Although we wish that things in life had no expiry date, unfortunately, that is not how life and business works. And the digital world is definitely not excluded from being something that CAN’T reach a “use by date”.
People fall in love with something today, and if no interest, in their interests are shown, they move along swiftly to the next best thing. A business that is reliant on potential customers coming back for more, has to be so fine-tuned in on their target markets, that they need to know exactly when to strike while the iron is hot.
That is why a lead life cycle is so critically important for any customer-driven business.
“Lead lifecycle” refers to how we manage the life of a lead from the moment it shows up in your system to when a deal is signed, sealed and delivered. The lead lifecycle defines where a lead can stay active, how a lead moves along through the process, and what we do with a lead at each stage.
WHY DO YOU NEED A LEAD LIFE CYCLE?
Well, most companies have these life cycles for 2 primary reasons:
- Preventing the loss of potential leads
- Reporting on the conversion rate through each stage, in order for the movement of these processes to be optimised
This life cycle is forever evolving just as your business evolves, and you will find different ways to review, improve and increase your number of converted leads.
WHAT HAPPENS TO A LOST LEAD?
Well, then all you do is recycle them. A lost lead is just another opportunity to improve on the marketing strategy you have in place for your products and/or services. Once a lead is lost, recycle the lead through the process.
BUT HOW?
There are 9 (sort of standard) parameters to consider when setting up a lead management lifecycle, which could help you:
- Map out different stages you want your lead to work through. Stages help to determine where the lead lives during the conversion process
- Define each stage. Stage definitions need to be agreed upon between sales and marketing. Defining a stage such as “recycling” indicates that a lead may buy at some point, but not within a certain period of time
- Run effective and nurturing Lead lifecycle campaigns
- Will you be doing fast-track campaigns. Fast-track campaigns push leads through the different stages and override the scoring
- How will your system alert you of a potential lead
- Create systems and lead trackers to track the lifecycle of your leads effectively
- Setup scoring reset campaigns, to deal with leads that have been lost, in order for them to move back into your lead strategy bubbles
- How will you communicate and interact with leads? Will this be you or someone within your business
- Set a time limit for each cycle stage. Leads cannot sit in a stage forever, and your stages need to be refreshed and cleaned out regularly to keep your lifecycle as short as possible
By knowing your Lead Life Cycle you can then move over to how you are going to approach the market and how you are going to be attracting them to your website, social media pages, business pages and ultimately to the point where they purchase your products and/or (for all the overachievers) services.
WHAT IS THE NEXT BIG THING?
A very effective way and a top-ranking marketing approach is by doing lead magnets. Either on your website, via email marketing or even while interacting on social media. Now there are many ways lead magnets can be done, but building these into your marketing strategy, is a sure-fire way to ensure you land that next big client.
Lead magnets are used to create awareness and to drive traffic to your business, but these needs to be done effectively and the potential lead almost needs to feel the need to click on the link or info form provided.
BUT WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEAD MAGNET?
For your lead magnet to effective and ever-lasting:
- It needs to solve a problem
- It needs to promise a quick win
- It must be super specific
- It must be quick to digest
- It must offer high value
- It must be instantly accessible
- It should demonstrate your expertise of UVP (unique value proposition)
Be creative and unique when you decide to do a lead magnet and ensure they are adding value to your clients.
So as you can see, starting your business was fun, but the real fun starts when you start to listen to your audience, start producing items of value that they can use, and seeing them come back for more.
Always leave them wanting the next BIG THING!