The only way to run a business successfully is to constantly convert leads. This applies to every industry, from electronics to hemp and non-profit. No matter what you sell, your goal is to convince people who need it and are interested in it to buy it or act on it. You must push leads to take action, no matter what the action may be, as long as it’s for the benefit of all.
Moving leads from interest to purchase is usually a difficult task for many companies but keeping an eye on certain indicators can make it easier. Here are a few metrics you should focus on if you want to be sure your conversion funnel is working properly and moving as many people as possible from interest to purchase, optimally.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Your ROI is your profit. The amount you gain after deducting your investment on your funnel from the topline sales generated. Your eyes must be on this figure at all times, because if you slip behind on your ROI consistently, your business will risk going under, and nobody wants that.
Cost Per Conversion
Many people focus on the conversion of leads and forget about the cost of said conversions. It doesn’t matter if your conversions are sky high, if you are spending too much converting customers, you’ll risk going out of business.
Conversion Rates for Each Channel Used
The Pareto principle comes to play here. Many business owners spread themselves too thin trying to use channels that don’t work for their specific market. Understanding which channels work best to convert the most quality leads helps you save money spent on channels that do not work.
Bounce Rate
For online stores and websites, bounce rate is the rate at which visitors leave your website without taking any action. If your bounce rate is higher than your industry’s average, you need to head back to the drawing board and do better with your funnel.
Lead Value
The average Customer Lifetime Value of a lead is an important metric in lead conversion, and so is the average value of a sale. Both metrics are a part of the lead value metric, which is the overall calculation of how much a lead is worth.
Lead Conversion by Demographic
Knowing the right lead to talk to is a good stepping stone in the art of conversion. You could run ad sets separately based on different demographics and personas. That way, you can easily see the set of people who are the most sensitive to your business, and who are more likely to buy from you. Then, it’s simple: focus on them.
New and Returning Visitor Conversion Rates
These metrics should be studied separately for the best result, as new visitors interact differently than returning visitors. When you look at the new visitor conversion rates, study what your first impression looks like, and test to see if tweaking this can help increase the conversion rates for new visitors in the future.
You also need to focus on your returning visitor conversion rates. Try to study why visitors want to return to your business. Look at your retargeting campaign and see if you need to change anything to improve the effect it has? Looking closely at these metrics will help give you the ideas that will push leads to take action faster.
Conclusion: Long Term Success is the Goal
The art of the deal is more than finding leads and strong-arming them into buy your product once. While these metrics help your business convert in a better way, they also do something more important: they make sure your marketing will work on the long term. If you keep an eye on these metrics long enough, you will be able to easily identify the leads you should go after more often and the channels you should use. This knowledge will help you grow your revenue exponentially over time.
