A lack of qualified leads is a common problem that all businesses face, especially when they’re relatively new. A lot of business owners find that, although their website is generating a lot of traffic and they’re putting a lot of investment into their marketing, they still have a very low conversion rate. Often, that is because they’re not generating the right leads and the people that they are reaching are not likely to take an interest in their products. A qualified lead is a prospect that is likely to make a purchase and it’s those qualified leads that will make your business a success. If your business is struggling to generate enough qualified leads, these are some of the best improvements that you can make. 

Make Use Of Lead Scoring 

Lead scoring is a very important part of the sales process and if you’re not using it correctly, you’re missing a big opportunity. When you generate leads, it’s important that you score them accurately. This gives your sales team an indication of which leads are most likely to convert, so they can focus their efforts on them. If you aren’t scoring your leads properly, there is a high chance that your sales team are wasting time on people that are never going to show any interest in your products. 

You need to come up with a set of criteria by which you’re going to score a lead. This will include things like past purchases from you, the amount of time spent browsing your product pages, and the demographic that they belong to. Once you have the criteria, you can rank them in terms of importance and assign a score to each one. This will give you a total lead score that your sales team can work with. It’s best to set a bottom limit to determine what you consider a qualified lead, so your sales team don’t spend time on anybody that scores below that limit. 

Targeted Marketing 

Targeted marketing is an important factor when trying to generate qualified leads. It doesn’t matter how much you invest in marketing, if you aren’t reaching the right people, you aren’t going to make any sales. If you don’t spend enough time understanding who your customers are and how best to reach them, it’s not likely that you will make many sales. Before you launch a marketing campaign, you need to identify what your target market is and do plenty of research so you know how best to connect with them. 

Website analytics are so important here because they will tell you who is visiting your site, which visitors are converting, and how they reached the site. For example, you might find that you’re getting a lot of qualified leads through your social media pages, but your pay per click ads are bringing a lot of unqualified leads to the site. In that case, you can reduce investment in pay per click and spend the money elsewhere. The biggest mistake that you can make is blindly spending on marketing without really knowing who you’re trying to target and how best to reach them. 

Invest In Content Marketing 

Content marketing is a great strategy because you offer something of value to your customers without expecting payment in return, which is a great way to build a relationship and earn their trust. It also positions you as an expert in your field, which means that they’ll be more likely to turn to you in the future. Content marketing is great for generating qualified leads because it attracts people that are interested in your industry. For example, if your business sells running trainers and you post a lot of workout advice and tips on your site, you’re going to attract a lot of people that are interested in fitness. Those are all qualified leads because they regularly spend money on workout clothing. 

Gated content is a good way to weed out the unqualified leads as well. If you give people some content for free, but offer more if they give their email address, you will get a good list of people that are more engaged with the content and those are the people that you want to focus on first. Plus, you already have a point of contact because you have their email address. 

Improve SEO 

Your website is one of the best tools that you have for generating leads, but only if you’re using it correctly. A lot of businesses struggle to generate qualified leads because they’re driving the wrong traffic to their site. Traffic levels are important but it’s more important that you get the right people to visit your site if those leads are going to convert. The best way to do that is to improve your SEO to attract the right people. Get in touch with a company like SEO Explode that specialize in reaching more local prospects and increasing your conversion rate and you should find that you see an improvement. It’s important that you make good use of your website analytics so you can determine whether the people visiting your site are qualified leads or not, and if not, make changes to your SEO to remedy that. 

Referrals 

People have no reason to trust you when you tell them how amazing your products are, but they do have a reason to trust their friends and family. That’s why referrals are such an effective way of generating more qualified leads. If somebody gets a referral from a friend, they already have confidence in your business and your products, so they’re far more likely to convert. If you are going to start using referrals, customer service is vital because people will not recommend a company that offers bad service. You can get a lot of referrals by offering bonuses like a discount for both existing customers and new customers. The likelihood of making a sale through a referral like this is very high. 

Qualified lead generation can be tough but if you want your business to survive, you need to master it. If you are struggling, these are the best strategies to try.