Employing a comprehensive web marketing strategy is vital to any company.  Effectively executing a plan that uses the proper marketing tactics is paramount to a company’s online success. In order to attract new potential new customers, convert these prospects into sales, and maximize the customer’s potential (i.e. in a position as a long term client), these strategies must be implemented into day to day marketing.  By carefully planning and targeting customers with a web marketing strategy (either a SEO, PPC or viral marketing plan), businesses can not only gain customers, but build lasting relationships that contribute to recurring monthly revenue.  The bad news is that this is often times a daunting task.  The good news is that once you’ve figured out the proper strategy, it becomes easier to continue to generate leads.

Once the proper marketing strategy is implemented, a lead capture plan must also be put into place.  Generally, a business will capture leads from its website in one of two ways.  The first and most common way of handling these requests is via email.  The second is the old fashioned telephoned call.  Studies show that 34% of all inquiries generated from websites (roughly one out of every three website visitors) comes via telephone.  In addition, the best of these potential customers usually come by telephone because their questions are immediately answered.  In either case, capturing these leads are equally as important as creating them.  While there are several different methods to most effectively capture these inquiries, the most effective way is via outsourcing your lead response activities to an answering service or call center service capable of managing your lead volume.

Using an answering service will get the most ROI due to their ability to capture leads by providing 24 hour receptionist response and the technical means to respond to emails and live chat inquiries.   Numerous studies have revealed that voicemail leads to roughly 30% of callers who leave messages with the bulk of calls resulting in hang-ups and or “callbacks”.  That means that seventy percent of people who inquire end up not leaving a message.  An answering service has the ability to capture these leads usually at a much lower cost than a small (or even large) business engaging in 24 hour lead capture in house.  Generally, an answering service can capture leads at a cost of less than a dollar per call where it is usually $2.00+ to manage the same functions in house.  The return on the investment (ROI) of an answering service is excellent, and effective.  Services open up new communication gateways and more effective lead management techniques as well to foster customer conversion including:

o   Create an ideal image of your company by responding to your customer immediately.

o   Initiate email and phone response when necessary.

o   Provide an accurate way to follow-up.

o   Initiate the operators to immediately notify you of priority emails.

o   Speed up response time for website inquiries thus increasing any SEO or PPC ROI.

The key to handling leads generated by a website, or any other type of advertising for that matter, is lead capture.  Turning visitors into leads and leads into sales is the goal of any marketing strategy.  Giving the prospective client as many live engagement options as possible increases the likeliness of converting these visitors.  Using an answering service to help capture these leads is a wise investment, aiding in any successful marketing strategy.

For more information on answering services, consult the Resource Nation Buyer Guide

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