In a study spanning five years, Forbes.com reports that as much as 71% of internet sales leads are simply lost. But it has been proven that this number can be decreased dramatically by using tools to capture leads’ information and nurture them by educating them and gaining their trust. Our personal favorite platform for this process is HubSpot, which offers a robust suite of tools to capture and nurture leads from points A to Z.
But realistically, not everyone can afford a platform like HubSpot right away. And even those with a sufficient budget may be too new to inbound marketing to want to make such a commitment. That’s why an experimental team within HubSpot created LeadIn, a free marketing automation and CRM plugin.
LeadIn automates information gathering so marketers can tailor their approach to individual visitors with the ultimate goal of moving them through the sales funnel efficiently. It offers an intuitive interface that integrates seamlessly with any WordPress website, and is invisible to clients and customers.
This is a fantastic tool if you want to dip your toes into the inbound marketing pool, and serves as great practice before you dive into bigger tools like HubSpot. As you are getting started, keep in mind these three ways to make this popular plug-in work hard for your website.
Let LeadIn do the heavy lifting
Pop-ups remain an effective way to capture leads without making your visitors jump through hoops. Set up the automatic pop-up through LeadIn to help grow your subscriber list with just a few clicks, and make sure it’s communicating with your company’s email platform.
LeadIn offers easy connectivity with the most popular and easy to operate email tools available without moving existing lists. The software works with existing forms, so it’s easy to enjoy the additional analytics offered by LeadIn without sacrificing more than five minutes to making the connection between this plugin and AWeber, Campaign Monitor, GetResponse, Constant Contact, or MailChimp.
Once you have your pop-up in place (or your sidebar form—whichever you feel most comfortable with), keep an eye on your stats over time to see how well it’s converting. You’ll be able to make adjustments over time to optimize the features that perform the best.
Use LeadIn’s power for good
With the new and exciting ability to track a website visitor’s journey through your website, LeadIn offers the kind of analytics that make drilling down into an individual visitor’s experience nearly irresistible.
While it may be tempting to grab a sandwich and watch people’s footsteps throughout your site, it’s really important to know what to do with that information and where to let analytics replace intuition.
Pay close attention to patterns after the tool gathers information from several hundred visitors. Do you have a landing page full of choices and valuable data, but see that the majority of guests visit for only a few seconds? Are less than 10% of your visitors filling out your form(s)?
This tool offers the power to tweak a website in order to please and entice the masses seeking information. So use the data to develop a site that answers common questions, offers valuable information, and provides a shareable experience for your visitors.
Target your social media efforts
LeadIn provides users with the ability to track a single visitor’s path throughout a site. As soon as that visitor fills out a form, their social media preferences become apparent as well.
Pay attention to which platforms customers are drawn to. Do half of the identified website visitors have a Facebook presence? Maybe only 10% use Pinterest, but 80% are active on Twitter. Tailor your efforts to the social media channels where site visitors spend time, and watch the audience grow. Like attracts like, and if part of the targeted demographic prefers one social media channel over another, take it as a sign to move in their direction.
Inbound marketing is an undeniably crucial part of any marketing plan. Without a viable and comprehensive strategy for capturing lead information at the moment they seek a service or product, the opportunity to nurture a lead is lost. That’s why LeadIn is a great way to test the waters before you’re ready to launch a full-blown inbound marketing campaign.
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