Sorry, that was harsh. But it’s true.
There is an old sales adage that it takes seven touchpoints to convert a prospect into a customer. Arguably, that number has doubled, even tripled, with the rise of digital and the fall of our attention spans.
But you can’t get past the first touchpoint if you fail to get their information. Collecting email addresses, phone numbers, or social connections is the lifeblood of most of our businesses. Yet, our success rates tend to be abysmal.
We are kidding ourselves if we expect people to stumble upon our Website or LinkedIn profile and remember us down the road when they are ready to buy. No matter how good we are, we are all forgettable. Below are some of my favorite Dos and Don’ts that we have implemented with our clients over the years to collect visitor information and ensure we remain unforgettable.
- Do have an aggressive opt-in strategy. As mentioned, emails and other contact info are vital to the growth of our businesses. We have to be proactive in collecting prospect information at all costs. Collect info on social, squeeze pages, fishbowls, wherever it is – and never stop collecting.
- Do have an interrupting pop-up on your website. Yes, these are the very things you hate seeing when you go to other sites. However, there is a specific reason you hate them, which I will get into in a moment. But for now, just understand that they tend to outperform static opt-in boxes on your website.
- Don’t have your pop-up show up right away. I never understand why people do this. The timing is terrible. It is like arriving at a restaurant and immediately being handed a to-go box. Let me hang around a bit, and then hit me with some value in exchange for my email. The best I have seen are exit pop-ups, where it pops up right when you are about to leave the site. It is like saying, ‘Wait! Before you go, here is an amazing offer that I would love to give you on your way out.’
- Beware of buying lists. Don’t is too strong of a word for me. We have seen some success with this over the years. But like anything, you get what you pay for. And there is a right way and wrong way to this approach. I typically suggest buying lists as a last resort as this cold, intrusive email strategy can lead to high opt-outs and spam reports.
- Do convert leads to connections on LinkedIn. When we get a new lead, we often add them to our email database but forget to connect on LinkedIn. I would argue that a connection on LinkedIn is a better antidote for being forgotten than email drip campaigns.
- Do use social ad spend to build your list and stay top of mind. For our clients, we often use a few hundred dollars each month on Facebook and Instagram to collect new leads. We use strategies like re-marketing, lookalike ads, and opt-in offers to add new leads to their databases.
- Don’t forget to add Value. Once connected, spend the majority of your time adding value. We often confuse marketing with advertising. Instead of shoving BUY NOW signs in our prospect’s face, we should earn trust by delivering consistent, compelling content. Being a valued resource is the secret to being unforgettable from research mode all-the-way to buy mode.
Best Practice: Make Your Opt-in Offer Irresistible
People don’t like to give away their contact information. They need to receive something of real value to relinquish this precious asset. I failed miserably at this for the first few years of my speaking career. Then it dawned on me that the most appealing asset I had to offer was a copy of the slides from my presentation. Attendees are sent these slides 24-hours later and have the option to receive our weekly eNewsletter.
Four years after a dental conference, I received a call from a dentist who attended that event. He told me he gets my emails and never reads them. What?!?! I was crushed. He said he files them away in a folder for when he will have the bandwidth to read them. But that time had never come, so instead, he called to hire us to do it for him. He may not have been reading my emails, but I remained just unforgettable enough to earn his business.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Corey