Obviously, if you want your leads to convert after reading and interacting with your content, you need to do much more than Maximizer is doing. See how content recommendations work on Inc. What about targeting those folks who see your content but have never been to your website? So, if someone liked a page, post or video that you promoted, you can start serving them targeted ads the next time they get on Facebook. Of course, you can target customers or visitors to your site or app by including them in a “Custom Audience” on Facebook. What’s more, even if someone hasn’t visited your page or website or seen your content, but share similar interests and characteristics, you can reach them on Facebook with the “Lookalike Audience” feature. Pro Tip: While you’re at it, also include social proof in the form of details of your current customers in your retargeting campaigns. LiveAgent not only works with your website and email provider, but also social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Businesses that aim to develop a long-term relationship with their influencers need to get them not just interested, but deeply involved in your product, so that they engage with your leads using any means they might have in their content marketing arsenal. While we started with a lackluster example that showed us what isn’t enough to drive visitors towards conversions, there’s no doubt that retargeting, content recommendations, timely personal conversations, and win-win influencer partnerships are all really good ways to nurture those leads.
When someone lands on your blog and
signs up for your email list, they’re said to have converted
from your owned media.
But what about that funny piece you wrote on BuzzFeed, or that
awesome Facebook post that came from a spontaneous idea?
How will you nurture leads from discovery to conversion when the
content lies beyond the realm of your control?
The puzzle becomes especially difficult to crack when you are
dealing with pricey B2B or SaaS products such as CRM, ERP, or
subscription services, which frequently take months to consider and
try out, let alone buy.
So how do you take control of content that lives outside your
blog or website and present it at the right moment to customers who
are at the appropriate points along your marketing funnel?
Where is the lag?
In an attempt to find widespread inefficiencies and
insufficiencies in current web-based conversion practices by SaaS
providers, I poked around the websites of a few ERP/CRM products
and landed on Maximizer
(disclaimer: random choice, no professional relationship).
Maximizer is an Enterprise CRM Software that’s apparently been
using the most tried and tested methods of content marketing. From
press releases to reviews, to webinars and
case studies, they have been there and done that.
However, they need to take their conversion attempts a step
further to leave a better imprint on people’s minds and convert
leads to customers.
- For starters, they are missing out on retargeting. I spent
considerable time on their website, read a few blog posts. I even
went through some of their press releases and reviews on third
party sites. Despite that, I failed to see their ads after leaving
their website. - A few minutes into their website, I started wondering why
there’s no ubiquitous “Wanna chat?” pop-up or why they’ve managed a
paltry 2 reviews on their Facebook page despite claiming to have
over 120,000 customers. Whether the visitor is on your site or on
your social media page, one on one conversations are extremely
important to help them take the final leap to become
customers.
Obviously, if you want your leads to convert after reading and
interacting with your content, you need to do much more than
Maximizer is doing.
There are dozens of tools, tactics and techniques out there that
help you gain and keep the attention of your readers that bit
longer. When each second is precious and when you are investing a
significant amount of resources into producing content, there’s no
way you can ignore these tools.
Here are 4 uncommon ways to nurture your leads with
personalization and improve your “discovery to conversion”
equation:
1. Personalize your content recommendations
Personalized and timely content recommendations are one of the
most powerful ways to make your leads stay longer on your website
and recall your brand at crucial times. Bloggers and large content
publishers vouch by predictive
recommendations for awareness, reach and engagement (as opposed
to
ads).
See how content recommendations work on Inc. They (and many
other media publishers) show recent/popular articles on the right
hand side.
In addition, a small pop-up with a link to another article that
piques your interest appears on the bottom right, as you scroll
down and reach the bottom of the post. This pop-up works nicely to
re-attract the reader’s attention, just as it is running out.
I’ve no doubt you’ve seen this in action somewhere – and fallen
prey to it too!
Image Source:
Inc
While these pop-ups work wonders to keep readers on your site,
don’t forget that much of your content lives outside your own
website or blog. And that may often include your best pieces.
If you are a regular contributor to a third party media site or
blog, your only hope for leading readers from there to your own
site is through a link within the article or from your byline,
which is hoping against hope. Links aren’t as attention-grabbing as
– and take up much less screen space than – a pop-up.
What you normally do to circumvent this problem is share your
articles and posts on social media, which again are high on the
“hope” factor that someone will re-share (and associate you with
the content, in case they happen to remember you by the time you
consume it).
The middle way out, which helps you associate your content as
well as brand with content either created by others and shared by
you, or created by you on platforms you don’t own, is to use a
recommendation tool like Start A
Fire, which helps you draw leads to your website from all the
content you share or curate.
You can add up to 5 other links, which show up along with your
face/logo, in the familiar pop-up box at the bottom right, when
someone clicks through to the main link that you’ve shared.
This way, there is less chance they’ll forget you’re the one who
shared the link in the first place and more chance they’ll click on
the other links you’ve shared once they finish reading that
particular post.
Here’s an old-fashioned before-after picture of how pop-up
content recommendation work:
Whoever thought you could milk more out of links shared on
social media, or pop-up boxes for that matter?
2. Amp up your retargeting on social media
It’s annoying.
It’s expensive.
It works.
Retargeting works on the principle of effective
frequency, i.e. the exposure of your audience to your message
must range between inadequate and wasteful. Thomas Smith, author of
Successful Advertising, got it right way back in 1885.
If you want to create a leak-proof sales funnel, make sure your
customers see your ads on all relevant sites, if they ever happen
to leave your site without buying (or subscribing, or
downloading).
Baremetrics used
retargeting to acquire customers for as little as $6 on
Facebook and $21 with banner ads. Nothing exceptional, you might
think, until you realize that a single customer is worth $650 to
them. That isn’t exceptional, that is phenomenal!
Baremetrics caters to startups and ecommerce companies, so it
was natural for them to advertise on websites that offered startup
advice, marketing tips, etc. That is a highly targeted approach
considering Baremetrics is a SaaS-based analytics tool that focuses
on revenue and customer growth metrics.
Crazy Egg has been…
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