The Best Way to Respond to Web Leads
This month we investigate research on responding to Web site leads. A 2007 study, undertaken by Dr. James Oldroyd at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology involved surveying 495 companies that create Web leads from their Web sites. The findings focused on how best to get customers to your Web site and in identifying when was the best time to contact Web leads.
The reason behind the study was that many companies use intuition and experience to manage lead response timing. Intuition, however, is often incorrect. Oldroyd's study offers companies a scientific insight into the field of lead response management.
The top 10 findings from the study were:
- Blogging and social networking have positive effects on driving customers to Web sites.
- The speed it takes to respond to a newly generated Web lead correlates closely with a significant increase in the number of successful follow up calls. The odds of contacting a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop by 100 times decreasing by over 10 times in the first hour.
- Immediacy of response is more important than both time of day and day of week in its effect on contact and sales ratios.
- Response time is important due to factors such as:
- Respondents are at their desk and next to the phone
- A high interest or need is captured if a Web lead is followed up quickly. Interest and need can wane quickly
- The 'wow' factor. Customers are impressed with a fast response time.
- Unproductive call back attempts correlates to lower contact and sales ratios.
- Calls to actions such as 'Get a Quote' and 'Request a Proposal' have a strong positive correlation with increased sales rates.
- Fridays are the worst day to enter into a sales negotiation.
- Capturing lead information by email links and Web forms were seen as statistically successful for capturing leads on Web sites.
- Thursdays are the best days to call your lead to enter into a sales process.
- 4pm to 6pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead. Between 11am to 12am (right before lunch) is the worst time to make contact.
From this report we can see that the best time to respond to Web leads is straightaway. You're more likely to make contact and engage with the lead before they lose interest. It's also interesting to note that certain days and times can also affect your success in this area.
Thank you to the AuCom team for suggesting we review the 'How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold?' report at InsideSales.com.
PS, we were impressed when we contacted InsideSales.com - they responded within 2 minutes - so they certainly walk the walk and not just talk to the talk!
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