Unless you know the source of the leads you generate, you will have a tougher time converting prospects into paying customers. Thankfully, there are a few key ways to work this out, and modern tools to make this as efficient as possible, so here are just a handful of options to consider if you want to send your sales soaring upward.
Call Tracking
A relatively traditional approach, yet one which has evolved along with the technology supporting it, call tracking is simply the process of finding out the origins of inbound calls made to your business.
With modern call tracking software you will not only be able to make sure that callers are directed to the right endpoint, but also to extract useful information about how they found your business in the first place.
This data can then be used to drive both online and offline marketing campaign decision-making, whether that might be through keyword optimization on landing pages, or adjusting print ad placement.
Upfront Question-Asking
Another option for tracking leads precisely is to be upfront about it and simply ask them, perhaps as part of a contact form posted on your website.
This can be a useful way of attributing sources to leads post-generation, although of course it relies on the leads being motivated to fill out all of the fields of the contact form, so it should not be your only tactic if you want to build a clearer picture over time.
Unique Discount Code Use
An increasingly common strategy for lead tracking is to make use of source-specific promotional codes, which give you an immediate indication of where a prospective customer heard about or encountered your business.
This also has the added benefit of making it easier to organize your sales info according to a potentially significant parameter. Just remember that it makes sense to avoid using the same codes across multiple channels, because of course this will tell you less about the leads generated.
CRM Leveraging
Customer relationship management services have come on in leaps and bounds, and the market is very competitive, meaning that packages which provide advanced lead tracking capabilities are accessible to organizations of all sizes.
Bear in mind that the more complex and multifaceted your campaigns, the trickier it will be to ensure that every channel is properly integrated with your CRM of choice for the purposes of tracking. Even so, the investment of time and money needed to harness the full potential of the latest CRM will definitely be justifiable in the long run.
Website Analytics
Last but not least, looking into the automatically generated analytics associated with your website is an inexpensive and potentially effective way of determining the source of leads, although you may need to do more legwork to extrapolate insights from the data.
Free solutions like Google Analytics are hugely popular for this reason, and can have applications in both sales and marketing contexts, as well as in post-sales support.
short url: