10 Minute Marketing Blog

A surprising number of small businesses don’t have opt-in forms on their websites to collect leads.

They’re leaving money on the table.

To put this in perspective, imagine the same scenario in real life.

Let’s say you own a bicycle store.

A man walks into your store, and starts looking around. He looks closely at a few road bikes and reads the price tags.

Then, he walks up to you and says, “I’m interested in buying a bike, but I have some questions.

But, instead of answering him, you turn around and walk away!

Now, obviously no one who cares about their business would do this in real life. But small businesses do this every day online .

When someone visits your website, it’s not by accident. They found you through an online search, were recommended by a friend, or clicked an ad.

But that’s just the first step.

Once on your website, you have to get them to contact you, or collect their information so you can contact them.

This is important because it lets you control the follow up, instead of having everything hinge on one phone call.

Let me explain why this helps grow your business ...

Let’s say your website doesn’t currently have a form, but you do list your phone number and you get a handful of calls every day.

Not bad, right?

Wrong.

First, your staff can’t answer every phone call that comes in. What if someone calls after business hours (or during your secretary’s lunch break) and doesn’t leave a message?

You just lost that customer forever.

On the other hand, if you offer that person something (like a free consultation) in exchange for their contact information, you now are able to follow up with that lead. You can:

follow up until they schedule an appointment

follow up until they buy something

text them about special events and promotions

email them about sales, limited-time offers, etc.

The nature and frequency of your follow up will depend on your industry and promotions.

But no matter what industry you’re in, that lead will have a certain dollar value.

Those dollars can quickly add up into the thousands (even tens of thousands) – revenue that you’ll either earn (by collecting leads), or miss out on.

To figure out the dollar value of your leads, follow these steps:

Step 1: Determine your Conversion Rate
Step 2: Determine Lifetime Value Per Customer (LTV)
Step 3: Multiply Conversion Rate by LTV

Don’t worry, this is actually really easy and I’m going to walk you through it now.

To determine your conversion rate, answer the question… “How many sales do you get out of 100 leads?”

This percentage is going to vary a lot by industry, and even if you’re not sure of the exact number, make your best guess.

That estimate is your conversion rate.

For example, if you typically make 10 sales for every 100 leads, then your conversion rate is 10%.

To figure out your Lifetime Value Per Customer answer this question… “How much do your customers spend on average?”

Again, this is going to vary a lot by industry.

Some businesses (like barbershops) will serve the same customers for years, while others make large one-time sales.

If you’re not sure of this number, then estimate it by dividing your total sales from last year by the number of customers from that year.

For example, if you had 1,000 customers that spent a total of $100,000, then your LTV per customer is $100 (which is $100,000 divided by 1,000).

For Step 3, take your LTV and multiply it by your conversion rate like this:

That means that every lead is worth about $10, which is very valuable information.

This number is crucial to your business, because it tells you how much you can pay to acquire a new lead. It also shows you how much money you’re losing by not collecting leads on your website.

If you’re looking for a way to add an opt-in form to your website, check out 10 Minute Marketing.

10 Minute Marketing specializes in designing websites that get leads for small businesses. All their website templates come with built-in opt-in forms.

Learn more at: http://10minutemarketing.com/