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Lead Capture Software Buyer's Guide
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"You are out of business if you don't have a prospect!" - Zig Ziglar
And isn't it true?
Without leads, businesses won’t have an opportunity to convert prospects into customers.
But why can’t companies directly work with customers? It’s because not every visitor that visits your business is the right person.
Customers can be fickle-minded, and why not? They are spending their money on your products.
So companies can’t depend on them entirely. This is why it's crucial to use strategies to attract only those people who you wish to have a paying customer.
For example, suppose you are a B2B company selling SaaS enterprise products.
Now think, would a small business run by a single owner qualify as a lead? No! It won't. That's because they simply don't need a product that is meant for an enterprise with hundreds of employees. Most importantly, a small business run by a single owner won't have to afford enterprise software.
That’s where lead capture software helps you. You can program it to receive the leads that are actually qualified to become paying customers in the near future.
So, let’s understand what lead capture software is and why your business needs it now!
» What is Lead Capture?
Lead capture is a process of website converting visitors into leads through lead generation strategies. Typically, companies use lead capture software to capture lead information. The sales or marketing team then uses this data to convert the lead into paying customers.
» What is Lead Capture Software?
Lead capture software is a specialized system that captures leads that are interested in your products or services. This can be through any medium such as landing pages, lead capture forms, etc.
The information collected by this software is sent to the sales or marketing team, who then leverages it to build relationships with your leads, nurture them and finally convert them into paying customers.
» What Are The Features Of Lead Capture Software?
› Create Leads Database
The software collects data about customers or businesses that are interested in your products or services. Then adds that information into a searchable database.
As a result, your team can analyze the data and take action immediately. It also helps organize each lead from the database using tags or classification criteria which save your time.
Another perk of online lead capture software is that you can customize, and store data from various other marketing platforms in a centralized database. The software also provides features of importing or exporting data from other marketing and sales software platforms.
› Lead forms
In most cases, a lead capture form appears on a landing page. Its purpose is to collect consumer data that will be useful later on to increase your conversion rate. The goal is for visitors to fill out the form and then receive something of value in return after successful submission.
On your website, you need to place forms strategically, prompting visitors to enter their contact information. Often, this can get done in exchange for access to restricted material. This results in high-quality leads due to the fact that people who give their contact information are likely to actually contact you for already considering your brand, even if they aren't yet ready to buy.
› Multi-platform support
Your sales process is more efficient when you integrate your existing software systems. Among the many integrations offered by lead capture software are social media, websites, marketplaces, and Google Sheets in addition to custom integrations, and also you can track your leads on a single tab.
When choosing lead capture software, this will likely be the main factor to consider. A database of leads that do not integrate with other marketing and sales tools is likely to be of little use to your business. In order to make lead capture an effective tool for your company, you'll need those other functions to nurture prospects through the sales funnel and turn them into satisfied clients.
› Lead Analytics And Reporting
Basically, analytics involves the interpretation of data, while reporting consists of the presentation of factual, accurate information. Rather than presenting recommendations, reporting explains what is happening based on the data.
Analytics provides recommendations, but reporting is more about organizing and summarizing information.
Oftentimes, a lead analysis involves several steps, such as analyzing past leads and goals, which can then be used to improve future marketing strategies. In addition, lead reports enable you to understand the performance of marketing and sales efforts, i.e., the most successful marketing campaigns and the top types of leads converting the best.
› Custom Landing Pages
Landing pages or lead capture pages are specially designed landing pages that are aimed at capturing leads' information: name, email, phone number, etc. Throughout a lead capture form, you can collect this information and use it to build a relationship with them.
Custom landing pages are tailored to a specific campaign or offer and guide visitors to a single call to action. In other words, landing pages are designed to convert visitors.
› Lead Tracking
In lead tracking, we track leads in the sales and marketing funnels, actively monitor where they are in the funnel, and take action to move each lead forward and complete the sale. It helps you keep in touch with someone who's interested in your services or products. You can use it to improve your sales process by bringing together all your customer and potential lead data in one place.
In addition, it provides crucial information on which marketing campaign drew in a new lead. By tracking your leads, you have a clearer picture of the amount of business you acquire and execute, upon which you can base your goals to motivate your sales team during the upcoming campaign.
» What Are The Benefits Of Lead Capture Software?
›Help You Avoid Bad Leads
It's hard to accept, but the thing is not all leads are good. Some leads won't be in the buying stage, and some may not have enough budget and will just be a waste of your time.
That's where lead capture software's filtering comes in handy. Once you set up a filter, it will help you ensure that only qualified, higher-quality leads go through. No more throwing money on additional marketing or sale tactics at leads that have zero chance to convert.
Additionally, good leads also help the sales team maintain their sanity. They don't have to deal with leads that shouldn't have made it through the pipeline, which means their efforts bring the desired results. It's a win-win situation for both the sales team and the company.
› It Helps You Gain Countless Opportunities
One of the perks of having an online lead capture software is the availability of good data. This is something that's not available when the lead generation is entirely manual.
Companies can leverage this data to improve their marketing processes and grab more opportunities that they would have missed otherwise.
For instance, you notice that one particular channel is bringing the highest quality leads. So, with this knowledge, you can give that channel more attention than the ones that aren't bringing any leads.
In some cases, you might also notice that one salesperson is able to convert leads of all types. In such cases, you can see what makes that particular salesperson different from others and help other sales representatives learn similar tactics.
› Learn Where You Are Lagging
One of the challenges of marketing is that there are so many variables. This makes it harder to understand why some campaigns take off within a few days while some fail completely.
There might be several variables at play here. For example, your website may not be optimized, your forms are too long, your bounce rate is too high, etc.
That's where lead capture software helps you pinpoint exactly where you are falling short. With the information collected by your lead capture app, you can understand where you need to tweak instead of just pulling it down and starting from scratch.
› Automates The Lead Nurturing Process
Do you know nearly 73% of leads are not ready for sale? Most salespeople focus only on the leads that are most likely to convert into sales. However, long-term success always depends on nurturing leads and converting them when they have not yet qualified.
If your leads are not yet ready to buy, it's time to nurture them. That’s where the lead capture app does the heavy lifting for you. The software qualified leads into two categories, casual leads and qualified leads.
› Maintain Your Customer Base
Business of all kinds depends on their customer base to keep the business. According to a report, acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing customer. As a result, it’s important to not forget about your current customers while acquiring new customers. Simply turning a lead into paying customers isn’t enough. You need to take steps to nurture and retain them as your recurring customers. That's where lead capture software helps you.
As the paying customer base starts growing, you will notice an underlying theme. For example, a large portion of your paying customers responds faster to SMS than emails. A lead capture software here will help you find more areas of opportunities so that you can fulfill the needs of your existing customers and keep them coming back for more.
» What Things to Consider When Choosing a Lead Capture Software?
› What's your long-term and short-term budget?
Fees are something you will deal with in any kind of software, and lead capture software is no exception. While choosing the best lead capture software it's important to consider how much you can afford to pay in bills.
This is because although the software has fixed prices, extra things like support, training, and updates can quickly skyrocket the overall budget.
Generally, systems with advanced features would cost more. You can also find the free versions, however, it's best to avoid them since they are very watered down and severely limits the number of features you can use.
› Is It User-Friendly? What Is The Level Of Customization?
Customization is a necessary element as you will have to customize the software according to your company's needs. However, customization should not come at the cost of losing user-friendliness.
You may want to hire a consultant to handle the software, but your employees must be able to navigate through the basic features. So, when buying online lead capture software, it's best to keep less tech-savvy members in mind to avoid future mishaps.
› Integration Capabilities
Although customizable lead capture software is rising in demand, this doesn't mean you will not need other tools. Chances are your company is using specific tools that will need to be integrated with lead management software.
As a result, it’s important to choose the software that has advanced integration capabilities to accommodate other tools. Online lead capture software which comes under the SaaS domain is an excellent way to ensure integration.
› Know Your Goals
The goal of lead generation is to grow your business. As your business continues to grow, you will see an increase in lead generation targets too.
So, before investing in lead capture software, access the flexibility and scalability it offers. Can it help your business grow? Can it grow along with your business? Will you have to upgrade to a higher plan so they can accommodate your growth? What if you cross their upper limit?
All these considerations will help you choose software that you can use to maximize your potential over a long time. In the long term, it can quickly get expensive to transition from one system to another if you buy the one with limited capabilities. Not to mention, your employees will get frustrated too if they have to keep learning new interfaces every six months.
› Excellent Customer Support Service
Unless you and your team are well versed with technical aspects, look for online lead capture software that's backed by excellent customer support.
This is because you will likely face issues sooner or later and thus you will require assistance from the support service who can guide you through the issue and be available to discuss your results.
› Measuring Results
No matter what type of campaign you run, it's important to track the progress to know whether you are on the right path. A great lead capture software would monitor and measure the results of your lead generation campaigns.
For example, the software would track lead sources so you know exactly where the lead came from. This will help you focus more on channels that are bringing in the highest revenue and segment leads into different types of prospects based on how they react to certain campaigns.
» How Much Does Lead Capture Software Cost?
The cost of lead capture software varies greatly depending on a number of factors. These factors include:
› Factor #1: Features
Features are the main factor that companies use to price the lead capture software. The system consists of several features and comes in tiers where features and capabilities increase with tiers.
› Factor #2: Number of users
There are two types of software. One which charges a flat fee no matter how many people use it. And there is one software which charges based on the number of users. This means the higher the number of users, the more will be the cost of the software.
› Factor #3: Miscellaneous Services Included
Several lead capture software offers a bundle of miscellaneous services along with software such as CRM, advertising tools, etc. They may include this price in the overall price. Although in the end, you will pay less for all these tools combined than if you paid separately.
Few lead capture software list their pricing in the following ways:
- Per-user per month
- Per month for a limited number of users
- Custom quote only
There are also several free options in the market. However, the features are limited. Generally, a paid lead capture software states anywhere between $12 to $500 per user per month.
- A mid-level plan typically costs between $100 to $600 per month
- Advanced plans can go from $600 to $1200 per month.
» Wrapping Up:
No matter how much traffic you drive to your website, at the end of the day, if you are not getting leads, it’s of no use. A lead capture software not only helps you understand how many people are visiting your site but also helps you capture them so that you can nurture them and convert them to paying customers.
Here we have provided all the details that will help you understand why you must get a lead capture software for your lead generation process. Use the above guide as a reference to find the best lead capture system for you and your team.