Are you trying to sell your financial services but only capturing a small percentage of web visitors
It’s a real pain, especially after you’ve spent all that time and money designing and building a website that should be perfect.
The well-researched ‘15 second rule’ tells us that the average time spent on a website is 15 seconds - so your website doesn't have long to capture someone’s attention!
So, what’s the solution?
First, you need to examine your bounce rate to determine whether your website is well-constructed.
‘Bounce rate’ sounds quite fun, but it’s simply a marketing term that indicates how many potential financial services customers are returning to the search results page within that 15 seconds because they can’t find what they’re looking for.
You can find your business website’s bounce rate by opening your Google Analytics Dashboard and checking your Audience Overview.
Of course, your website activity depends on your goals - but it’s always a good idea to decrease your bounce rates where and when possible.
So, ask yourself:
- Is your website exciting and interesting to look at? (yes, it is possible to make financial services look interesting!)
- Is it easy to navigate?
- Is it clear what financial services you’re offering?
- Does it crash every 5 seconds?
- Can potential customers easily find what they are looking for?
- Do you have top-notch SEO?
Ensure that your website gives people what they want, and then sit back and watch your number of web visitors increase.
Are your leads falling out of the funnel?
No, that’s not a euphemism. I’m talking about leads becoming prospects and financial services customers.
Or not, as the case may be.
So, how can you stop the fall?
- Effective sales funnels will increase your business, but, as it turns out, around 73% of your potential leads won’t be sale-ready - which means they’re falling out of your funnel before they’re ready to convert and purchase insurance or take out a loan, for example.
- If your sales funnel is too complicated, leads might opt out, so to keep them interested, make the transition from one step to the next super easy. Don’t forget, if they think you’ve made your financial service products sound too complicated, they’ll move on to a competitor.
- Also, make sure your leads are valid and then set out to convert them!
- Avoid funnel gaps by ensuring sales and marketing work closely together to nurture leads. Ensure that both teams communicate so that everyone knows who is being reached, when, and with what information.
If your funnel is failing, it will take time to fix - but making effective changes such as these will help you increase conversions and get your financial services business booming.
Are your financial product sales focused on the best leads?
If not, why not?
Obviously, as a business, you want a lot of leads. But quality will always beat quantity.
After all, there’s not a lot of point in spending time and money trying to attract and follow up unqualified leads who, whatever you do, aren’t going to go beyond initial interest and want your service or financial product.
Concentrate on the best leads.
In other words, those likely to choose your company and spend some dough.
So, how do you know who they are?
- Ask your leads for more info. The more you know about them, the more you can determine whether they will put their hand in their pocket. It doesn’t mean you must bombard them with questions and put them off - you can keep your initial questionnaires quick and straightforward. And don’t forget that all-important post-purchase feedback - you can use that information to engage with those customers and refine your marketing strategies to convert them into repeat customers.
- Make sure your lead routing is top-notch. If leads aren’t sent to the appropriate team member, valuable follow-up time can be lost. So, automate your lead flow to ensure quick response times, which could make all the difference between selling your financial product and missing out. Remember that conversion rates are 8x more successful if leads are followed up within 5 minutes.
- Score your leads to pinpoint how far along your contacts are within your sales funnel.
Figuring out which leads are the best means you can focus on those and make sales….and profits!
Are you missing opportunities to upsell or cross-sell other financial products?
Let’s face it: every transaction is an opportunity to do just that - and all it takes is chatting with your customers or clients.
The reality is, there’s no quicker or easier way to make more money than selling more to the people who already know you, like you, and trust you—and your products and services!
So be sure to build and nurture good customer relationships by:
- Talking to your customers in person, on the phone or electronically, contacting them via email about deals and special offers, and responding promptly when they get in touch.
- Find out more about your existing customers and their needs by asking for their feedback and reviews.
- Post questionnaires and surveys on your social media pages, and check those pages for comments and ‘likes’ regularly
And don’t forget, cross-selling and upselling are not about tacking on extras or upgrades your customer doesn’t want or selling them a more expensive solution. It’s about getting to know them so that you can help them solve their problem in the best and most effective way possible.
So, business is going well and you’ve got customers coming out of your ears - or at least aren’t hard up for one or two.
That’s great!
But how do you keep hold of them?
Luring customers in the first place is one thing, and thanks to social media and digital advertising, it's relatively easy.
But customer retention?
That’s an entirely different beast.
First, it’s important because it’s much cheaper to keep your current customers happy than to get new ones—in fact, 5-25 times cheaper!
And we’ve not made that up, according to Harvard Business Review.
You can help improve your customer retention by:
- Responding quickly to customer queries 73% of customers said that speedy support resolutions are key to a good customer experience. Let customers know that you’ve received their question and give them an estimated time of how long it will take to solve their problem.
- Gathering and listening to customer feedback is one of the most valuable tools you have for increasing customer retention. If you want to know what’s working and what isn’t - hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.
- Introduce incentives for loyal customers, such as preferential rates.
You’re not going to improve customer retention overnight, but offering an exceptional customer experience is the easiest and best way to earn customer trust and turn them into advocates for your brand - so get started now.