How to Use Prospect Engagement to Double Your Conversions

Are you ready to get your hands dirty with a bit of deep data science? Today, we’re going to look at what advertisers really want, and how they can get it. More specifically, we’re going to show you the fastest possible route – as the crow flies – from A to B, where A = “wherever you are now”, and B = “the pot of golden leads at the end of the lead generation rainbow”.

Before we jump in, it’s worth knowing that we’ve put this information together based on the results of millions of leads generated. In other words, we’ve done all the hard work and research for you, so that you can simply sit back, enjoy the insights, and implement the findings.

Please note: Although we’ve done all the hard work for you, there is still some thinking involved on your part. In fact, the whole point of this article is thinking. If you’re willing to invest a little bit of thought power, then this article will help you to access the best converting flows right now, for maximum conversion ratios on your particular offers.

Here are some definitions to help you understand the following paragraphs:

• Volume. The amount of leads you receive. Your own volume will depend on your target demographics – if you are targeting a very specific geographic area, for example, you are most likely working with a fairly small lead volume.
• Prospect Investment. Prospect investment refers to how engaged your prospects become with your marketing flows. The more invested a prospect is, the more likely they are to convert. An example indicator of good prospect investment might be a positive response to a survey question like “do you want a better deal on your home insurance?”. An even better example might be a person requesting a brochure after going through two landing pages and a series of informational videos.
• Lead Quality. How good your incoming leads are. Junk leads are leads that are out of specification, invalid, or fraudulent – you will struggle to convert these. If you notice a surge in lead volume, but you haven’t changed your bids or placements, you have probably just been hit with a wave of junk.

Tailoring Your Thinking Based on Type of Offer

Not all offers are created equally. While you might be selling a subscription that renews monthly or annually, another advertiser might be selling a one-shot product with a back-end upsell. You might even be selling both types of offer your self.

Because all offers are different, you can’t easily apply a one-size-fits-all approach to streamlining your lead generation activities. As such, educating yourself on optimal sequencing is key. Acclaimed behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman actually won a Nobel Prize for his work around “thinking fast and slow”, which he articulates as a dual process theory called System One and System Two thinking.

In a nutshell, System One is an automatic, fast, and often subconscious way of thinking, whereas System Two is deliberate, slow and controlled. Knowing about how much thinking your offer requires before a conversion will greatly increase your chances of getting it.

For example, let’s pretend your offer is solar – or, if it actually is, there’s no need to pretend. Now, the vast majority of your target market are not thoroughly educated on the benefits of going solar. This means that as part of your flow, you will need to include an information delivery system which educates your prospects on why solar is so beneficial. In this kind of setting, if your Prospect Investment process is a simple one-click opt-in, you probably won’t get great results. You need to apply System Two thinking.

On the flip side, you might be offering something that is more widely understood, or that is more of an everyday decision – such as the primal instinct to find a romantic relationship. You might do better using more of a System One approach in this instance – e.g. strong pictures, short bullets and instinctive CTAs, which appeal directly to the Limbic System.

Quick-Guide to the Methods of Conversion

You already know that what you do with a lead is more important than actually getting it. So, to help you figure out the optimal conversion route, here is a quick-reference guides to which of the core methods of conversion you should be using.

• Online To Online. Creating a lead online and then converting them online is the best strategy for offers with a well-refined on-boarding process, such as a self-service online subscription offering.
• Online To Offline. Going online to offline is normally the standard way to convert high CPA offers. If you want to stop people window shopping and actually get their credit card out, then take them offline to a call centre or a consultation, where your team can help to close the sale.
• Offline To Offline. For offers in the legal or telecommunications industry, getting your lead offline and then converting it offline is still proving to be king.
• Offline To Online. Investment opportunities such as Forex Trading see the best results when the lead is found offline, but converted online.

So… What’s the Point of All This?

Volume is definitely important, but it’s not necessarily “king”. High volumes of low quality leads that have not had enough time to think about your offer will never convert, causing a negative ROI – if you want a positive (and lucrative) ROI, you need to work out how much Prospect Investment is needed before you start that all-important conversion process.

When talking about the number one waste of time in the sales process, Gary Vaynerchuk says “I spend zero time convincing people to believe what I believe in.”

Volume for volume’s (or ego’s) sake isn’t smart. Taking volume to its optimal point of conversion is. Use this post as a guide to working out where that point is for your company.