marketers cite generating high-quality leads as their biggest challenge, this is a significant benefit. By incorporating qualifying questions into your lead capture forms that subtly address sensitive topics like budget and potential lead value, you can automatically filter out the most promising leads (those with the most to gain or lose) from less-qualified prospects who might not be worth pursuing.
Stage 3: Converting Hot Leads at the Bottom of the Funnel
By the time someone reaches the bottom of the funnel, they have a solid understanding of their needs. They have a good idea of the type of solution they’re looking for, the desired timeframe for implementation, and their budget. If you’ve effectively generated their interest, established trust, and demonstrated the value of your offering, this final step should be relatively effortless. At this stage, customers seek testimonials and benchmarks to validate their decision. Case studies are crucial, as are free trials or demos that provide a sense of ownership. There’s a reason why virtually every software company offers a free trial. It reduces the risk and commitment required from potential customers, allowing them to thoroughly test the service before committing (thus making free guarantees largely irrelevant).
When conversion software company Leadpages acquired Drip (a streamlined email marketing solution), they took this concept a step further by introducing a $1/month introductory plan. Leadpages founder Clay Collins, a marketing expert, cleverly frames this offer as if they’re going to “lose money” – which is obviously untrue. In reality, this strategy is highly profitable. This $1 plan is a classic “tripwire” offer. It’s designed to be irresistible, effectively separating serious buyers from the 70% of free trials, who are essentially a waste of resources. Similarly, Digital Marketer, another savvy company, employs a similar approach in their Facebook ad by offering substantial value and complete product access for an incredibly low price.
(image source) The key to this ad’s success lies not solely in its eye-catching design or compelling copy (although these elements contribute) but primarily in the targeted audience. This principle holds true across all marketing channels but is especially critical on Facebook, where an average ad with precise audience targeting can significantly will outperform a fantastic ad with mediocre targeting. We haven’t discussed many eCommerce examples because the offers at each stage are generally straightforward and transactional (like coupons, buy-one-get-one-free deals, etc.). Furthermore, in the eCommerce realm, competing with Amazon is practically impossible. It’s an uneven playing field. Amazon offers a patented one-click purchase option to expedite the sales process and a “Subscribe & Save” feature for recurring purchases. Forget standard “free shipping”; Amazon Prime provides same-day free shipping. (And let’s not forget Amazon Fresh, which delivers organic groceries to your doorstep within hours.) These features, when combined, create an incredibly compelling offer centered around unparalleled convenience. They not only make online competition nearly irrelevant but also render visiting physical stores less appealing. It’s no surprise that Prime members spend twice as much as non-Prime members (currently up to $1,340 each year).
Bringing It All Together
Website conversion rates hover around a dismal 1-3%, not necessarily due to disinterest but because most visitors aren’t ready to buy immediately. An effective lead capture strategy takes a long-term approach, deconstructing the purchasing decision into a series of smaller micro-conversions or opt-ins that guide individuals towards conversion over time. Tactics like pop-ups before someone leaves your site can be helpful, but only if the message and offer align with the individual’s current stage in the customer journey. Testing, refining, and tailoring your offers to target specific customer segments at each stage of their journey will boost lead capture rates, ultimately leading to increased sales.