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Gaining leads is expensive. That’s why it’s important for all professionals, freelancers, and businesses to make sure that they are actively engaged in lead tracking, a crucial component of building a robust and stable customer base.
But what exactly is “lead tracking?” Essentially, it’s where you to keep tabs on all of the people who have shown interest in your services. Sometimes, that interest might be overt – for instance, they might have called you up and enquired about your products. But most of the time your leads will have interacted with your business in a more covert way, such as signing up for a newsletter, responding to a post on Twitter or visiting your blog.
The key to successful conversions is to keep tabs on your leads. You want to know who is likely to result in a sale – and, therefore, where you should target your resources – and who isn’t. Here’s how.
Use Social Media Tracking Tools
Most marketing professionals are totally unaware that social media can be used to track leads. But it can – quite easily actually. To track leads effectively, you’ll need to use Google Analytics. This will help you track users as they move from your social media pages to your website and help you figure out what their needs are based on the content they consume. You can then use their IP address to put them into various “bins” or categories based on their behavior and tailor your marketing approach.
Build A CRM System
Managing your sales leads on a spreadsheet is time-consuming and inaccurate. If you’re the type of business that relies on a large number of leads per paying customer, it’s also impractical.
To get around this problem, many companies invest in customer relationship platform from firms like FieldPulse. Not only do these platforms help to organize sales leads logically and understandably, but they also provide companies with detailed information on customer characteristics. Customer characteristics are important because they can be used to predict what product they might buy next, whether they have complained about your service, and who they last spoke to when they contacted your firm.
Put Your Leads Into Categories Based On The Likelihood That They Will Buy
Not all leads are created equal. Some are more likely to buy than others. But because of the time that it takes to follow up on leads, it’s important to prioritize the leads that you follow up. If things are quiet, by all means, follow up even the most tenuous of leads. But if it’s busy and you only have so many salespeople at your disposal, only get in touch with the most promising potential clients.
Start off with a very basic approach: identify your leads as either “hot,” “lukewarm,” or “cold.” Hot leads are people you know could benefit from the product and have the money and authority to pay for it. Lukewarm prospects are those who might not have the authority, but certainly, have a need for your service. And finally, cold leads are those who have interacted with your business, but probably don’t have any reason to buy from you.
