When it comes to inbound marketing, converting leads is arguably the most important step of the process.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how many leads you managed to convert into customers. There are many factors that influence your inbound lead conversion rate but having the right lead conversion strategy is usually what will determine your success.

In today’s post, we will be taking a look at 8 ways you can convert your inbound leads into sales. Follow these strategies and become an inbound marketing pro in no time!

#1 Define your buyer personas

The first step, before you even begin working on how to convert your leads, is defining your buyer personas. By doing proper research, you will be able to easily identify the problems and pain points your personas are facing, which will help you learn how to solve them. 

So, how do you define a buyer persona? Think about the following things.

• What is their demographic? Age, gender, median earnings, etc. – all of these things can play a major role in what a person may be interested in.

• Where are they from? A person’s location can be a good indicator of whether or not they’ll be interested in your product/service. For example, if you’re selling a software solution that’s perfectly tailored for the North American market, your ideal customer will likely be from the U.S. and Canada.

• What is their job title? Certain positions will be better suited for your product than others. You should account for this when creating your perfect buyer persona.

• What are they interested in? If you’re selling a social media automation tool, your ideal customer will be someone who uses (and reads about) social media on a regular basis. Interests are among the most important criteria when defining a customer persona.

#2 Create valuable content

When it comes to inbound marketing, the only way you people are going to convert on something you are offering is if it’s valuable to them. That’s why you need to beef up your content and ensure that the audience perceives the value they would get from you. 

When working on your content, make sure that you think of your target audience and their pain points and develop an offer that will solve these for them. Do your research and create a content strategy that covers all the relevant topics your audience will be faced with, in great length.

Most importantly, make the content actionable. Don’t just stuff your articles with keywords – solve problems and leave your readers with valuable takeaways they can implement instantly.

Here's an example of our own from last year. We researched over 30 different ways sales and marketing teams can use video to convert more leads and retain more customers, and bundled them up into the Video Funnel Playbook - over 30 proven video funnels to convert more customers and turn them into superfans of your business.

Here are some other great techniques to keep your leads engaged and turn them into customers!

#3 Understand different inbound lead generation conversion paths

To increase your conversion rate, you need to ensure that all of the components in the conversion funnel are up to par. These include CTAs and landing pages. Let’s explore all of them in more detail.

CTAs

CTAs are one of the most basic elements of any given page. With the right CTAs placed on your website, you will encourage leads to want to click on them to learn more about your offer. 

When placing the CTAs, you need to be thoughtful. People are more likely to convert if the CTA is near the content that is similar to the copy on the CTA. If you can, A/B test the sizes, designs, and the copy of your CTAs to find the best-performing ones. Use action words in your CTA copy, emphasize the value of your offer and reduce risk so that your leads are more comfortable with buying.

Landing pages

Once your visitors click on the CTA, they land on a page. This page should include a summary of your offer and some sort of form which can be filled out with information you want in exchange for the offer. 

Source: CXL

Make sure that you optimize your landing page, as this is the first step in grabbing the attention of a website visitor and getting them interested in what you are offering. The best practices for optimizing your landing pages include using intuitive design, having a clear and fluid experience for visitors, clear headlines, and no distractions. 

If your landing page fails to hit its mark, you will have a hard time converting visitors. Try to experiment with landing pages and see what works best. Try different copy, headlines and page lengths to see what visitors react to the most. 

Also, gather as much data as you can about your landing page visitors, as the data will help you better understand your visitor behavior and it will be easier for you to make any necessary changes to further optimize your landing pages.

#4 Drive more traffic to your website

This is just basic math: the more people that enter your funnel, the more leads you’ll typically get.

At the end of the day, if you want people to convert on your inbound offers, they need to see them. This means that you need to promote your content if you want to increase your lead conversion rates. Both social media and email are great mediums to promote your content. 

On social media, make sure that you target the places where your buyer personas usually are. Do your research and focus only on the right platforms. For email, keep your list updated with current emails as this will help keep your list targeted, making it easier to convert.

Lastly, an SEO content strategy should be at the forefront of your efforts to increase website traffic. Use Google’s Keyword Planner (it’s completely free!) to find which topics your users are interested in and plan your content around those. Of course, this is just the beginning of your SEO journey but it will give you a good idea of how you can use a long-term approach to generate leads on a regular basis.

>> Want to convert more inbound leads? Learn how you can nurture leads with personalized video: User onboarding with video <<

#5 Testimonials

If people trust your brand, they are more likely to convert into leads. People look at online reviews all the time to ensure that what they are buying is both valuable and worthy of their money and time. In fact, people are 92% more likely to trust a recommendation than any form of paid ads.

Source: WPMU Dev

Introduce customer testimonials to your website and it will help you be recognized as a credible vendor. The social proof will help your brand image and your visitors will feel more confident in moving forward with you!

If you want to take things even further, think about customer testimonial videos. Here are some testimonial video examples to get you started

#6 Qualify leads with lead scoring

A great way to improve your inbound lead conversion rate is to prioritize your leads so that you know which ones are ready to move forward and which ones need more nurturing.

For example, if someone has signed up for your demo, they are clearly showing an interest in your product and are ready to move to your sales team. On the other hand, someone visiting your blog for the first time will need some nurturing before you can hit them with an offer. Their next logical step might be to sign up for your newsletter which you can use to – nurture that lead!

Source: Cyberclick

One of the best ways to qualify leads is with lead scoring. With this technique, leads are assigned a numerical score that determines where they fall on the scales which ranges from leads that are just showing interest to leads that are ready to make a purchase.

Lead scoring will help you sort out your leads more efficiently and categorize them by their level of commitment. If lead scores are leveraged correctly, they can be incredibly helpful!

#7 Improve your speed

Timing is everything in inbound lead conversion. If you wait for too long, even the most qualified leads can move on.

That’s why you need to act fast on leads which will help you close more leads and lead to more revenue for your company. By responding quickly, you put yourself in a position to connect with leads when they are their most receptive. You need to remove any distractions that are getting in your way and be more prompt when it comes to responding. 

In fact, here at Bonjoro, we ran a split test last year, and found that our own leads were 21% more likely to convert if we sent them a personalized onboarding video within 3 hours. A big factor in this increase was open rates - we saw that after 3 hours open rates from our leads dropped from 71% to 56%.

While it would be great if you had a sales rep that can contact a lead directly, this is not always possible. There are other ways you can initiate contact and help get the ball rolling. For example, you can send an automated email to touch base with the lead and provide them with basic information about your services or product. You can also offer them a demo so that they can get a feel for your product.

Remember: it’s all about keeping the momentum going and your leads engaged!

#8 Slow down and have a genuine conversation with each inbound lead

Many companies shoot themselves in the foot by getting too aggressive with their leads. Sales reps sometimes want to make a sale right then and there and they push a product onto the lead to the point that they become uncomfortable and just back away.

Instead of doing this, make sure that you take your time and let your lead get to know your product and the brand. Slowing down with sales will help you establish more integrity with the lead before going for the sale. Yes, it does require more patience and some tact but it can make a huge difference in the long run.

It’s what inbound lead generation is all about: building a customer-oriented strategy!

Also, try to have a real genuine conversation with your leads. Make sure that you identify their pain points and take your time to come up with a personalized solution tailored to their exact needs.

Talk to prospects and make sure that you create personalized interactions that are unique to each person. By doing this instead of selling hard, you will build rapport and show leads the full potential of your product or service.

How can Bonjoro help with turning leads into sales?

At Bonjoro, we’re all about helping you make those real connections. No fluff, no salesy language – real human interactions that show your inbound leads how much you care about their business.

So, for example, you can use Bonjoro to send a quick personalized video and create instant rapport with each new lead that comes to you. In this personalized video, you can greet your new lead, thank them for considering you, and point them to some valuable content they can get started with right away. This provides instant value and helps you create that connection we’re all looking to create!

Now, you might think that’s a lot of work: recording a separate video for each new lead, mentioning everyone’s name, and saying the same words over and over again.

No worries – we solved this for you by introducing video playlists as part of our Bonjoro 2.0 launch. Now, you can record a short intro video where you address the lead directly and build a connection. After that, you can drop pre-recorded videos with key information right below that one!

That way, you get that perfect balance of personalization without doing too much of the legwork yourself

Here's a 2 minute video showing you how you can do this yourself:

Check out what we offer and register for a free trial!

Frequently asked questions about inbound leads

Here are the answers to the most popular inbound leads questions that people ask online.

What are inbound and outbound leads?

Inbound leads are leads that initiate contact with your company, either directly or through referral channels. Inbound leads usually initiate contact after reading your blog, getting a direct referral from someone they trust and through social media. 

On the other hand, outbound leads are leads that you have developed through proactive contact that was initiated by you. These are leads that you either found through an online search, using a scraping method, or in any other way.

How do you get inbound leads?

There are a lot of ways to generate leads for your business including creating quality and actionable content, search engine optimization, webinars, marketing on social media, product videos and more.

Whatever your approach, the logic behind it is always the same: providing valuable content that gets the leads to come to you.

How do you manage inbound leads?

The goal of inbound lead management is to collect information about each lead and provide them with a personalized experience and relevant content. 

There are a few ways to manage your inbound leads, including lead scoring and lead nurturing — two techniques we explore in this blog post. Other inbound lead management techniques are segmented lists, smart forms, chatbots and more.

Final thoughts

When it comes to converting inbound leads into sales, you need to be proactive. You never know which of your leads will turn into sales – which is why it is important to motivate yourself and your team to keep trying new things!

Whatever you do, remember to focus on providing value and keep improving your processes. There is a lot to learn about inbound, and each new lead generated will teach you an important lesson.

And, if you want to stand out from the competition with truly innovative inbound practices, try personalized video! Register for a free trial of Bonjoro and learn how personalized video can help you convert.