How Often Should I Market to New Web Leads?

Keeping the interest of a lead after conversion is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome for any business. There is a balance between providing leads with enough information to make an educated choice, and just annoying the heck out of someone. The goal is to find the middle ground.

The first idea to keep in mind is the person who just converted from your website did so for a specific reason. They wanted to download a case study, they want a free trial, or they wanted to see how much your product costs. In each of these situations they are willing to give you their contact information for something of value. This means their information should hold value to you as well. So the real question is, how do I configure my e mail and phone response to this lead to get the most value out of it, every time?

Through practice and experience I have found the answer to that question. There is little variation to when and how often you should be contacting new web leads, regadless of the industry or business you are in.

First Contact

Your first contact should be no longer than five minutes after conversion, and by phone. This means you need to require a phone field on your web form. Do not respond by e mail first, unless you do not plan on responding by phone at all. Most companies have automatic e mail responders. A recent study of the Alexa top 250 shows 47% of companies responded to web inquiries through e mail. 7.5% responded by phone. Only 0.6% of those that responded by phone did so within five minutes. By being the first to contact a lead, while your company is still on their mind, you are positioning your company with a true competitive advantage. The same study showed the odds of qualifying a lead increase by 21x if attempted within five minutes versus 30 minutes.

Succeeding Contacts

After the first contact you should have a standard strategy for contacting leads. Don't be too overbearing by attempting to contact them every day for three months. Don't be bashful and only attempt one call and give up. There should be balance. I've found the following strategy to work the best.

Calls

Your calling strategy will depend on your bandwidth. The more resources you have available for lead generation, the more success you will see down the pipeline. The first day you should attempt to contact a lead through calls up to four times the first day, leaving one voice message. The next four days you should attempt to contact through calls a maximum of twice per day, leaving one voice message per day. After the first week, you should attempt contact once every other day by phone, until the lead is a month old. At a month old, it should then be moved into a never contacted status, attempt contact once per month by phone. Keep in mind these limits are for leads that you have not yet been able to contact. Once contacted and dispositioned, the strategy changes.

E Mail

In today's world E mail contact is just as important as giving someone a call. After the first e mail response you should be e mailing less than calling. People can keep track of your e mail trail much better than a missed call trail. Don't become spam.

E mail two should happen on day two, right after the call and voice message. E mail three should come on day three, right after the call and voice message. E mail four should come on day five. E mail five should come just after one week, so day eight. You should then be e mailing a maximum of once per week until the lead is a month old. After a month old, you should e mail a maximum of once per week.

To sumarize, you should send at least four e mails in the first week, with one e mail per week in each successive week. At a month old you should e mail a maximum of one per month, into perpetuity.

Again, keep in mind this assumes the lead is dispositioned as never contacted. Once this status changes these strategies change.

The overall goal is to get the most out of your leads. Be plesantly persistent. Don't be overbearing. Don't be shy. But attempt contact enough to give yourself a fighting chance.