How to Best Convert Leads Into Customers at All Three Levels of Your Funnel

Is your lead curious, engaged, or committed? What you offer them could make all the difference.

This post was first published on my Medium blog—follow me there for the most up-to-date entries!

You know the theory: your website brings potential customers into your marketing funnel, and you can use lead generators/lead magnets (freebies!) to turn them from looky-loos into buyers. But have you considered that your funnel is not just one thing? Someone who has just stumbled on your website while gathering information is not the same as someone who has been weighing your product against several others for weeks. Your aim is to convert leads into customers. To do that, you’ll need to match your offer to the appropriate level of your funnel.

1. Curious (Interest)

Initially, prospective customers are curious. Curiosity is good. They’re interested. They’ve heard or read or learned about you, your product, or your service, but they aren’t ready to buy. Sure, some are just tire-kickers, and aren’t worth your time. Others are qualified buyers, but they need more information.

Website visitors need to know who you are and what you offer. Even if they’ve heard of you, it’s to your advantage to heighten their curiosity. But try to go about that in a way that makes it easy for them to take the next steps to satisfy that curiosity.

At this point, the scenario is a little like meeting someone at a party. You’re getting their attention. You buy them a drink. And that person becomes curious about you. But so far, “curious” is as far as it goes.

This is the top of your funnel. You want to offer them a freebie that will entice them while also telling them what you’re offering. At this point, they don’t want to spend too much effort on you. I remember one guy who offered a service I was interested in, but his lead magnet was a 100-page eBook. I blew right past that. I don’t have the time or the inclination to spend reading that.

Instead, consider offering a checklist or cheat sheet. (Those are different; the former is basically a list, whereas the latter is an at-a-glance summary of pertinent information.) These could work well as lead magnets because they take only a few seconds to download.

Your aim is to stoke your prospective customer’s curiosity so they ask, “What the heck are they selling?” or “How will this thing solve my problem or make my life better?” You want to move them from curiosity to knowledge.

The result you’re looking for at this stage is KNOWLEDGE. Helping them know more about you is the first step of converting leads into customers.

2. Engaged (Consideration)

The middle level of your funnel is engaged. Here, you’ll find the people who might know you, or at least know a little about the product or service you’re selling. They may or may not have downloaded your simple freebie. In our analogy, now the person you met at the party is interested in getting to know you better.

Things have progressed. Now, the objective is to get that person to like and engage with you.

Since you and your website visitor are now “dating,” the visitor is likely to invest more time in your bigger freebie offer.

Now, your lead generator magnet might be a short self-assessment or inventory to help them learn where they are “at” with an unresolved problem or unmet need. Prospective customers often enjoy completing these, especially if they get immediate feedback i.e., “results” or “reports” that provide some sort of analysis.

Here are some good examples of self-assessments that are probably strong lead generators for owners of these websites:

Jenny Blake, author of Pivot, offers a self-inventory about your ability to pivot.
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, has a self-inventory about your EQ, or Emotional Quotient.
Gino Wickman, author of Entrepreneurial Leap, has a self-inventory on whether you’re cut out for becoming an entrepreneur.

Here’s something that’s similar to an assessment and has worked well for me. Each year, I offer a scholarship for my $1K course. Of course, it takes the better part of a half hour for prospective clients to complete, so they must have a fairly high degree of interest in my course. Here’s the best part: These people are serious lookers. Not just tire-kickers.

I’ve sometimes been very successful in offering a free webinar, but not always. I’ve never figured out the best time for people to attend a live interactive session. Sometimes, I’ve had 50 or more people registered. Other times, maybe 10. When people are in different time zones, it’s tough to tell what time will work. On the whole, we do best with 7 PM Eastern time, but that might not work for you.

And here’s one that didn’t work so great. I created a fantastic little free mini course with videos. Here’s what I learned:

Many of the website visitors never opted in at all.
Some people viewed only the first few minutes of the first video, but didn’t continue. In retrospect, I realized that some people might have opted in during their lunch break, and a 25-minute hitch was too much.
Of those who did opt in, I had a 9% conversion rate for the paid product. Sweet.

Your lead magnet might fail to convert leads into customers if you offer the right thing but make it too time-intensive or, for a live webinar, at the wrong time.

But if your lead generator works, your “date” will go well. And you’ve ready to asked them on another date. The two of you engage with one another with some interactive lead generator magnets. (Yes, ask them out for more than one “date” with you.) At this point, I like to offer a live webinar, or some other situation where they can interact live with me. They get to see me in real life.

The result you’re looking for in this stage is LOVE. Now, your aim is to have prospective clients say, “I love it!” (Whatever “it” is.)

3. Committed (Decision-making)

The final level of your funnel is committed. They’ve met you; they know a little about your product or service. They’ve done their homework. And they like you or maybe even love you. For some reason that you or they might not be able to articulate, they resonate with you. They want the product, and they’re ready to buy. The only question is whether they buy it from you or from someone else.

At this level, I’ve been successful converting leads into customers by offering a discount coupon, a free discovery call, or a free sample. Your aim is to make yourself more attractive than your competition, and to make your lead act now.

If you can provide a lead generator that gives your lead proof — especially social proof — that your product would solve their problem, that would help to build trust. Examples might include:

A video featuring clients who have used your solution and had success
A short summary (or infographic) of an in-house study you conducted that showed the “before” and “after” statistics
A description of an in-depth step-by-step process, or a short eBook
A paper published in a peer-reviewed journal (They probably won’t read it, but they will recognize that you’re an authority in the field, which will help them to have trust in you.)

At the bottom of your funnel, the result you’re looking for is TRUST. They won’t buy from you unless they trust you.

If all has gone well, they are ready to commit to buying something. They trust you. In the “dating” analogy, they are in love, and they’re ready for you to propose marriage. So go ahead — ask for the sale!

Court all 3 levels

As you can see, leads at different levels of your funnel need different things to convince them to take the next step. Some, of course, will go straight from interested to buying without so much coaxing. But there will always be someone who spends days or weeks in level 2, which means it’s important to know what has the best chance of pushing them to the next level.

So use these three levels to fine-tune your lead magnets and convert your leads into customers now!

Need help with lead generation at any level of your funnel? Book a free consultation today!