How to Convert Inbound Leads – The Ultimate Guide

If you want to convert inbound leads, your inbound marketing methodology needs to be data-driven, consistent, and highly tactical.

This guide lays out exactly such a strategy.

There are three simple steps here, but there’s a lot packed into each one, so let’s explore them.

Converting Inbound Leads in 3 Steps

Step 1: Create Value

First, you put out valuable resources. 

You can do this via email marketing, social media marketing, and blog content. 

You can also create lead magnets, which are resources that are offered in exchange for an email address, so the recipient gets a ton of value and you get their email.

The purpose of a lead magnet is both to provide value and to capture information about the lead so you can start a conversation with them and begin the conversion process.

Here’s what the landing page for a lead magnet sometimes looks like:

Here are a few other examples of lead magnets:

• An hour-long webinar that covers a specialized topic
• A how-to guide that teaches readers something simple and actionable
• A free ebook on a hot topic in your industry

At this step, the goal is to spread the word about your brand and get people interested. 

A lot of the people who consume your content will be MQLs, but some will be SQLs. In both cases, you can convert inbound leads into sales.

The bottom line here is that it’s important to put out the best possible content so that people see how awesome your brand is.

The methods discussed above — blog content, lead magnets, social media, etc. — are really basic. Elemental though they seem, they are the tactics that are used by most companies today to generate inbound leads.

Don’t let that constrain you. Inbound lead generation is the realm of creativity and imagination. 

Explore, test, iterate, and find the method that works best for your brand and product. 

Step 2: Get Information

Second, people find those resources and get directed to a landing page with a contact form. 

At this point, people are heading to your site for the express purpose of learning more about your product. Many people will even have serious intent to purchase, and these folks are your SQLs.

At this stage, sending leads to a contact form is integral. 

This is how you’ll get critical info about the lead, like what kind of company they work for and why they’re considering your product. 

The fewer fields you include on the form, the more likely the lead will submit their contact info. 

If you want to make it as easy as possible (while still getting all the data you need to qualify the lead) useZoominfo FormComplete.

They work to match the lead’s email with their database of over 130 million business contacts. FormComplete will then automatically fill information into the remaining form fields.

Step 3: Capture The Lead

Third, the lead fills out that contact form and begins engagement with your sales team.

By now, a lot of the hard work is done, but it’s still important to seamlessly transfer the lead to sales as quickly as possible. This will give you a much higher chance of converting the lead.

At this point, you can consider the lead to be captured, and this completes this portion of the lead conversion process. 

Now that you understand the general process of how to convert inbound leads, we’ll look specifically at how to qualify each type of lead.

How to Use Speed to Convert Inbound Leads

When you’re considering how to manage inbound sales leads, there’s another element that matters: speed.

How soon do you think you have to contact a lead to have the best shot at converting them?

The answer is about 5 minutes. And nope, that’s not a typo.

In fact, you should ideally be even faster––within one minute.

That’s not a typo. 

Speed to lead statistics show that responding to a lead within the first minute can increase conversions by up to 391%.

One influential study from the Harvard Business Review was instrumental in proving that speed is critical when qualifying leads. 

Automatically Engage the Lead to Convert Inbound Leads Effectively

You need to automatically engage the lead so you don’t lose your shot at converting them.

Of course, the hard thing is being that fast, and that’s why you need a robust software solution to help you manage sales leads. After all, the inbound marketing tools you use are just as important as your approach.

You need lead management software that can respond to clients quickly and automate qualification. 

This will greatly reduce the time and effort it takes to manage leads and allow you to actually focus on the leads instead of getting bogged down by administrative work.

And if you’re currently using underpowered software, making the switch to a more powerful solution could double or triple the amount of leads you get.

That’s why we’ve made Chili Piper do what it does. 

Our Concierge product automatically engages warm leads who respond to your contact form and helps gather information quickly so you can assign the lead to the right sales rep and begin the conversion process.

Scheduling Instant Calls Isn’t Always Possible

Converting inbound leads right away is ideal, but won’t be possible much of the time.

In this case, your inbound lead generation process should allow these prospects to book a meeting with a sales rep when it’s convenient for them.

Again, whatever software you’re using should have this feature baked in. 

Popular and free calendar apps are not designed to function both as booking calendars,routing tools, and Salesforce integration powerhouses. Chili Piper is. 

To optimize your process and convert inbound leads effectively, you need something more robust. 

Ready to convert inbound leads more effectively?

The right software will not only help you convert inbound leads but also manage and assign those leads without any roadblocks.

That’s where Chili Piper comes in. If you need a better lead generation solution, Chili Piper will be your new best friend.

Want to see how Chili Piper works?

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