In the world of internet marketing, strategic knowledge of every step is an essential key to success.
From setting up the website to maintaining the sales and clientele, one should possess an intricate strategy of decision-making and following potential leads.
One particular ideology in internet marketing that is essential to growing the business is knowing and applying the importance of lead validation. Lead validation is the process of reviewing all recorded customer and potential-client interactions to identify which of these are possible leads for sales. Sounds simple?
To be completely transparent, lead validation is probably the most tedious part of internet marketing and maintenance. However, it is the proverbial “diamond” under a rock moment, especially when you are trained to identify and validate potential leads that can lead to a successful transaction.
Simply put – knowing how to validate a lead will mean knowing how to identify a sale even before it has happened, even before you even speak or answer back to a potential client.
What are the mechanics of lead validation?
Lead validation may come in many forms and ways, and it mostly depends on your type of internet marketing strategy. For example, the comments section of your website. This is one of the simplest and common areas where a potential client can contact you or speak to you indirectly.
From here, you review the feedback, take the notable items into considerations, identify a possible lead in the trigger words of the client, and direct it to a sale.
You may or may not have a separate department for your sales. Either way, when you identify and validate a lead, the next step is sales and reaching out to the client to showcase the products or services.
There are also other ways to check for leads. If you are a big business and have several ways to contact your team, it would be best to have these ways of communication saved for future review and validation for leads. Among the other ways of contact are:
- Over-the-phone: When you cater to phone calls and hotline inquiries, having these calls recorded and stored for potential lead references is advisable. You can listen to the calls and check for potential clients based on their inquiry and signal words.
- Chat support: If you have chat support via your won chat app/tool or via social media, it would be much easier for you to track and identify possible leads by looking for trigger words that can signify a lead.
- Comments section: The comments section on your social media page or website is a lot powerful for potential leads than for feedback. Clients and consumers that go through your page and find interest will look for the quickest way to reach you, and that is by leaving a comment.
This part is a little tricky though, because not all details of the inquiry are left in the comments section. However, this is the easiest and least tedious among the three ways, as comments may not be as long as reading through a chat or transcribing phone calls.
The secret is to identify trigger words.
There are other uncommon ways to reach out to potential clients and validate leads such as:
- Calling out to referenced contacts, and;
- Sending out a survey via email or text
These different methods may vary but the main gist is to speak to clients and find out, from their words or actions used, whether or not you are on to a sale.
What is the purpose of lead tracking and validation?
The knowledge of lead tracking and validation puts a business on top of the game in terms of internet marketing. There’s the challenge of online transactions which could be a constraint as it is, but knowing how to identify and validate a lead is also like having a regular interaction with a potential customer offline. You get the queries and suggestions leading to a sale.
Aside from identifying a potential sale, lead tracking and validation also has other essential purposes. Tracking these interactions will allow give you data to analyze important patterns in the business such as: what are the most common queries you get and what are the signalling patterns of potential clients to become regular clients.
This data will allow you to anticipate the clients’ questions and identify high potential queries.
Also, the ability to identify and validate a lead makes future lead validation routines easier. By reviewing more customer submissions on comment boxes and the like, you will easily eye a high potential lead which would give you faster business movement.
How to identify and validate a lead?
The key is knowing how to identify and validate a lead. Truth be told, learning this part is challenging, especially since you could encounter all types of people with different ways to express their queries and comments. The secret is checking for underlying triggers.
Underlying triggers are key points to look for in potential customers’ statements that signify they are interested in your products / services. Mastering this, you should be able to bring your A-game in converting even the simplest lead to real customers. Among these psychological underlying triggers are:
- Customers telling a story about their experience: In this scenario, the customer relates to you and you can relate back with how your products and services can help them. On this personal level, you will gain the customer’s trust and confidence.
- Simplified requests: Some customers who are direct to the point with their questions are in a considerable urgent need of the type of services you offer. With the right ways of presenting your services, this lead can be converted into a client quicker.
- Curious customers: Individuals who express curiosity in the products and services you offer can be convinced to become regular clients when you follow through with the list of benefits of your products. Basically, it boils down to how you present your products and services.
Half of your “Leads” are Not Leads
It is important to know that not all leads are going to end up in successful sale. It’s a normal reality in internet marketing, as well as regular marketing and businesses. Leads are only there to guide you to the customers who are interested in your products and services, but like every other business type, it goes back to the customer whether they would like to avail of your services or not.
Regardless, lead validation is essential to categorize the types of people who are browsing through your website and leaving queries and comments.
Data Analysis
Analytics will help you prepare and anticipate your business needs at a given time and wave of requirements. Keeping data and analysis of the data can help you forecast the trend of your business and the demand of your products at a given time, especially if you have products that go by the seasons.
Keeping data in store will give you a view of the following:
- Fluctuation: You will see points such as: (1) when are your products most and least sold, and (2) when do you need to prepare more products in store.
- High rated products and services: Keeping an analysis will also give you a view of which products or services are highest ranked and most queried by potential customers. This will let you know that (1) you should update the details of these products to be more informative or (2) you should highlight these products and services more, as they stand out as potential leads.
- Feedback on your processes: Tracking your leads will also give you a view on the customer feedback left of your website, even for potential leads only. Taking these comments and feedback into account can be an effective way to improve your processes in doing business and make improvements in your products and services. Although, take note, not all suggestions and comments are good for the business, thus wise decision-making still play an important role here.
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Lead Validation and Profit
To sum it all up, what is the importance of lead validation in internet marketing? The answer: lead validation “leads” you to your customers. With the constraint of online interactions in internet marketing, identifying customers from the sea of people who go in and out of your website is not as easy as it looks.
Knowing how to identify and validate leads is the first step to growing the business faster, even with the wave of people accessing and reviewing your products and services.
What does this all mean?
It simply means one thing for the business: profit. With more leads, you can generate more sales and income that can grow the business and grow your profit.
It goes back to how fast you identify the leads in your customer interactions and how well you present your products and services to these potential customers, leading to a complete and successful clientele. Lead validation equals profit and business growth.