YesorNo_CoverIn the previous blog in this series on bucketing leads, I talked about ways to gather your least qualified leads and how you can push them through your sales funnel. Today, let’s walk through what to do with leads who have shown an interest in your business and who have given you some of their contact information.

It’s important to note that these leads have also given you permission to market to them. Just to be clear, these rules and tips do not in any way apply to contacts or emails you’ve either purchased or stumbled into. Even old, outdated leads should be considered top of the funnel and not lumped into the leads bucket we’re talking about today.

Evaluating Your Interested Leads

This is the stage of the funnel where your first useful leads data exists. Often, this only consists of a first name and an email address, and that’s ok! The leads who fall into this bucket are ready for you to follow-up.

They aren’t the highest priority- as they haven’t shown any indication they’re ready to buy- but you now have enough information to nudge them gently towards your products and services.

‘Interested’ leads are usually gathered using these methods:

  • Downloads or offers on your website
  • Web-based inquiry or “Ask Us a Question” page
  • Email inquiry
  • Telephone inquiry
  • Visited multiple pages on your website (though these are hard leads to get contact data from, even with Google Analytics)

All of these sources are designed to grab the most basic contact information from leads. Consider sending these leads an informational email describing your products or services and maybe even offer special discounts to move them towards a purchase.

The leads from my last bullet point should simply be kept as a running tally, not a certified lead list. These visitors have shown they are much more interested than ‘random web traffic’ through their behavior and their willingness to navigate through multiple pages on your site. Again, the higher this number is, the more engaging and meaningful your content is.

Action Items

Contacting interested leads is where the fun really begins. You have lots of options available to you, but the most effective methods are automated email drip campaigns and general direct mail.

Drip Campaigns

Automated email drip campaigns are an effective way to quickly reach out to interested leads who give you their information by downloading a specific offer. Simply write emails pertaining to the topic of each piece of downloadable content you create, making sure to include links to either your shopping cart or a direct contact form.

Once a lead enters your funnel, your email marketing system will automatically send them the email you’ve linked to that specific offer. This gives interested leads a sense of timeliness from you and provides them even more useful information to help make their purchasing decision. You can send these messages at different times and in a progressing series, so as not to overwhelm your leads right off the bat. I’m a fan of using Constant Contact to manage email lists and send automatic drip campaigns.

General Direct Mail

This method of follow-up may sound old and stodgy, but stick with me here. Few things say “I care about your interest in our business” more than a meaningful piece of direct mail. These can range anywhere from a quick, postcard sized “Thank You” sent out to people who enter your mailing list, all the way to an informational brochure specific to the type of information in the resource they downloaded.

You can also add a personal call to action on your direct mail pieces asking recipients to either call you directly or visit a landing page specifically built to grab follow-up information from these leads. Getting interested leads to take the next step is a sure-fire way to move them to the next level of your funnel.

Next Steps

Hopefully this article gives you sufficient groundwork for moving interested leads towards a sale. In the next post in this series, we’ll dive deeper into how to turn your “On the Fence” leads into true conversions. Do you have any other tips for reaching out to interested leads? Be sure to share your tips in the comments.

Now that you know email is a great way to start converting interested leads into sales, download our 6 Easy Steps to Email Success and start building your plan:

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