It’s a great feeling right?
Either through your own marketing efforts, or when you’ve been referred a new lead through a satisfied customer, you acquire a new lead for your shopping brand. You’ve been given a new chance to turn that lead into a customer for your brand. Not just once… but potentially multiple times over!
But here’s a problem I see with ecom brands when it comes to lead & customer acquisition… they don’t follow up with that lead correctly. The end result is that the lead becomes dead! They’ve gone to your competitor and became a customer of your competitors store and the effort in acquiring that lead or customer has fallen flat on its face!
Has this happened to you before?
It’s not just a common problem with ecom brands. According to a study done for the Harvard Business Review, a staggering 71% of qualified leads are never followed up with. What’s more, of the leads that are followed up with, they’re only contacted an average of 1.3 times. What this tells us is a huge opportunity costs not only in revenue, but in the prospect/customer experience as well.
So what should ecom stores do to ensure their lead generation and marketing efforts are not going to waste?
My answer to this is to create a follow up system to continually market the value of your service to the lead and entice them into doing business with a killer offer they can’t refuse!
This is a system that can be built out with the whole follow up process done almost entirely on automation, leaving you more time to focus on other growth generation activities, or acquire more leads & customers for your store.
I can’t go into too much detail about how this system works as I only provide this solution in full to our paying clients. However I do want to offer you some tips to help you out with this process so you can be better able to follow up and close those prospects for your store.
Tips to use when following up with your stores leads…
Make Immediate Contact
Whenever your ecom store acquires a new lead, you need to immediately follow up with that lead and begin to nurture the relationship. Your new prospect has a problem they need solving and you want to be the go to business that knows exactly how to solve the issue and do it as quickly as possible!
The last thing you want to happen is have an interested lead with a problem you can solve… only for you to not follow up immediately. Not following up makes you look bad for two major reasons:
- It’s very unprofessional. Someone has taken the time to express an interest in your business and you’ve left them to deal with their problem after making initial efforts to start a customer relationship with you.
- That lead may very well go on to express negative associations regarding your business within their social circles both online and offline. This effect can have a damaging effect for your ecom store.
When you get a lead, don’t be the solution that flakes away from their problem. Follow up with your lead and get some interaction going.
Speaking of following up…
Follow Up In Different Ways
Usually when you acquire a lead for your ecom store, at bare minimum you have an email address to follow up with.
Email is a great way to connect with your leads and customers. There are various ways you can use email to increase your response rate. We teach this with our clients, but my tip here is to always try to be engaging with your email broadcasts and autoreponders as this increases response rate dramatically. The best follow up emails are short, concise, and not overly formal.
Facebook Messenger Bot is kinda like the new kid on the block (at the time of writing this). It’s basically using Facebook messenger to communicate with your leads. This can also be used to communicate with customers. What I love about this medium is that you get great response rates and you get to follow up with leads and customers easily. Like email, It’s also great for adding value and offers you may wish to promote.
Using a combination of the methods above will increase your success rate.
An example of this would be, sending a welcome email series to your new lead. Over the days that follow frmm initial contact, you can nurture the relationship by introducing your brand and offering value.
Get Their Attention Through Outstanding Value
Another part of the puzzle when following up with your prospects, is to grab their attention by offering great value! What I mean by this, is something that will stick out in their minds and think, “Wow! These guys go above and beyond the call of duty… I’m impressed!”. You achieve this by being unique and creative if you want to attract their attention.
An example would be…
Instead of just contacting via email to see if they are ready to buy what you offer (like all your competitors are doing), use a different approach and email to offer free value in the form of educational content.
Ask yourself…
- What are your target markets challenges and pain points?
- How can you address this through educational content from your blog or video that will help your lead move from a position of pain, frustration etc.. to a point of achievement, progress & satisfaction?
Use content like this to help them transition from where they are now, to where they want to be. By offering free value like this, you begin to become an authority and your credibility increases within your prospects mindset. Trust is built and feelings of admiration for your brand begins to develop.
This will give your brand a great foundation for developing a lead into a customer… and as you keep adding value over the course of the relationship, you’ll build better brand retention. Better lifetime value is the holy grail for your business and by starting out the relationship like this, you stand a better chance of achieving that holy grail.
If you wish…
You can always explain in your content that if they wish to use a solution that gets better, faster, more achievable results, they can purchase product X, Y and Z on your store.
Now your building value in your prospects life AND turning some of them into customers.
Try to always focus on building a relationship in the beginning. Don’t brand yourself as too much “pushy” for the sale or you may turn the prospect off. You want to earn their trust so when the time comes; it will be easier for them to say yes to you.
Remain Consistent & Don’t Give Up
Perhaps some of the main reasons why we see such a high failure rate of qualified leads that are never followed up with by ecom store owners, is because of the following –
- It involves consistent committed work
- It can be very challenging at times, especially if you do not have a marketing & sales background.
While those reasons are true, we have to be of the mindset that toughness and perseverance pay off! Getting rid of fears of rejection and hostility at times will lead you to greater success in your business!
Being consistent with following up regularly will pay off substantially because some of your competitors aren’t following up consistently. As stated previously, nurtured leads will turn into customers and buy more often. More frequent purchasing equals greater success for your shopping brand. More financial success gives you stability. It opens more doors for your brand and gets you closer to the exact reason “why” you entered this business in the first place.
Try to incorporate multiple touch points and continue the nurturing of the relationship. Be that solid friend who helps guide a person from where they are now, to where they want to be by offering ethical guidance in your marketing and sales. This will pay off in multiples as you help more people.
Be unique, be creative, and be yourself. Being authentic and personable will make a positive difference in the minds of your prospects and customers. It’s all about building trust and rapport and part of succeeding with that is to be likable and offer value outside of the normal!
