9 Metrics That Network Consultants Overlook with Website Lead Generation

Whether you yourself are a network consultant, or you’ve been a client of one, you’re probably well aware that most are completely asleep at the wheel when it comes to their digital marketing.

In this post, you’ll learn about the nine lead generation metrics that most network consulting firms need to get a much better handle on:

1. Number of Website Visitors – First, keep track of how many unique website visitors arrive each month. After all, if no one can find your website, does the website really even “exist?”
2. Number of Website Leads -- Next look at how many of those unique website visitors convert into Contacts (also known as Leads). And we’re particularly interested at this point in first time conversions, rather than reconversions. (A website conversion happens when a visitor is so interested in what you’re offering on a landing page that he or she gladly provides their information in return for access to the premium content on the other side of the landing page. A reconversion, on the other hand, happens when that same visitor returns to your website and opts in again on that or another landing page.) Now reconversions can also be a very powerful metric to watch, as they usually indicate that a lead is maturing and getting closer to sales-ready. But reconversions are beyond the scope of today’s post and have more to do with closing leads into sales. For today’s post, we’re really just focusing on the initial landing page conversions that transform first time website visitors into leads.
3. Number of Website Customers – Since no one just wants visitors and leads, and the end goal is typically revenue and ROI, we also need to keep tabs on the number of Contacts that convert from Leads to Customers.
4. Sources of Website Visitors – After you have a good handle on the quantity of Website Visitors, Website Leads, and Website Customers generated in a given time period -- such as a month -- look at the Sources. In other words, where did these website visitors come from? From your reporting tool, pinpoint how many website visitors in the given time period came from Organic Search, Referrals, Social Media, Email Marketing, Paid Search, and Direct Traffic.
   
5. Sources of Website Leads – Then you’ll need to repeat this same process for your Website Leads, rather than just Website Visitors. This is especially important because some website traffic sources may be very productive for generating leads, while other traffic sources are basically worthless for lead generation.
6. Sources of Website Customers – While leads are a good way to start the relationship that shepherds visitors through the buyer’s journey, at the end of the day your success with digital marketing isn’t just about lead generation. Success is measured in revenue and ROI. So we need to know which sources – within Organic Search, Referrals, Social Media, Email Marketing, Paid Search, and Direct Traffic – are especially valuable for visitors that ultimately work themselves all the way down the sales funnel into paying customers.
   
7. Visit to Lead Conversion Rate (%) – Now that you have a good feel for which sources of traffic are productive, we need know how productive. The conversion rate tells us that. It’s simply the percentage of website visitors that turn into a lead. For example, if 1,000 visitors arrive at your website during a calendar month and 20 of those complete a landing page form and convert into leads, you have a 2% (20 divided by 1,000) visit to lead conversion rate. In your reporting tool, you should be able to easily identify the total number of website visits from each traffic source, the overall conversion rate % for that source and how many contacts (or leads) were generated from that source.
8. Lead to Customer Conversion Rate (%) – Moving further along in the sales process, if 2 of those 20 leads ultimately become paying customers, you have a 10% (2 out of 20) lead to customer conversion rate.
9. Closed Loop Reporting -- One final category of metrics that’s extremely important to pay attention to is the idea of Closed Loop Reporting -- which is the ability to know which sources of website visitors ultimately monetized into paying clients. It’s named “closed loop” because it’s closing the knowledge-gap loop between sales outcomes and marketing activities. Closed loop reporting helps set the stage for more productive sales and marketing alignment (also known as “Smarketing”).
   

In this blog post, we’ve introduced you to the nine metrics that network consultants most often ignore with their website lead generation.

How important is your website for generating leads, clients, revenue, and ROI? Let us know your take in the Comments section below.

And to learn more about lead generation best practices, be sure to watch the "Inbound Revenue Acceleration Webinar for Managed Services & IT Consulting."