Closing the Deal on Website Leads

You've gotten visitors and qualified them as leads. Now comes the most important part: closing the deal and converting those leads into buyers. Modern prospects are savvy and it takes some work to nurture a lead into a sale. A few tips to help your marketing and sales team close:

Don't Underestimate the Value of a Web Lead

These are often highly qualified prospects. They've been investigating construction options and are probably farther along in their buyer's journey than a prospect you got from a quick survey at a trade show.

Follow Up Quickly

Don't give your prospect time to forget who you are, or, worse, time to make a decision to go with your competitor. If the method of contact is email, a thank you email should go out immediately. If the customer has signed up to have someone from sales call, make sure that call is made on the next available business day.

Take Time to Nurture Leads

Often, web prospects need several touches before they are ready to buy. This might mean visiting your site a few times, signing up for an email series, and then talking to a sales rep. As soon as you get an email sign up on your site, you should begin regular contact to keep your company at the top of prospects' minds. Make sure, of course, that you have permission to send emails with offers and tips. A double opt-in model is considered best practice for email marketing.

Show Your Expertise and Authority

Offer web prospects content that shows why your company is the best one for the job. This can be a series of videos that is sent out over time, or an email series with information about your specialty. This is a great, low-pressure way to build trust as the customer decides whether he is ready to buy.

Include a Clear, Compelling Value Proposition

Ensure that your more direct sales pages, such as landing pages for PPC campaigns, explain precisely why you are the right person for their construction job. You don't simply need to convince them that they need construction work; they've already decided this. You need to explain to them exactly why they need construction work performed by you.

Ask For Their business

Landing pages, emails and premium content like ebooks should end with a clear call to action. Let the prospects know what you want them to do, whether it is email for more information, call for a consultation or to come to a local informational event.

Make It Easy to Buy

The customer should never have to hunt for a way to get in touch with you and make a purchase. Include up-to-date contact information on every page. Make sure that your site works well in every common browser, including mobile browsers. Getting from prospect to buyer should be a friction-free process.

Test and Adjust

Pay attention to your website analytics. Do a significant portion of visitors bounce halfway through the sign-up for your informational ebook? Try a separate campaign with a shorter and easier form to see if that makes a difference. Make separate landing pages for individual pay-per-click email campaigns to see which gets a better response. Do the same thing to compare traffic from Twitter and Facebook. By constantly testing and observing results, you can better see what works best with your prospective clients.

Marketing on the web is as much art as it is science. It can take some time to figure out exactly how to bring your prospects to the point of hiring your company for the job. But, by giving excellent service, paying attention to what your leads want and being willing to adjust, you can build your web presence into a robust source of business.

Photo credit: Sean MacEntee / Foter / CC BY

Photo credit: toolstop / Foter / CC BY

Sources: Smart Bug Media
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