Think about how much money you spend on marketing. Then think about your current conversion rate. Maybe you’re converting 3 percent of leads? Or 12 percent? Now imagine that you could use a simple technique increase your conversion rate by 10 to 25 percent. Wouldn’t you want to do that? Of course you would. The technique that I’m talking about here is something called Exit Messaging. I’ve been sharing this advanced sales tactic with my business coaching clients for more than a decade and I’ve seen it consistently and dramatically increase their conversion rates.
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Here’s how Exit Messaging works: When leads come in through your sales funnels — including everything from landing pages to conversations with actual salespeople — many of them will either say no to your pitch or simply leave the sales interaction without having said yes or no. Exit Messaging is a strategic approach that you can take to reach back out to those leads and encourage them to continue their sales conversations and convert.
In this article, I’m going to share four of the most powerful Exit Messaging strategies I’ve seen in action.
1. Exit Messaging on Website Landing Pages
You go to a website and you navigate to a page about a particular product or service. Then, for whatever reason, you decide to leave that page. Maybe you want to navigate to another site or close your browser or even just move your cursor off of the area where the sales pitch is happening. That’s when the Exit Messaging kicks in.
A popup will appear that encourages you to stay. It will usually say something like, Are you sure you want to leave? Wouldn’t you like to get the benefit from this product or service? Sometimes that popup will even offer you some kind of limited-time promotion if you reengage.
With a little bit of incremental A/B testing, this simple, straightforward strategy can become incredibly effective.
2. Exit Messaging Over Email
Another particularly effective form of Exit Messaging utilizes email to reactivate sales interactions after leads have said no or abandoned those interactions.
How many times have you been on an e-commerce site, loaded up your shopping cart, and then left the site without making a purchase? It happens all the time.
Now, if you run the site, you’ll often have data on the person who abandoned their cart. Perhaps they’ve already filled out some information about themselves or maybe they’re coming to you from a trackable link that lets you know who they are.
In cases like these, your Exit Messaging can take the form of one or more follow up emails. Something like: Hey John. It looks like you filled your shopping cart but didn’t have a chance to check out. Don’t worry; we’ve kept it here for you. Please come back and complete your order. As with landing pages, some businesses will also offer some sort of promotion — like 10 percent off or free shipping — to increase the conversion rate. Messaging like this costs so little, and yet it generates so much.
And this strategy isn’t only for e-commerce sites. You can use it any time that somebody fails to complete an action on your site. For instance, my company, Maui Mastermind, occasionally offers free digital copies of my book, Build a Business, Not a Job. Before you download the book, you fill out a quick web form with your information. And there are always a few people who fill out the form and then leave the site before downloading the book.
Now we’re not in the business of data collection. We’re business coaches. We really want people to read our book. Because we know that if a business owner reads the book — even just one or two chapters of it — they’re going to want to work with us. Because they’re going to discover extraordinarily useful information about how they can grow their business and get their life back.
So if someone fails to complete the download, they’ll receive an automatic sequence of three or four reminder emails articulating the benefits of reading the book and encouraging them to complete the download.
3. Exit Messaging In Person and Over the Phone
It’s important to remember that not all Exit Messaging is digital.
One of our business coaching clients runs a franchise of hair salons. This client managed to bring in additional hundreds of thousands of dollars annually just by instituting a rebooking system for their clientele. The way it works is that after you get your hair done, just when you’re getting up to leave and you see yourself looking beautiful in the mirror, your hairdresser will rebook you for your next appointment. It’s that simple.
Another one of our business coaching clients runs a dental practice and, like most dental teams, her staff will encourage you to rebook at checkout. But she’s found that many people aren’t prepared to make their next appointment right there and then. So she’ll follow up with them a few months later to reactivate.
She’s found this strategy so effective that she’s invested in making it personal. Whereas my dentist just sends me a postcard, this business coaching client will have someone on her team call you personally to rebook you. And they’ll keep calling until they get through. This is called a reactivation campaign.
4. Visit-Triggered Messaging
To take all of this full circle, let’s return to website landing pages and email. Earlier, I shared some ways that you can target leads with messaging when they’re leaving your site. But how about when they’re coming back?
If someone comes to your website via a trackable link in an email that you’ve sent them, you can have a formalized automated system whereby their web visit triggers a salesperson phone call, a live chat popup, a direct mail package, or a new sequence of emails.
Using Exit Messaging strategies like this one can radically transform your business. Think about it. You spend so much time, energy, attention, and money generating interest and leads and going from an infinite prospect pool down to a much more targeted list. Some of those targeted people are going to take easy action right away and go ahead and buy your product or your service. But 10 to 25 percent of the people who would eventually buy might not do it right away.
Now you can close with that remaining 10 to 25 percent. All it takes is a little bit of strategic Exit Messaging delivered on your website, over email, in person, on the phone, or by direct mail.
You’ve already spent the big money getting them to the door. Now all they need is a little push.