The last 20 years have seen a revolution in the way businesses find new customers. In the beginning, it was simple things like relying on flyers, and then came the Yellow Pages, the first online directory. However, as the internet continued to grow, businesses found ways to utilize the new medium to expand their reach and find new customers. Along with the sheer number of ways companies can reach potential customers comes the increased need for better quality leads.

It’s crucial to remember that not every lead that comes your way will convert into a paying customer. In fact, the latest studies show that only 10-15% of leads will make the conversion into a customer. 

That said, before you can begin generating better quality leads, it’s essential to understand lead quality in 2022. Otherwise, it may be hard to meet the milestones and goals you’ve set for your marketing team this year.

Key Takeaways:

• The key to generating better quality leads is understanding the different types of leads.
• It’s essential to know how to adjust your marketing tactics to generate better quality leads.
• Getting better quality leads means knowing your audience and how to reach them. 

Defining Lead Quality in 2022

A quality lead is defined as a lead that is likely to become a paying customer. This means they are interested in your product or service and are ready to buy. 

In 2022, the focus on quality means that companies are moving away from volume-based tactics. Instead, they’re investing in finding and developing better quality leads, with approximately 73% of businesses stating that their lead generation priorities are focused on lead quality over lead quantity.

Source: FinancesOnline

There are dozens of different ways you can define lead quality in 2022, but an excellent place to start is by understanding the different types of leads, including:

• Hot Leads: These are leads that are ready to buy today. They typically have a high interest in your product or service and are prepared to move forward with a purchase.
• Warn Leads: These are leads that have shown some level of interest in your business but aren’t ready to buy right away. They’re still at the exploration stage and may become a hot lead in the future if nurtured properly.
• Cold Leads: These are leads that have little to no interest in buying, but they may have interacted with your brand at some point, such as through a social media interaction or signing up for your newsletter.
• Dead Leads: These are leads that have shown no interest in your business or have no further interest in interacting with you. As a result, they’re likely to never become a paying customer.

The majority of leads fall into one of three general lead types: information qualified leads, marketing qualified leads, and sales qualified leads. 

Information Qualified Leads

Information-qualified leads are those interested in exploring your business but aren’t ready to buy. They may be at the research stage and want to learn more about your products or services, or they may be at the exploration stage and want to learn more about your industry. These are the most common leads and are often the easiest to find. 

Marketing Qualified Leads

Marketing qualified leads are those leads that are ready to be marketed to. They often come from channels such as social media, email, and online ads. The goal of marketing qualified leads is to get them to where they’re ready to buy. 

Sales Qualified Leads

Sales-qualified leads are those leads that are ready to buy. They’ve interacted with your sales team and are prepared to move forward with a purchase. Sales-qualified leads are often the hardest leads to find, but they’re also the most valuable. 

Hit Your Milestones in 2022 with Better Quality Leads: 5 Tips Worth Considering

If one of your primary business goals in 2022 is to improve your lead gen strategy and generate better quality leads, then you’ll want to consider these five tips: 

1. Improve Response Rates

When potential leads are in the cold/warm stages, they typically search for information on a specific topic. This is an excellent opportunity to proactively provide them with the information they’re looking for. 

In many cases, these potential leads will reach out to your team via chatbot, email, or even social media to ask questions or get information. Unfortunately, if these individuals are left on read or take too long to receive a response, they will go elsewhere.

Studies show that while the average response time typically falls at 12 hours, customers today expect a response much faster – with 46% expecting a reply within 4 hours and 12% within 15 minutes or less. 

2. Diversify Your Marketing Content

To provide the highest level of customer service and generate the highest quality leads, you’ll need to diversify your marketing content. Instead of pushing only one type of content, such as sales copy or blog posts, leverage multiple channels to generate a larger response. This will allow you to provide different educational content at various touchpoints. 

3. Invest in Creating an Omnichannel Experience 

The best-performing marketing teams of 2022 will most likely have a centralized, omnichannel experience for their leads. This will be crucial for providing the highest level of customer service, regardless of where the lead is in their buying journey. It will also allow you to better serve your leads where they’re most comfortable, whether that’s via social media, email, or another channel. This will allow you to increase the response rate and ultimately generate better quality leads.

4. Implement Voice and Local Search into Your Lead Gen Strategy

With approximately 55% of consumers using voice search to find local business information and nearly 20% of all internet searches being voice-based, investing in voice search is a smart strategy. This will allow you to better understand the questions that are being asked by your potential leads and provide them with the information they’re looking for. 

5. Invest in Video Marketing

Video is an increasingly popular marketing medium and is becoming an integral part of the modern lead generation strategy. Video can be used in various ways, from educational content to providing information and answering questions to generating leads by giving a sales pitch.          

Not only that, but more and more consumers are heading to their favorite social media platforms to interact with brands and learn about new products and services. By leveraging video, you’ll be able to provide a more personal experience for these leads, which will ultimately generate more sales and better-quality leads. 

Source: Animoto via FinancesOnline

While these five tips are an excellent way to help you generate better quality leads, your options don’t end there! Here’s a great video resource to help you further generate ideas for your brand:

Reach Your Digital Marketing Milestones This Year with MXTR

Marketers are constantly working to reach their digital marketing goals in today’s digital landscape. To reach your 2022 milestones, you’ll need to generate better quality leads. The best way to do this is by leveraging multiple strategies and the right tools – and MXTR can help. 

Ready to see how MXTR can help you with generating better quality leads? Check out our demo today!

 

Featured Image: istockphoto