Lead vs. Conversion: What Do They Mean to Your Franchise Sales Development and How Can IDS Help?

If you haven’t already noticed, there are many unique terminologies and acronyms in the digital marketing space that can be confusing to the inexperienced ear: SEO, PPC, sales funnel, optimization, and plenty more. This vocabulary might sound funny, but it’s not jargon. The language of digital marketing is all about reaching your best customer, and two words that represent that better than any are lead and conversion. It’s not unusual in franchise sales development for these words to get interchanged, and though related, they have very different meanings. Here, we’ll take a closer look at their definitions and how they relate to your marketing strategies.

What is a Lead?

If you’re a business owner with a website (and you’d better have one), hopefully, you’re attracting hundreds of visitors to it every day (and talk to us if you aren’t!). When it comes to franchise sales development, your website is one of the single most important marketing tools at your disposal, and getting it out there and in front of eyes is what digital marketing is all about. But honestly, we digital marketers don’t care about all sets of eyes — just the ones that matter most — and those eyes belong to your leads.

A lead is a member of your target audience, someone most interested in your company and what it has to offer. They hover on your web pages, read your blog posts and generally spend more time on your website because they’re interested in what you have to offer. Leads are also sometimes called prospects because they’re potential customers of your goods or services. With your site, it’s essential to distinguish leads from other visitors such as bots, loyal customers, and people who just happen to stumble on your site because these visitors don’t represent potential buyers, i.e., new business. 

What is a Conversion?

A conversion is someone who started out as a lead and then took meaningful action on your website. It could be they responded to a CTA (there’s another wonky digital marketing acronym); they may have reached out to you with questions in the way of a form fill, email, or phone call. The point is, they’ve done something to go beyond remaining anonymous, and it’s up to you to capitalize on that.

But just because a visitor took meaningful action doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is your best customer; there is a layer of qualification that happens during the sales process, and conversions can end up being poor quality — that is to say: they’re tire kickers, and they don’t result in a sale. That’s why it's critical to track the conversions that rightfully mean something and nurture them (more terminology); so they move down the sales funnel.

IDS Can Hone Your Lead Nurturing Strategies

The team at IDS is made up of experts in all things digital marketing, and that includes robust lead nurturing strategies that convert to sales. We don’t just offer franchise lead generation through digital marketing; our franchise sales management team takes the time to validate leads through a rigorous qualification process, so you won’t have to spend valuable time with anyone other than your best customer. We vet prospects and drive them down the sales funnel, from the introductory call right down to discovery day. When you partner with IDS, you’ll very soon find we bring the qualified leads to you!

Ready to find out more about our digital marketing lead nurturing strategies? Get in touch today!