The ultimate lead conversion secret is that there is no single ultimate conversion secret. Each conversion strategy has to be as different as the core product itself. Just like martial arts, you cannot know precisely what your opponent will do, you can only accommodate to their attack and counter within the accommodation to create the smoothest and most certain victory. Since your countering strategy allows for them to do what they want, you cannot be stopped. In the website world, your prospect has two primary needs and the moment they hit your website they are looking to fill both of these needs.
NEED #1 – Long-Term Needs
Back to the website world. The long-term need is for your product or service and the benefits that come from using it. If they don’t see evidence that you indeed offer a solution to their long-term need they will bounce from your site because it is of no interest to them.
NEED #2 – “Today Needs”
I coined this phrase because their immediate today’s are related but not identical to their long-term needs. In other words, they are looking for a fitness class and to get healthy long-term, but today they just want the price of the class. I call this their “today needs.”
When planning your landing page, you must clear and quickly communicate as to how you will meet their long terms needs but also offer instant gratification of their “today needs.” The closer your call to action is to answering their PRECISE “today needs,” the higher your conversion rate will go.
Tai Chi Your Visitors
There is a principle in Tai Chi called use an ounce of force to move a thousand pounds. The means that if an opponent is trying to punch you in the head, you don’t try to deflect his hand some other direction. You try your best to let his punch move in the direction it is already moving. You deflect it only slightly and move your head out of the way. This means that his maximum force is behind the punch and you have the most significant chance to throw him/her off balance as they punch where they thought your head would be.
In the website world, this means that if you can design a call to action or Quid Pro Quo offer that matches precisely what they already wanted then you will get a 5-10% conversion of visitors to leads. Some of our campaigns reach as high as 22% conversion rates, measure from homepage visit all the way through internal page conversion form with 6 fields to complete.
How to Lose A Conversion Fight
There is nothing worse than a bunch of conversion options that are of no interest to your prospects. This only confuses and over stimulates them with nonsense offers. Like the martial art where you keep throwing feints and fakes that your opponent doesn’t believe are real. The worst conversion offers are discounts on your services. This presumes that they will have become your client and this offer has no value until they sign up for your services. The best conversion offers have to have an intrinsic value, regardless of whether they do business with you. Of course, the second worst offer is a white paper. This sounds as worthless as it is. It is just the kind of perfunctory offer that everyone under the age of 65 ignores. No one has time to read white papers, and no one is browsing the internet looking to trade their legitimate contact information for a “white paper.”