There was a worrying article on the online business resource Forbes last week, entitled “Why Companies Waste 71% of Internet Leads”.

The full article is here and the main stats from their 5-year study of over 10,000 businesses are:

• Average lead response time is 46 hours and 53 minutes
• Sales reps give up after 1.3 call attempts
• Just 27% of leads are ever contacted

These findings are astounding. We know how competitive and expensive it can be in some markets to generate sales enquiries. If the average business is treating their prospective customers in this way, many will soon find themselves in a precarious position.

The article examines how the implementation of new processes and technologies can potentially improve results by up to 341%. We would like to add some of our own thoughts on additional methods of making the most of your internet leads...

1. Auto respond

Consider putting an auto-responder in place, which will send an email to individuals who have completed an online enquiry form. Something along the lines of: “Thanks for your enquiry; we will be in touch shortly. If in the meantime you have any questions then please call...” This will help to keep the prospect warm. The message can also include details about latest offers, company news, a link to your FAQ page, etc. to better inform the individual about your offering and prompt them to take certain actions. Auto-responders can also be set up that periodically send through information, such as a weekly bulletin or a monthly newsletter, until the prospect is ready to buy.

2. Use your Analytics data

In Google Analytics (and many other website data systems) you can track enquiries by setting up Goals, and if you are a PPC advertiser then you can put Conversion Code in place. This data can tell you which keywords and adverts lead to a sale, as well as the pages that an enquirer visited on your website. If you look in the Network sub-section within the Technology section of the Audience tab, you can see the IP addresses of visitors. Combining all of this data will give you knowledge on the information your enquirer was searching for and the page that prompted their enquiry, allowing you to make a more informed sales call.

3. Nurture your leads

If you provide professional services or sell to businesses, it is highly likely that enquirers are not ready to buy straight away. It is important a system is put in place to keep these parties interested while they consider their purchase. Develop some ‘keep in touch’ campaigns that allow you to communicate regularly with enquirers and help you direct them further down the sales path. Such campaigns can include emails, telephone calls and physical items like newsletters, postcards, letters and brochures, which include a mixture of sales offers, industry news and company information. The most important thing is to keep your offering in the forefront of their minds. 

4. Use your social assets

Get closer to your prospects by following them on social sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Here you can learn about their interests and the way they like to work, helping you to develop your relationship. Taking the time to involve yourself in the occasional conversation, the odd re-tweet of one of their messages and interacting in the groups they favour, as this will show you care. This could make all the difference in whether they sign up with you or a competitor. Be careful not to overdo it though, as there can be a fine line between helpful supporter and internet stalker.

5. Use a sales database

CRM (customer relationship management) software allows you to keep on top of enquiries. Building up a database of all sales leads, grouping them up by industry or interest, assigning tasks to each one, tracking progress and much more can be easily achieved in one of the many CRM packages available. With CRM systems available for free and even those that are very popular costing just a few pounds a month, you have no excuse to continue organising your sales activity on Post-It notes and print-outs. This is especially important if you have a team of sales professionals, as the reporting can tell you who is looking after their leads and where improvements need to be made.

There’s no such thing as a boring business, only a boring approach. Whether you’re involved in producing high-fashion haute couture for intergalactic missions or selling paperclips to accountants, there is plenty for you to shout about and be proud of!

Solid content strategies are the way forward for online marketing and, if you want to make a big splash on the web, you’ll need to work closely with your online marketing agency to ensure you are producing tonnes of excellent content which your visitors will love. 

Content and communication

In terms of how online marketing has worked in recent years this is a big change and it means that client-agency communication is more important than ever before. Rather than just letting your ‘guys’ get on with building link after link behind the scenes, your online marketing agency will prefer to be in close contact with you so that you can let them know what’s going on in your business, sign-off interesting projects like competitions and videos and ensure that they are on board with industry developments as they happen. After all, nobody knows your business and your market like you do.

Slow burners, stable results

Another thing to remember is that, unlike link building and other related SEO techniques, content strategies are relatively slow burners. You are unlikely to see fast results. Instead you should expect to see a gradual increase with a much more stable effect on your online presence and search ranking. That’s assuming it’s done well and it’s done right.

There is no ‘boring’

For many online businesses, the increasing importance of appealing and high-quality content is a concern. The majority of business (both online and offline) are not especially interesting at first glance. However, there is no such thing as a ‘boring business’ – it’s all about identifying what’s special about you, what your strengths are and what is going to really get your target audience talking.

Let’s take our earlier example of a paperclip business who are targeting accountants. Paperclips are not necessarily compelling dinner table conversation, accountants are viewed stereotypically as dull, so how can you create content which gets people talking, gets people clicking and ensures that potential clients remember you the next time they need to collate some stray pieces of paper?

For the ‘not immediately interesting’ business, creativity is even more important than in traditionally creative industries. Going big or going home is the way to go if your online business isn’t particularly captivating. Big stunts and getting people involved is the best way to create content that people will read, share and remember.

· Launch a competition

Challenge visitors to find the most creative uses for paperclips, challenge them to create the best paperclip fashion items – visitors can get involved, you’ll get some great images and you’ll get people talking too!

· Pull off a stunt

The current Guinness World Record for the longest paperclip chain assembled in 30 seconds is 56. You can do better than that, right? If you’re considering a stunt, make sure you get video content – this goes down extremely well online. You can even challenge visitors to do better and share their own videos. 

· Produce unusual content

Top ten worst paperclip accidents, how to turn paperclips into attractive earrings in the office, the history of the paperclip, how to pick a lock with a paperclip in 30 seconds, how to turn paperclips into a impromptu ‘bead curtain’, an infographic displaying paperclip use across industries – these might sound like fluff pieces, but they’re fun and with some good graphics or instructional video they’ll get shared around and it will work absolute wonders for your online presence – boosting your business online.

Finding your angle

The key to outstanding content strategies for stereotypically ‘boring’ businesses is understanding your target market and finding that thing which will make your company stand out from your competitors. Working with an online marketing agency who understand how to produce great content will help you to discover your target audience, establish their online habits and preferences and create an SEO rich strategy which will get you noticed online.

If you’re looking to go viral, Liberty Marketing can help. With a creative and knowledgeable team experienced in online marketing you can ensure your business shines for all the right reasons and grabs the attention of all the right people. To learn more about our creative content strategies please get in touch or explore the rest of the Liberty site.

Blogs are an essential tool for businesses that plan on taking the online arm of their operation seriously. Of course targeted and keyword rich SEO copywriting is essential for websites to attract customers for the most commonly searched keywords, but what about those ‘long tail’ searches you might otherwise miss out on?That’s where a business blog comes into play, helping you to mop up those customers entering ‘long tail’ key search terms you are unable to incorporate into your onsite copy.

Let's take a look at an example: You may have a website offering outdoor furniture, in which case your onsite pages will be geared towards keywords such as ‘outdoor furniture’ and ‘garden furniture’. However, this does not account for those customers who are closer to knowing exactly what it is they want. For example, some may search for ‘contemporary garden furniture designs’ or ‘garden furniture on a budget.’ These ‘long tail’ keywords are less likely to attract search volume in such numbers as the more generic terms, so it may not be worth creating and optimising a main sales page for these terms, but by writing an optimised blog post, entitled ‘the most popular contemporary garden furniture designs’, you will show in the search engines for those key term ‘contemporary garden furniture designs’. As the competition for ‘long tail’ key terms is less, you have a good chance of appearing higher up in the search engine results.

Also, it is worth considering that blog posts can bring in high quality traffic. As these ‘long tail’ search terms are often more specific, the traffic can convert at a higher rate than the more generic, research based keywords, as the searchers are often further down the buying path, as they show that they already know more about the products and services they are looking for.

There are other positives of a business blog aside from the SEO benefits. Website copy alone cannot address every query or all the information your customers are likely to need. This is where a well written, informative blog can help. By providing answers to common questions and information that customers want to know, your business can become an authority on a particular field of expertise, attracting visitors purely on the basis of the informative resources you provide. The blog posts will then help with your social media efforts, as you have relevant, informative content to distribute across sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and a place to direct visitors that isn’t a sales page.

If you have any questions about blogging or creating a content strategy, then feel free to give us a call on 029 2076 6467 and chat it through with our SEO and copywriting teams.