6 Lead Types and How to Conquer Them with Your Content

Intro

Every business generates leads to boost their conversions, increase their sales, and ultimately to increase their profit. But what exactly is a lead?

A lead is a prospect or entity who shows genuine interest in your business’s products and services. Since they are interested in what you’re offering, there’s a high chance that you can convert them.

Businesses typically generate leads through various marketing strategies and channels. However, it’s crucial to note that there are different types of leads and you can’t convert all your leads. That’s where knowing the different types of leads becomes important.

In this post, we’ll talk about 6 different types of leads and how you can conquer them with your content. So let’s get started.

1. Cold leads

The first type of lead that we’ll discuss today is cold leads. Cold leads are potential customers who haven’t established a connection with your brand or show little to no interest in your products or services.

This can happen for several reasons. For example, they may not currently have the need for your service. Sometimes, these leads might also lack awareness because they haven’t yet engaged with your content.

They haven’t really explored your website, or engaged with your social media content, to understand your products or services better.

How to conquer them

The major challenge of conquering cold leads is their lack of brand awareness. So if you want to conquer them and eventually turn them into sales, you need to start by creating awareness.

You can do that by coming up with valuable customer-centric content that helps them know your business better. Start by adding introductory content and writing valuable blog posts on your website. Also, feature high-quality infographics and videos to showcase your expertise in your area of business.

This will not only help them learn more about your brand but will also establish credibility for your business and build trust with your audience. People tend to buy more easily from businesses that they can trust, making it easier to convert such leads into customers.

2. Warm leads

Warm leads are a little more informed about your business as compared to cold leads. These leads have already expressed interest in your business and have engaged with you in some form.

These leads are known as warm leads because of their existing awareness about your company and the business. Their awareness makes it more likely for these leads to convert as compared to cold leads.

How to conquer them

To effectively nurture those leads, you need to continue building on their existing interest and engagement.

Understand their specific needs, pain points, and preferences. Providing in-depth content that goes beyond their existing knowledge can enhance their understanding of your offerings.

Here’s a product demo page example from OptinMonster

Let’s check out some ways to conquer your warm leads:

• Publish case studies, and create blog posts with facts and figures to back your claim.
• Create videos demonstrating how to use your products. This helps people better understand how your products benefit them, hence, boosting conversions.
• Personalize your communication with your warm leads. For example, if you’re using email marketing, address them by their name and tailor your messaging to their unique interests.
• Offer your leads a questionnaire to ask about their interests and preferences. Based on those insights, generate personalised feedback that fits their needs and consults them about the right product.
• Refer to their previous interaction with your business.

Those will make them feel more connected to your business and bring stronger connections, hence boosting conversions

3. Hot leads

Hot leads are prospects who are highly likely to make a purchase from your business. Unlike warm leads, hot leads often display a clear intent to buy.

This means that they have progressed further down the sales funnel as compared to warm leads. But it’s essentially important to understand that you can’t count your leads as sales until you have successfully converted them. Let’s see how you can conquer them easily and quickly.

How to conquer them

Conquering hot leads is easier than conquering warm leads. You just need to understand their intent to convert and strategically guide them through the final stages of the sales process.

A very effective way of doing that is to offer compelling incentives. This can be in the form of discounts, coupons, or free trials.

This encourages hot leads to take immediate action. Aim to highlight these features through engaging content.

Source: WPBeginner

You can also create a sense of urgency by implementing limited-time offers or scarcity of the product or service like what WPBeginner’s doing with their Cyber Monday Deals. Doing this creates fear of missing out (FOMO) and prompts instant action.

4. Impulsive leads

The next type of lead is the impulsive lead. This type of lead is known for making quick and impulsive buying decisions.

They often make a purchase without much research or consideration. Such leads are easily influenced by offers, discounts, and other similar factors.

How to conquer them

Converting impulsive leads is not very challenging. You just need to capitalize on their spontaneous buying decision. There are various ways of doing it. For example, you can grab their attention by highlighting the immediate benefit of using your products or services.

You can also create flash sales, or exclusive deals to create a sense of urgency.

Source: Altchar

Such leads can also be influenced by eye-catching visuals too. So, utilize them in your marketing content.

Another effective way of converting these leads is to display social proof on your website. This can be in the form of

• User-generated content;
• Customer testimonials and positive reviews;
• Case studies;
• Trust badges.

When they see other people sharing their positive experience with your product or service, they are convinced that they can have the same experience too. So they jump on to take action immediately.

5. Long-term leads

Long-term leads are also sometimes referred to as nurturing leads. These users may not be ready for an immediate purchase. As they are in the early stages of the sales funnel and may require more time, information, and nurturing before they are ready to convert.

These leads are characterized by limited awareness and extended decision-making timelines. But you want to convert them sooner. Here’s how to do that.

How to conquer long-term leads

Long-term leads usually need a lot of time to make their final buying decision. This is mostly because they have limited knowledge about your product or service and they want their decision to be based on in-depth research.

So, creating educational content such as industry news and trends, comprehensive guides, or thought leadership articles, can be very helpful when trying to convert such leads. Such content can help them understand your offerings better, address their pain points, and help them make better-informed decisions.

However, it’s also crucial to invest in building good relationships with these leads. You can do that by keeping in touch with them through email marketing or other channels**,** for example. This will help you establish trust, demonstrate your expertise, and maintain regular communication to stay on their radar.

Another important point to consider when converting these leads is to implement lead-scoring mechanisms. This can help you prioritize long-term leads based on their engagement levels, interactions, and behavior. That way, you can easily identify when they might be transitioning to a warmer stage.

6. Lost leads

Sometimes, even though a user takes a genuine interest in your product or service, they don’t end up making a purchase. These leads were once in the sales pipeline but, for some reason, decided not to move forward.

There can be various reasons why they ended up not buying your product or service. For example, it can be due to budget constraints, lack of need, competitive offering, bad customer experience, etc. Such leads are popularly known as the lost leads.

The good news is that although you have lost them, there are still chances of converting them. Let’s check out how.

How to conquer lost leads

No matter at which stage your leads are in their buying journey, it's important for you to convert them. But lost leads aren’t easy to convert because they have already made the decision not to buy from you.

Now to convert them, it’s important to know why they chose to opt out by implementing various marketing strategies like feedback surveys and enhanced communication strategies. These strategies can help you understand the factors that influenced their decision.

Using their feedback, you can then work on your business to ensure that you meet your user’s needs. You can also use targeted remarketing campaigns to re-engage lost leads with relevant content or offers.

Conclusion

Generating leads for your business can be challenging but converting them can be even more difficult. That’s why understanding your lead type becomes important. When you know their type, it becomes easier for you to tailor your marketing strategies to meet their requirements.

This can significantly improve your chances of converting them into customers. However, it’s important to remember that you’ll need to monitor and adjust your marketing strategies regularly to convert your leads regularly. Only then you can meet the evolving expectations of your users.