Lead tracking is essential for any business, whether a one-man show or a multinational corporation. By understanding where your leads come from and how they interact with your brand, you can adjust your marketing efforts to be more effective. And when it comes to tracking leads and reporting ROI, opt-in forms are a powerful tool.
In fact, 97% of B2B and B2C businesses claim content marketing is part of their overall marketing strategy.
And with good reason: content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.
But if you’re not tracking your leads, you’re not getting the full picture of your content marketing ROI.
So how can you start tracking leads with opt-in forms?
There are a variety of opt-in forms you can use, from pop-ups to sidebar forms.
These forms allow visitors to sign up for your mailing list or product updates and provide essential contact information. Once you have the contact information, you can start tracking the impact of your content marketing efforts.
Here are the five steps to get started!
1) Create a lead magnet
The first step is to create a lead magnet. A good way to get started with this would be by creating something your audience will find valuable, such as an ebook or white paper (depending on the type of business).
You offer your audience this in exchange for their contact information.
I love using Canva to create lead magnets!
The perfect lead magnet has these key elements:
Relevant to the content of your blog
Relevancy is key when creating a lead magnet. If it’s not relevant to the blog post it’s attached to, people are less likely to sign up for it.
For example, if you have a blog post about social media marketing tips, your lead magnet could be an ebook with even more social media tips.
Offers value to the reader
Your lead magnet should offer value to the reader and solve a problem. It should be something that they would be otherwise willing to pay for.
Easy to download or access
Don’t forget that your lead magnet should be easy to download or access.
If it’s a PDF, make sure it’s a small file size so that people don’t have to wait too long to download it. If it’s an ebook, make sure it is easy to access after signing up.
Checklists and printables should be easy to print or download as well.
Tempting enough to create interest
Here are a few great examples:
- The Ultimate Opt-in Form Checklist
- 31 Title Hacks: A Cheat Sheet to Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral
- The Magic Sales Script: A Foolproof Way to Increase Your Sales
- The Proven Client Proposal Template
- The Complete Toolkit for Your Website: Everything You Need to Get Started Right Away
- 93 Email Subject Lines That Will Increase Your Open Rates
- Free Excel templates for Small Business: Manage Your Finances Like a Pro
2) Add an opt-in form to your blog post
Once you have created your lead magnet, the next step is to add an opt-in form to your blog post. This form should be short and simple and clarify what readers will get if they enter their information.
Choose a plugin
There are a number of plugins to add an opt-in form to your website.
I recommend using one of the following:
Create your form
Once you have chosen a plugin, you must create your form. This process will vary depending on which plugin you choose. Still, it will generally include the following steps:
1) Name your form
2) Choose the type of form you want to create
3) Select the fields you want to include in your form
4) Design your form
Add the code to your website
Once your form is created, you will add the code to your website.
There are many different plugins that can help you connect an account, enter an API key, or embed a code right where you want it on your website.
Test and publish your form
Once you have added the code to your website, test your form and make any necessary changes. When you are happy with it, publish to start collecting subscribers!
3) Send your Leads to a Thank You page
Third, you need to send your leads to a thank-you page after they submit their information.
Typically you can choose this option on your form and include a URL rather than a success message. Think of a typical confirmation page after making a purchase online.
This will help record conversions and measure your new subscriber count.
A tool like OptinMonster will help track leads and conversion rates with a success message and/or thank-you url.
4) Send an automated email after getting a new lead
Don’t forget this step! Make sure to set up an automated email sequence.
This could be a series of emails that go out over time or a single email delivering your lead magnet.
Either way, the goal is to stay in touch with your leads and nurture them until they are ready to buy.
5) Track your ROI
Finally, you need to track your results.
When you invest time in content marketing, one of the most important things to track is your ROI. This includes how many opt-ins come from each blog post and any sales resulting from it.
B2C: Products & Services
For B2C companies promoting products or services, you can activate e-commerce tracking within your plugin settings and/or Google Analytics.
Once you determine the cumulative sales for your opt-in campaign, you can then apply a simple ROI formula to calculate your return on investment:
- Revenue: $500/month x 12 months = $6,000
- Investment: $1,125
- Your Time: $225 (5 hours x $45/hr)
- Cost of Software: $900 ($75/month x 12 months)
The ROI of your email marketing would be:
($6,000 Return – $1,125 Investment) / $1,125 Investment = 433%
B2B: Leads & LTV
For B2B companies, you’ll want to track the number of leads (or new customers) from each blog post.
You can then calculate a customer’s lead-to-customer conversion rate and lifetime value (LTV).
This will give you a clear picture of your ROI to make informed decisions about where to allocate your resources.
If you know that your average customer lifetime value is $5,000 and that around 2% of your opt-in subscribers convert to sales, then you could apply a $100 value to each subscriber that opts into your email list.
If you captured 50 email subscribers for the month, your estimated revenue would be $5,000.
The ROI of your email marketing would be:
($5,000 Return – $1,125 Investment) / $1,125 Investment = 344%
Now that you know how to track leads and ROI from your blog post content, you can quantify the impact of your content marketing efforts.
Wrap-Up
Implementing these five steps will help you track the leads and ROI of your blog post content to make informed decisions about where to allocate your resources.
By taking the time to track your leads and ROI, you can make data-driven decisions about your content marketing strategy that will help you grow your business.
So what are you waiting for? Start implementing these tips today!
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