If you want to grow your business, you need a steady stream of engaged leads. These people will eventually become customers and tell their friends, and the cycle continues. In theory, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
But what happens when those leads don’t continue to show interest and stop visiting your site? This pesky gap is known as the lead conversion gap. Put simply, this is the difference between how many leads you generate versus how many eventually become customers.
There are plenty of reasons a lead conversion gap could grow, including confusing website navigation, lackluster follow-ups, a general lack of personalization, and many other factors. If you want to see more short-term sales and engagement as well as long-term growth, your best bet is to optimize your sales funnels and keep an eye out for widening gaps.
Today, I’m going to show you nine actionable and practical ways to approach this problem and start closing the lead conversion gap.
Let’s dive in!
9 Ways to Close Your Lead Conversion Gap
Many businesses struggle to bridge the gap between generating leads and converting them into loyal customers. The challenges range from inefficient follow-up processes to misaligned sales and marketing strategies.
Let’s explore nine practical strategies designed to optimize your lead conversion efforts. These strategies offer you the insights you need to turn potential opportunities into tangible results. Dive in to discover how you can enhance your conversion rates and drive your business forward with confidence.
1. Personalize your campaigns
In my experience, personalization is perhaps one of the most important things you can do to close the lead conversion gap. It’s no secret people respond better to messages that are personalized and address their needs. But did you know that 80% of people say they are more likely to continue interacting with a business that personalizes content and promotions?
This startling statistic highlights why it is so important to incorporate personalization into your marketing strategy as soon as possible. If you already have, find ways to improve it for even better results.
For example, you could start personalizing your call-to-action and on-site marketing to match each person’s interests, browsing history, and even location.
Below is an example of a personalized pop-up. Notice how it addresses location and even the day of the week? These are just some of the ways you can make every interaction on your site unique and engaging.
If you want this to work, you have to get out of the one-size-fits-all mindset. You’ll need to segment your audience by demographics, interests, and behaviors. With a tool like Breadcrumbs, you can take this even further and start scoring and organizing your leads based on their specific interests, goals, and pain points.
Once you’ve segmented and analyzed your audience, set up triggers on key pages and for individuals who take specific actions. Use these moments to build their trust, show that you’re listening, and convince them to take the leap from lead to customer.
2. Optimize your landing pages
Your landing page is often the first chance you’ll have to “meet” new visitors. If it doesn’t capture their attention and keep them on your site, they may not even subscribe, let alone become customers.
There are a few powerful things that all landing pages should have if you want to minimize the lead conversion gap. This is what we look for when we are creating and updating these pages across our sites:
- Detailed intros: Do customers know who we are and what we are offering? Is this information crystal clear and readily available so someone who has never heard of us before would understand by the end of the page?
- Top-notch performance: We always make sure our landing page flow is clean, error-free, loads quickly, and organically moves the reader to the next step; for instance, we start by introducing ourselves and then delve into the value proposition.
- Clear benefits: Readers should know what they stand to gain by taking action on your landing page. A mistake I’ve seen many marketers make here is they list features but not benefits. You need to find ways to tie your product features back to how they will improve your audiences’ lives.
- Engaging CTA: Finally, readers should know what we want them to do next, whether it’s to buy a product, join your email list, or attend an automated webinar. A contrasting button with action-oriented language is your best bet. And if you’re personalizing your calls to action, you can expect 42% more conversions!
If your landing page has all of this, and you A/B test headlines, images, layouts, and call-to-action buttons, you’ll be in a great position to optimize your pages and create the best journey possible for your leads. As a result, it’s more likely that they’ll continue interacting with your brand.
3. Show social proof
When building trust with your audience, social proof is a must. Put plainly, social proof is evidence that your brand is trusted either by existing customers or other businesses.
Here’s an example of social proof displayed directly on a homepage:
Testimonials from people who are familiar with your product look good regardless of where on your site you put them. We’ve had the most luck with landing pages, the example above, as well as product pages.
If you want to know how this will help you close the gap, consider this: 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. In other words, reviews build your credibility and make it more likely that the person on the page will take the next step.
In addition to reviews and testimonials, you should consider other powerful types of social proof, such as live sales alerts and trust badges. Sales alerts show as a small popup in the corner of the user’s screen when another person places an order or takes action.
Trust badges are seals of approval from well-known companies like Norton, McAfee, and PayPay. They show visitors that other brands they know and respect trust you, so they should, too.
4. Use eye-catching lead magnets
Lead magnets are valuable resources you give to your audience in exchange for contact information so you can nurture leads over time and gently guide them through your sales funnel. They are extremely effective; however, not all lead magnets are created equal. To bridge the lead conversion gap, they need to offer real value and be super relevant to your target audience’s pain points and aspirations.
You’ll want to consider creating ebooks, infographics, checklists, templates, exclusive discounts, and free trials to get people to subscribe. For example, a marketing agency could offer a free social media calendar template, and a financial advisor could promote a guide to saving in your 30s. Regardless of which lead magnet you offer, make sure it aligns with your leads’ interests. Here’s an example:
Think carefully about the challenges your target audience faces. Then, come up with a lead magnet that solves a specific problem or provides insight, and there’s a good chance they’ll continue engaging with your business.
Put your lead magnets front and center on your website, social media, and within your content. You can even create personalized magnets for specific audience segments. You’ll also want to make the signup process quick, easy, and responsive so people accept your offer and continue engaging with your business.
5. Simplify your checkout flow
One of the quickest ways to widen your lead gap is to settle on a clunky checkout process. As it stands now, the average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 70%! It’s in your best interest to save as many of these lost sales as possible, and you can easily do this by optimizing your checkout page.
For us and many other businesses, the number one tip is to reduce the number of steps to buy. If there’s a lot of friction, people will leave without finalizing their order, which obviously isn’t ideal.
Here are a few quick tips for making sure your checkout page is eye-catching and conversion-worthy!
- Offer guest checkout so first-time customers aren’t forced to create an account.
- Show shipping costs and estimated delivery times upfront so there are no surprises at the end.
- Add a progress bar so people can see how close they are to completion. (Example below!)
- Make sure it’s easy to add or remove items from their cart at any stage.
- Remove distractions, like sidebar ads and menus.
These little changes to your checkout flow can really close the gap and make a big difference in your conversion rate.
6. Support your customers
Great customer support makes a huge difference in whether someone becomes a customer. Think back to your last customer service experience, and I bet you can remember whether it was positive or negative. Your audience will remember their experience with your brand as well, so you have to get this part right if you want to close the conversion gap.
My number one tip is to give customers multiple ways to contact you. For the best results, use a combination of phone, email, social media, and live chat. It’s also important to respond quickly and professionally to their questions and show them you value their time and business.
I also suggest investing in a knowledge base or FAQ section so customers can find answers on their own, answering common questions and concerns before they escalate. This strategy will cut down on wait times and create a better experience for your customers and your live agents.
You may also want to consider a chatbot to provide instant support and answer common questions 24/7. By going the extra mile to solve issues and answer questions, you’ll build trust and show that you care about customer satisfaction, which can tip the scales and turn a hesitant lead into a happy customer.
Long-term success depends on keeping customers happy. Happy customers are more likely to buy again and often become the best promoters for your brand, spreading the word to their friends and expanding your customer base through their recommendations.
7. Follow up with prospects
Don’t let those warm leads go cold; otherwise, you’re essentially giving prospects an excuse to forget you exist. Instead, capture your audiences’ attention with a timely follow-up designed to nurture relationships and close the conversion gap. I suggest using a mix of automated email sequences and personal messages so you can keep people engaged without overwhelming them.
For example, after someone downloads a lead magnet, you could send a series of emails with more valuable content to guide them toward a relevant offer. If someone abandons their cart, send a friendly reminder email with a small discount to encourage them to complete the purchase.
It’s all about finding the right balance between persistence and respect. I suggest sending no more than 3 follow-up emails in a week, and that’s only if they add an item to their cart. Otherwise, you risk annoying your leads and driving them away from your site.
8. Use retargeting campaigns
Retargeting is a powerful way to show ads to people who have already interacted with your website or brand and give them another chance to convert. It keeps you at the top of their minds and encourages those who showed initial interest to come back to your site and check out what you have to offer.
You can retarget website visitors who abandoned their cart, viewed a specific product page, downloaded a lead magnet, and many other actions. For the best results, I recommend creating ad copy and visuals that remind them of the product or service they were interested in and entice them to come back.
For example, if someone visits a pet supply store and checks out cat products, they may see cat products from the same company when they browse on social media or other websites.
Highlighting special offers, limited-time discounts, or relevant product releases can dramatically boost your conversions. These strategies should capture customers’ interest and convince them that your product is worth their time.
Retargeting is even more powerful when combined with personalization and social proof. You can show them highly relevant ads that use social validation, and that will help you convert those warm leads into customers and close the conversion gap.
9. Align sales and marketing
Sometimes, the lead conversion gap grows because of a disconnect between sales and marketing teams. When these two departments aren’t on the same page regarding target audience, messaging, or lead qualification criteria, it can create a disjointed customer experience and lost opportunities. This misalignment can confuse and frustrate leads and ultimately kill conversions.
To resolve this problem and establish clear communication between sales and marketing, create an environment where information is shared freely through documentation, meetings, and chat channels. You should also encourage team members to share data and insights regularly so everyone is on the same page regarding lead quality, campaign performance, and customer expectations.
Get everyone on the same page with what a qualified lead is and create a streamlined process for handing off leads from marketing to sales. This way, leads get a consistent and personalized experience, and conversion is more likely. Then, sales and marketing can nurture leads, address their concerns, and close the sale.
Conclusion
There you have it! These nine strategies will help you guide more leads through your sales funnel and turn them into paying customers. Every touchpoint, from your landing page to your follow-up emails, is a chance to build trust, show value, and nudge them toward action.
So, pay attention to all the opportunities in front of you, and you’ll have a much easier time closing the lead conversion gap. Want to turbocharge your efforts and make this even easier? Try Breadcrumbs!
Breadcrumbs makes it easy to qualify and segment leads, personalize your messaging based on their behavior and interests, and track them every step of the way.
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