How do you go about generating and nurturing your leads?

Landing pages, blogs, contact forms, etc., are popular methods for lead generation. But what is common between all these methods? Communication – yes!

As we hope you would agree, proper communication with customers is the key to lead generation and conversion. Be it a catchy tagline on a landing page, an intelligently worded call-to-action, or a well-crafted blog – communication is the key to success in the inbound marketing world. 

However, most of the typical lead generation channels do not facilitate two-way communication. While you may be able to deliver your message to prospects with enough zeal, they can only get back to you with queries or concerns via customer service. This is why customer service can be the key to optimizing your lead generation.

Now, moving on to the actionable part – how can you integrate customer service into your lead generation channels? That’s what we are going to discuss in the following sections.

1. Use live chat on landing pages

Landing pages have proven to be quite useful for promoting individual offers. They are designed to focus users’ attention on a single offer without getting distracted by anything else on the page. Usual landing page flow informs users about the offer and persuades them to fill out the visitors’ form and click on the call-to-action. But what if the user wants to ask a question before filling out the form or clicking on the CTA? 

You can overcome that hurdle by including a ‘Get in Touch’ button on your landing pages that allows visitors to resolve their queries before scheduling a demo or booking a meeting. Including live chat software on your landing page at this stage enables visitors to engage with a real person while they are in the middle of buying your product, increasing their chances of completing the purchase, and also reducing the propensity to comparison shop.

Stats also indicate that 44% of online customers consider having their questions answered by a live person in the middle of an online purchase to be a valuable feature. 

In case a user does not have a query and fills up the form with his or her information, use the opportunity to connect with a customer support email that informs the user of your product features and benefits to push them along further in the sales funnel. 

2. Leverage customer service to address social media comments

Customers often communicate with businesses via comments on blogs or social media pages. Many use these platforms to ask their queries, and good customer service requires you to address each of these comments or questions, even if they sound silly or repetitive. 

Besides directly answering customer queries, you can also pick-up themes and topics from user comments to write additional FAQ or informative blogs that will help other users with the same question. 

Such actions improve your brand image, satisfy visitor queries, and improve your business’s lead generation rate. You may also invest in a social media listening tool to monitor and streamline social media engagement for faster action.  

Here are a few statistics that highlight the importance of timely response in improving the customer satisfaction rate:

1. 90% of customers rate a prompt response as critical or critical when they have a customer service question. (Source: HubSpot Research) 
2. 73% of customers say that understanding their value of time is the best thing a company can do while providing customer service. (Source: Forrester) 

Zappos, an online retailer that sells shoes, clothing, and accessories, is a prime example of a brand generating leads through social media by creating real relationships with their fans and customers.

Have you visited their Facebook custom welcome tab? Here’s their catchy saying, “Let’s be in a Like-Like Relationship”. It showcases the fact that they treat their potential fans as equals, solidifying their relationships even more.

They have also employed one such strategy to ask for a Like and then recommend their fans to join their email list. Once you click on their Like button, the custom tab changes, and you get the chance to sign up to their email list and interact with their products.

On top of that, Zappos has employed the strategy known as “fans only content,” where they only reveal the content once someone has become their fan, as you can see from the image given below. Once you hit the Like button, you get instantly exclusive content, videos, and special promotions.

Lastly, they have also integrated a comments widget on their custom welcome tab where you can post comments about their products. These comments are then reflected on your profile page. Thus, it informs your other friends and fans about what you like on Zappos. This is great social proof!

3. Build a knowledge base for passive lead generation

Building an extensive knowledge base for your customers enables faster query resolution, which reduces the burden on your support staff. Customers also appreciate self-help options for troubleshooting, which saves them time and hassle. Besides, good content helps your website’s ranking through improved SEO – an added benefit of regularly updating your knowledge base with relevant and helpful content like FAQs, videos, and podcasts. 

But how does a knowledge base helps with lead generation? Well, you can use the knowledge base to target and remove objections to sale that your potential customers might have. Besides, if visitors don’t find the information they are looking for on your site, they may leave to do further research, which can be prevented through an expansive knowledge base. 

For example, Fitbit, a prominent brand providing smart fit bands for tracking exercise, sleep, and other functions to make healthy changes fun, has a great knowledge base. 

A good knowledge base encourages the people in the community to get involved in help forums. It is an excellent approach since customers can discuss how they use the products amongst themselves, albeit in the presence of your moderator. 

Fitbit’s knowledge base has an excellent design that showcases the most popular topics first. It also provides alternatives to the individuals who are interested in speaking to one of their customer support agents. This way, it generates passive leads.

4. Invest in a chatbot for lead generation

Now that you know the benefits of integrating customer service with your lead generation efforts, it is time to discuss an upgrade for your customer service that can potentially revolutionize your content marketing strategy and user experience.

We are talking about chatbots that can answer thousands of user queries in just a few seconds, without getting tired or moody. This also kills the wait time for users, improving the overall experience. 

Besides, chatbots improve personalization by storing user information and analyzing their browsing behavior and demographic data to make customized recommendations and offers that can significantly improve lead generation and other sales funnel stages. 

In case you are wondering where to start, implementing a chatbot in your Facebook messenger is an excellent way of connecting with the horde of incoming leads on social media. You can also use a chatbot on your website and landing pages to qualify leads with a series of predetermined questions before passing them on to live agents.

5. Utilize customer service for upselling and cross-selling

There is an interesting statistic regarding upselling: “The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% while the same possibility for an existing customer is 60-70%. 

Purchasing something from a company you already have a relationship with is far less dicey than trusting an unknown entity with your money. Employ customer service to upsell and cross-sell. But, do so only at the right time and with the right customer. 

Let me explain this with the help of some actionable tips.

Tailor your recommendations based on the customers’ needs and goals

Customers are fed up with the sales pitch. It is now time to try something new. Try to understand beforehand why a customer chooses a particular brand. Determine their goals and how your products & services help them achieve those goals.

The next step is to ascertain which additional or upgraded products can help them reach those goals effectively. This is the best way to upsell or cross-sell. Back your pitch with clear, specific examples of benefits to the customers. 

Concentrate on providing value

While your end goal is to cross-sell and upsell, keep your focus on delivering value. This means you have to explain the value that your product provides and exercise the wise judgment that the value holds for specific customers. 

Remember, you provide low-tier products and services for a reason. They are there to meet a specific target market’s requirements – those who have no real need for your more expensive offerings. 

Engage with satisfied customers

Timing plays a critical role in generating upsells and cross-sells as a customer service representative. Pay attention to each customer interaction context and attempt a pitch only if you find the customer to be already happy with your brand.

For example, if a customer approaches you when he/she is already dissatisfied with your service, it is obviously not the right time to attempt to upsell. However, if a customer looks positive, try to learn about their goals and needs, and recommend accordingly. 

Final thoughts

Customer service is the backbone of every organization that values its customers. However, besides addressing queries, you can make your customer service work even harder by integrating it with your lead generation tools for better results. We also recommend investing in customer engagement software like live chat and chatbots to improve your customer service team’s efficiency and gain from in-depth data insights.

I would like to end this write-up by saying that customer service will play a crucial part in the near future. Hence, it is wise to prioritize creating an effective customer service strategy to generate and nurture your leads.