Under the term lead means a list of contacts interested in a company's products or services, and is also a key resource in the e-commerce sector, which can increase sales e building customer loyalty. These are two of the main objectives of an e-commerce site, and their achievement depends on many variables, including the lead generation, and thus all the strategies that are used to increase traffic to one's portal and lead potential customers to purchase a product or service.
In this article, we will therefore look at what lead generation is specifically and what are the best strategies that can be adopted for an e-commerce site that performs international shipments.
What is lead generation
As we have said, the lead generation allows an e-commerce to build up a contact list of customers interested in the product or service on offer, and these results can be achieved with various strategies that demonstrate the commitment and ability of the e-commerce to attract the attention of potential customers, prompting them to interact with the platform and leave their personal data, in particular the’e-mail address, which will be crucial in the creation of the contact list on which to base the targeted marketing campaigns.
When collecting contacts, however, a fundamental clarification must be made, namely that in this case it's not the quantity that counts, but the quality. In fact, it is more conducive to achieving corporate objectives to have a list of a few truly interested contacts to the brand, product or service, rather to having a very long list of leads that never showed a specific interest.
In addition, it will also be necessary building a relationship with existing customers, actively involving them and sending them interesting and relevant material and content, so as to build their loyalty and drive them to purchase. In order to do all this effectively, however, it is essential to make a preliminary work on the creation of the lead generation strategy proper, which includes the data collection, their analysis and the definition of objectives.
In fact, for the strategy to effectively help achieve the objectives, it is necessary first to target the right people, identifying a typical customer, also called buyer person. In order to be able to profile them, one must gather a range of information on their characteristics, such as gender, age group, geographic location, level of education, income, interests, and more. The more precise you are in defining this typical customer, the more you will be able to address them with the most suitable tone and form.
Lead generation strategies for e-commerce
Once you have identified your typical customer, how does one actually do lead generation? In this respect, there are numerous strategies, which differ according to the type of company and the product or service it offers, and this also applies to e-commerce, which like all sectors has its peculiarities. Therefore, in the next few lines we will focus on some specific lead generation strategies for this type of business.
However, we cannot overlook what is one of the cornerstones of online marketing, namely that of creating valuable content, i.e. interesting and relevant to the customers you want to attract to your site, which meet their needs and give them the answers they seek. The content offered will also be optimised in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), This strategy improves their organic search engine rankings and offers excellent results in the long run.
Otherwise, it is also possible to exploit the potential of the paid advertisements, on platforms such as Google Ads, which will be shown to a selected audience that corresponds as closely as possible to the buyer person identified and who searches with the keywords for which you want to be positioned.
Once you have brought user traffic to your site, you will need to proceed to the collection of their data, and the use of pop-up, which appear on the screen at the moment the user takes a certain action on the site. It is necessary, however, that these pop-up forms appear in the right time, when the user is more inclined to leave personal data behind, and one way to create this situation may be to offering discounts or other benefits, so as to entice visitors to share their data.
In order to constantly improve one's lead generation strategy, it is essential to monitor the various elements of one's own site, in order to understand which ones work best in acquiring new contacts, i.e. those that are most effective in bringing about conversions. In addition to this, it is necessary to pay attention to the mobile version of the platform, which must be optimised and function in the same way as the desktop one. This is crucial because numerous studies in this field have shown that in recent years searches and purchases from mobile have increased exponentially, and therefore it is necessary to keep up with the times to remain competitive in one's niche market.
In conclusion, we can see how these lead generation strategies are a great way to acquire a loyal customer base and increase sales, two of the main objectives of all companies that want to carry out effective online marketing. Therefore, to succeed in attracting an targeted audience on your e-commerce, you need to create valuable content that can give users the answers they are looking for, and thus entice them to keep in touch with the company and the brand, and become actual customers.
But once you manage to build up a community of loyal customers, it is just as important not to leave them to their own devices, but always to continue offering new content, promotions and dedicated offers, keep the relationship alive and cultivate it, thereby exploiting the brand's good image with this type of customer, who will be more likely to recommend a specific e-commerce to friends and family, thus bringing even more customers and traffic to the site by doing dispatch parcels more frequently.
