When it comes to B2B marketing, conversions are key. They are where profits are made. However, you could spend your entire budget on a campaign, then be left with nothing if opportunities don’t become deals.
To avoid this, having the right strategy in place is a good place to start, all to reduce the risk of being trapped in a vicious cycle. Not doing this can lead to wasting time and resources, not what you want as a business owner.
So, what is a lead conversion rate? How can I calculate lead conversion rates? What are the main reasons why my rates are low?
If you’re asking yourself those questions, then you’re in the right place. This guide is for business owners looking for some advice, to bring you insider knowledge and get you on the right path. Now, let’s take a look.
What is a Lead Conversion Rate?
Lead conversion is the process of turning potential leads into customers that pay. There are different practices that you can use to drive customers to want to buy your products or services.
For lead conversion rates, this is the percentage of visitors who come to your website and are captured as “leads”. Often, this rate will determine how successful your business is at persuading a target audience, as well as how efficient your website is at building leads.
How Do You Calculate Lead Conversion Rates?
The best way to calculate lead conversion rates is:
Using your total number of new customers, divide this figure by your number of leads. Then, multiply this digit by 100.
Total number of new customers / the number of leads x 100
Let’s take a look at an example:
If your business has 200 new leads resulting in sales, with 50 new qualified leads, the calculation will look like this:
50 divided by 200 = 0.25
0.25 multiplied by 100 = 25%
So, from the example, the lead conversion rate would be 25%.
What is a Good Lead Conversion Rate?
Now you know how to work out a conversion rate, the next step is to understand if yours is good or not. This will depend heavily on what industry you’re in, however, generally across most sectors, the average landing page rate is 2.35%.
When it comes to the best performers, the top 25% are converting at 5.31% or higher. To break into the top 10%, you want to be aiming for rates of 11.45% or higher.
Anything above 10% is considered as good, with figures between 6% to 9% considered as above average.
What Are Common Issues Leading To Low Conversion Rates?
There is a broad list of reasons why your rates could be poor, so we’ll try and break down the list into the most common issues companies face. Let’s take a look at them.
| Your website doesn’t give a good first impression | The most important part of drawing a customer in is by providing a good first impression. This is crucial. Many potential customers will land on your website, then be put off. This could be the look of your company; they can’t find the right information or other reasons. You may be getting a lot of traffic to your website, but then fail to land sales. If you have a high bounce rate, then you should reassess your site, thinking about its design and layout. Make sure it is usable and that customers can get essential information, as well as not have to hassle when completing their desired actions. Also, consider using analytics to see if any glaring concerns could be fixed. |
| You haven’t nailed down your target audience | If you aren’t clear on who your customers are, you could be wasting valuable time and resources by marketing to the wrong people. This will lead to a decline in sales and lower rates. Find out who your customers are and what they want, then you can tailor how you showcase your brand. Again, analytics will show you how people behave on your site, as well as what they’re sharing on your social media platforms. |
| Customers don’t understand your product | Website conversion rates can suffer if your product isn’t demonstrated in the right way to customers. They need to understand how your product solves their problems and benefits them, When you do this and showcase what the product’s main features are, you are much more likely that people will buy into your brand |
| You haven’t optimised your website | Search engine optimisation, also known as SEO allows you to optimise your web pages and content so that when your target audience is searching online, your brand appears when keywords related to your product is used. Search engines try to show the most relevant content when people search, so by using related keywords, your brand should be ranking highly. However, if your pages are failing to show up, that will result in less traffic and fewer customers to your website. Therefore, keyword research is crucial to standing out in your niche and reaching your target market. |
| Lack of a call to action (CTA) | A clear call to action or CTA is something all businesses need. Some common issues found in small businesses is having visual or interface-related problems or copywriting troubles. Call to actions that uses unclear language can result in customers being frustrated and possibly lead to people becoming less likely to press the buy now button. The buy now button should be prominent as it is your most important element. Make sure it isn’t lost and hard to find. To do this, you can use colour or bold fonts to showcase it better. |
| Your brand isn’t trusted | Trust boosts sales. An area you may need to improve upon is trust with your customers. To help build the trust factor of your website, try to utilise proof such as reviews that are real. Make sure to add your address and contact details and avoid using spammy marketing to look unprofessional. Also, include trust seals so that potential customers know their shopping details are secure. |
How Do You Increase Lead Rate?
So, you know how to calculate rates, you understand what rates are good and some common issues that arise. Now, the next step is to increase leads and improve your sales. Let’s take a look at some ways to do this.
The first step should be as easy as possible
When offering your product or service, making the first step extremely simple should be high on your to-do list. Rather than making long forms or complicated processes, use simple requests such as asking for an email address to begin.
Then, to secure additional information, you can provide the rest of the form at a later date. But to increase the chance of your visitors taking action, make that initial start easy and simple.
Reviews build brand recognition
To put your target audience’s mind at ease, provide testimonials and reviews from past customers. This is also known as social proof which can lead to a remarkable conversion impact.
Websites such as Trustpilot are the standard used by most companies. Try to showcase your reviews where you can, by either having it close to your shopping pages or located in the footer of the site.
Pop-ups can be useful
When done the right way, pop-ups can be an extremely useful tool to help drive sales. Pop-ups can help entice customers and make them more likely to buy from you. Some methods you can use are:
- Set a time delay on the pop up so that customers aren’t annoyed. We recommend using a 30-second delay timer.
- Promoting offers such as free items, premium content or free shipping to customers that use a code.
- The pop up should be easy to close, otherwise, you may deter people from using your website and lose sales.
- You can use a cookie that ensures the pop up only comes up once per user. Many pop-up tools and services will allow you to do this.
So, to help keep complaints down and drive conversions, pop-ups can be a great method that doesn’t annoy anyone and you get all the benefits.
Add in a live chat to your site
Sometimes, customers will want to buy a product, but have some questions and are unsure. Whenever there is lingering doubt, often customers avoid taking that last step.
Live chats are great for persuading customers to stay and help to answer any questions they have. Plus, it makes your brand and website look more reliable and professional. Live chat tools are simple to add to any site and can straight away have a positive impact on your brand.
Now, we’ve given you the tools and advice, now is the time for you to take the action and see the results. You must be patient and not get flustered if results don’t come immediately, however, if you put our tips into place, expect some fantastic changes to your efficiency and site.