You’ve already done all the hard work of building your business and generating leads. Now all you need to do is convert them into customers or, even better, loyal brand advocates.
If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that sales are usually the number one thing on your mind – and with good reason. It takes a lot of time, money and effort to find new leads, convert them into customers, and grow your business. But when so many other companies are also trying to do the same thing, how can you make sure you get the most out of each lead? In this article, we’re going to cover our top tips to improve your conversion rate.
Automated Email Flows
If you haven’t already got a system in place that periodically follows up with your leads, then your workdays are going to be so much easier once you set it up! There are loads of programs available that can help you automate your sales emails, and we’ve found them to be a game-changer!
This is where you set up a flow of follow-up emails reminding your leads to reply, and giving them that extra nudge needed to make the purchase! Not only will this tip improve your conversion rate, but it will also take following up with leads completely off your hands!
You can create multiple different email flows, customised based on product type, where the lead was sourced from, or even industry-specific. One popular and affordable program called you can use is ‘Rebump‘, but there are tons of other services available, all with different integrated opportunities, and customisation features. So, find the best fit for your needs and rest easy knowing your leads are being chased.
Customer Testimonials
When it comes to the content of your messages to leads, customer testimonials are a really effective way to help them make the decision to take the next step!
Customers naturally trust each other more than generic marketing collateral…Plus it helps humanise your brand!
Those examples of happy customers, especially showing specific benefits or USP’s, helps encourage more new sales – So get those glowing review quotes ready from your valued customers and maybe try adding them to some of your follow-up emails scheduled!
Improving your email copy
Keeping it Casual
Customers will be receiving multiple sales emails a day from brands they’ve signed up to newsletters from, or they’ve bought from before, and B2B buyers will receive hundreds of sales emails too, so you need to stand out from the crowd!
The subject line is one of the most important parts of a sales email because it’s what decides whether your email gets deleted or read. There’s the obvious stuff like avoiding grammatical errors, sales slogans or too many capitals so you stay out of their junk folder. But you also need to nail the tone of your email so that you don’t come across like a salesperson.
Avoid heavily formatted emails with overly formal phrases. You want to come across like a genuine person trying to solve their problem/cater to their pain point. Often the text-only emails perform better anyway.
Try asking a question in your subject line – it draws people in!
You want to remember to keep the opening line of your sales email original and friendly, try swapping ‘Hello Sir’ for ‘Hey again {Name}!!’. Make sure you cut to the chase! People get bored quickly, and you want the first few lines to get across the main reason for your email and a call to action like booking a call!
Choosing the right CRM software
Building a long email list of customers and potential customers is pointless if you can’t keep track of where they came from, what conversation has been had already, and when they were last contacted.
An effective CRM platform is essential for getting the best results from your leads, and can often integrate with other programs you’re using like automated email follow-ups and sales calls on your calendar.
Once you’ve got this setup, you want to stay on top of keeping your CRM organised depending on lead status, and make sure you’re reaching out regularly sharing new deals and promotions.
Call to actions
You are one email in a sea of sales pitches in your prospects inbox, so where possible you want to get leads out of their email accounts where they can forget you, and onto a call as quickly as possible.
You can set up an online booking system for scheduling calls or video calls that can be LinkedIn into your emails, and you can place it on your website too! This direct call to action will increase the number of people you’re talking to and is so much quicker for customers to do than writing out an email reply and having a back and forth conversation.
Plus it’s much easier to portray your passion for your brand over the phone!! Depending on the business a phone call might not always be the right option, but very often it allows for that deeper relationship building which is especially important for high-ticket sales!
Keep your emails short
If people see a mass of text in an email, they are immediately going to be put off, even if it’s relevant information about your product or service that they’ve asked for. If you can instead, include links to pages, perhaps on your website, to more in-depth info you’d like them to see it will make the email look so much cleaner and concise.
You simply want to elicit a response from them, you don’t need to inundate them with information. Even if your subject line and the opening line of the email caught their attention, it’s vital that the rest of the email isn’t long and boring, because you’ll lose their interest! Try to keep it to 5-6 sentences, or two paragraphs.
A/B test
With sales it’s always important to be testing new approaches, you should be striving for constant improvement, even if you’re getting a good response rate, you can always do better!!
A/B testing is THE number one way to improve your conversion.
Why not create two different sales copies for the same campaign, and send half of the leads one, and the other half the other option! For example, you could try one where the subject line is focused on a new promotion and the other where the email is more generic and has a clear call to action to book a call.
See which gets a better response and sales conversion rate, then implement that sales copy style across the rest of your outreach/re-marketing!
One of the great things about the email follow-up and CRM programs we’ve mentioned above is that some have the option to use A/B Testing on email text, so it’s easy to set up!