7 Surefire Ways to Convert More Leads

We get it. You want to generate more profits with fewer or existing resources. And the best way to do that is to convert more leads.

But what is lead conversion, exactly? In short, it's a sales and marketing strategy that leverages tactics like retargeting, behavior automation, and email nurturing to convert leads into customers or clients.

Leads are the people who have already shown an interest in your teen programs. Perhaps they attended a school fair and stopped by your table—or they reached out via phone or email or completed an online form.

But what happens once you've collected these leads? Hopefully, you respond to their inquiry quickly. Yet many disappear, and you hear crickets. What could you have done differently?

Sometimes, you're just going to hear crickets. Most potential customers follow a traditional path, from initial contact to becoming a marketing qualified lead (MQL), then a sales qualified lead (SQL), and then a paying customer—but lead-to-opportunity conversion rates average about 12%.

The good news is, some tried and true lead conversion tips can guide your teen programs to greater success. Here's what you need to know about improving your lead-to-conversion ratios.

7 Savvy Lead Conversion Tips

Ready to start closing more leads? Follow these lead conversion tips to improve your close rate.

1. Ask the Right Form Questions 

Website lead forms are a great way to learn about interested students. But if you aren’t asking the right questions (or you’re asking too many questions), you may gather fewer leads, and you won’t know enough about the prospect to tailor your messaging effectively.

Effective form questions can help accurately classify and sort leads into the proper bucket and notify the correct person for follow-up. This strategy keeps inquiries from bouncing around between the wrong staff before finally landing in the inbox of the person best equipped to answer their questions and get them the info they want.

When designing a form, your first fields should request a lead's full name and contact information, like a phone number or email (or both). You may also want to include a field that asks the person completing it whether they're a parent or student.

Next, decide what information you'll find most valuable: anticipated high school graduation year, level of college completed so far, college major, or career interests, for example. If you offer multiple programs, include a drop-down selector and invite the lead to choose the program that most interests them. Include an option for "I'm not sure yet," to prevent respondents from becoming frustrated and leaving the form.

If your program has qualifiers students must fulfill to attend or participate, include a question or two that addresses those requirements to help you identify lead quality before you dedicate time to following up. You could send an email with FAQs or an explanation to those who don’t qualify.

2. Automate Immediate Responses

Leverage automation. Even if you redirect a website visitor to a thank you page saying you've received their message, follow up with an automated email or text message. This strategy reassures prospects that you've received and are addressing their inquiry and sets expectations for when they can expect a response. That response might include relevant information to help the student find answers to common questions or learn the next step to enrolling in your programs or getting started with your organization.

Sending a notice of receipt is a nice touch. Personalize responses to appear with the name of one of your counselors or admissions staff to begin cultivating that relationship.

3. Build a Lead Nurturing Series

Once you've sent the initial automated response to the form fill, start your lead nurturing series—that is, how you follow up with additional information.

Generally, a lead nurturing series includes 3-5 emails with a few days or even a week between each send. As the series continues, offer more detailed information about your product or service to encourage recipients to respond.

You might start with an email that provides an overview of your teen programs. Instead of pulling copy directly from your website or brochures, summarize the benefits of your program. Incorporate visuals and videos when appropriate.

A second email might highlight a testimonial from student who has completed your program. The student could share how your program made a difference—and what they're doing now.

The third email might offer information about enrollment requirements or include a blog article that gives students and their families more in-depth information.

Use the last few emails as the call to action (CTA) to get in touch with a counselor for questions or enroll in the program. Keep providing value by including other helpful content, but ultimately, focus on a strong, bold CTA to convert the lead.

4. Create a Personal Follow-up 

You know those automated emails and lead nurturing series we’ve been talking about? They carry much more weight coming from a member of your team than if they're sent from info@ourteenprogramnamehere.com.

Personalized communication is far more likely to resonate with a prospect and encourage them to ask more questions. Using a specific person’s name can increase email open rates by up to 35%. A personalized greeting is second only to the subject line and offers you're extending. 

As you strategize, decide which staff member's name to attach to these emails. You can select different names based on the program or send email responses to a general inbox (which the prospect won't realize) and have your staff determine who's best equipped to respond to individual inquiries. There are plenty of ways to still share the workload while personalizing the appearance of your email responses. 

5. Reduce Enrollment Friction or Eliminate Unnecessary Paperwork

Perhaps your strategy for lead response works great, but maybe your enrollment process deserves a second look. Gen Z and Gen Alpha aren't accustomed to paper forms (which are so last century). Parents of today's teens have grown comfortable using digital tools, too. While they're not true digital natives, millennial parents likely began leaning heavily into technology by the time they were 10-15 years old, so they're also familiar with how to navigate a digital world. And let's face it. Digitizing enrollment is less work for you and facilitates quick, easy enrollment for students (or their parents) using autofill on their devices.

Evaluate what information is most important to help you serve students and their families. When a student or parent feels overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork or number of required forms to complete, they may decide the effort isn't worth the reward—or miss the deadline to enroll. Consider A/B testing each enrollment form by leading users to different landing pages in your automated response emails. Testing—plus the statistics you can gather about form abandonment enables you to see which form works most effectively and collects the information you need to make a data-driven decision about which form works best for your organization.

6. Offer Flexible Options

When was the last time you evaluated your program offerings? Are they perhaps too rigid and keeping you from converting the largest volume of leads possible? Program flexibility could help you close more leads, as prospects might decide, "That's designed for someone like me."

Maybe the timeframe doesn't work with a majority of teens' needs. Or the pacing moves too quickly for them to take full advantage of the material.

One way to identify gaps or areas of opportunity is by surveying students once they complete your program. Consider sending surveys to students who opted not to enroll, asking them why they chose a different teen program or what elements of your program didn't serve their needs.

7. Learn Why Teens Choose Your Program, Then Highlight the Why

Sometimes, a specific program just resonates. Perhaps it's the topic or theme. Maybe it's the flexibility. It could be the instructors themselves, or the interesting features not available in similar programs. Whatever the reasons why students choose to enroll, you won't know until you ask program participants. Understanding their reasons can help you highlight the key customer benefits to attract more interested leads and convert them, with past participant testimonials, videos and images, and other relevant information.

Asking for feedback from program participants (and conducting market research to see what the competition is offering) will help your programs stand out.

Improving Lead Quality

Perhaps your lead conversion rate is low because you're generating low-quality leads or attracting people who don't fit your programs' target audience. Or maybe you're not generating enough leads overall.

If either of those situations applies to you, contact TeenLife Media. We work with all types of teen programs to help them connect with their target audience in meaningful ways to improve lead quality, thereby increasing the chances of lead conversion.