Lead capturing is key to the success of any business, but it’s especially crucial in the eCommerce world. The more leads you capture, the more sales you’ll have. In fact, data has shown that the top priority for marketers is generating leads.
Lead generation isn’t a cut and dry thing, though. It takes time, effort and a rock-solid strategy. You need to know where your leads are coming from, who they are and how can you acquire them.
In this article, we’ll dive into the best lead capturing features that will help your eCommerce store reach its audience and drive lead generation.
Leads provide their contact information and are actively interested in what your store has to offer.
After your store receives their information, you must steadily communicate with them to further drive engagement with your brand. This builds a relationship with them and encourages them to make a purchase.
When eCommerce stores acquire targeted leads, they have a steady flow of customers. This is a major factor in any store’s success, which is why lead capturing is essential.
On average, businesses earn $40 from their email marketing for every $1 they spend. In 2019, the number of global email users amounted to 3.9 billion. This means that people are using their emails regularly and the ROI value of email makes it an essential channel for eCommerce stores to utilize for generating leads.
An email list by itself won’t generate leads, but you need it to constantly nurture them. So before you start capturing leads, it’s a smart idea to set up an email list so you’re shop is prepared to store their data when they provide it.
You can implement software to not only collect leads but also create regular email newsletters that you send out to your subscribers. Your emails should be hyper-personalized, as this delivers better results. The more personalized your emails are, and the more emails you send to your subscribers, the better their relationship will be with your brand.
You should aim to create both campaigns and flows, such as welcome sequences, abandoned cart emails and emails promoting a particular product.
A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to leads in exchange for their contact information. It can be anything, from an eBook, checklist, discount code to free shipping. Once the exchange is made, the lead is now on your email list.
The lead magnet you choose must be extremely valuable. It should also be completely free, relevant to your brand and simple to use/download/install.
How do lead magnets work? Often found on a squeeze page, they encourage people to engage more with your brand who otherwise might never stop by your eCommerce store again.
For example, offering free shipping as an incentive is ideal for a shopper who is hesitant about paying full-price shipping fees.
Not only will this generate more leads for your eCommerce store but it will also encourage repeat purchases.
Exit-intent popups are a favorite lead generation strategy. They give your brand the chance to demand a lead’s attention just before they exit your store by popping up at the crucial moment. They should display a targeted offer that’s relevant to them and the page they’re currently on, such as a discount code or a product page.
Yes, popups in general can annoy some customers. But with an average conversion rate of 3.09%, they’re worth adding to your overall marketing strategy because they are powerful at generating leads.
In fact, statistics also show that you can recover over half of your abandoning visitors using exit intent popups.
When using an exit intent popup to capture leads, here are some tips:
Sometimes, you need to deploy a psychology tactic in order to build up your leads. FOMO is the “Fear of Missing Out”. It’s very real in customers who are driven by the need to have something simply because they might feel apprehension without it.
The thing is, sometimes a customer won’t take an action unless they feel they will be missing out. This is where a time-sensitive offer comes in.
A time-sensitive offer creates a sense of urgency while tapping into a leads FOMO. It causes otherwise hesitant prospects who may never have acted, to provide their contact information.
An easy way to create a time-sensitive offer is to add a countdown timer to a particular product page or a giveaway. This is a super simple way to sell more products while generating more leads over a short period of time.
As well as a time-sensitive offer, you could also show if a product is out of stock. Then ask for their email address so that they can be contacted when the product comes back in stock.
Implementing a conversational chatbot is a great way to capture more leads. In fact, it can increase conversions by a whopping 40%.
When you implement a chatbot that is driven by Artificial Intelligence, it can answer your prospects’ queries in real-time and also request their email address.
A chatbot can help your prospects overcome last-minute obstacles, and because it learns more about each customer with every conversation, it’s able to personalize the conversation and offer them tailored product recommendations.
Did you know that you don’t need to stick to just one landing page? You can, in fact, create several landing pages that are built to be unique for different types of customers.
These pages are known as specialist landing pages, and they’re designed to boost your conversions.
The structure is very simple: A specialist landing page needs hyper-personalized elements that are all relevant to the offer. It should have a catchy headline that speaks directly to a specific customer, a sub-header that expands on the promise made in the headline, an image as well as some text that further outlines your offer and its benefits.
A specialist landing page should then end with a CTA that tells people exactly what to do next.
If there’s one thing the world needs more of, it’s excellent content.
Content is what helps you make a connection and build a relationship with your site visitors by demonstrating to them that you’ve got the solution to their problem. Not just that, but you’re going to really help them out by showcasing your expertise and walking them through the solution.
Excellent content is always appreciated more by the end-user in comparison to average content.
Creating great content does, of course, take time. It’s important that you first understand exactly what content your audience finds valuable and their pain points. You can use keyword research tools, as well as tools like Answer the Public to find out.
Another good idea is to use the skyscraper technique. This is when you find a related piece of content published by a rival site before looking for weaknesses in the content. For example, perhaps it’s missing key data or case studies. Or maybe it’s missing a few awesome pieces of advice. Then use this content for link building purposes.
Once you’ve got your great content and people are reading it, you’re in the process of building your brand. The next step is to point them in the direction of your offer to capture more leads.
45% of customers say incentives can sometimes sway them to a new brand - and there are few incentives that are as powerful as a freebie.
They give customers the chance to try before they buy, which is awesome for those hesitant customers who might otherwise have gotten away.
When offering your free sample, make sure to worse words in the CTA that create a sense of ownership, such as “YOUR free sample” or “Yes, Give me MY free gift today!”
Why is this important?
According to Predictably Irrational by behavioral economist Dan Ariely, a sense of ownership makes the end user feel as though the product is already theirs. Thus, they’ll be more inclined to do what is necessary to grab it.
In 2019, there were still more desktop users than mobile users, but the gap is closing. Moreover, 79% of smartphone users have admitted to making an online purchase.
The thing is that a mobile site can look unappealing messy if you don’t optimize it for mobile conversions. What does this mean? It means making it responsive so that the font, the buttons and the images fit neatly onto the screen, and the site is easy to navigate. The content must be easy to read, too.
Capturing leads isn’t rocket science. If you implement the tips in this article, you’ll go a long way to boosting your more conversions and increasing sales. The next step is to nurture your leads, and to keep warming them up until they turn into long-term customers.