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A situation like COVID-19 was the last and most unexpected thing people expected. However, it has altered our way of life and revealed areas that have been overlooked in terms of development and progress. On the one hand, people are attempting to remain indoors to avoid being infected, while the medical department is doing everything possible to monitor the spread of the disease and have everyone vaccinated. But, on the other hand, it has had adverse effects on many industries, and education is no special.
More than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries are currently affected by school closures due to the pandemic. Though some places have resumed offline schools and colleges, others, including India, seem far from considering offline classes. With the sudden change away from the classroom in many parts of the world, some wonder whether online learning adoption would continue post-pandemic and how such a shift will affect the global education market.
How is the education sector responding to COVID 19?
Many online learning platforms, including BYJU'S, a Bangalore-based educational technology and online tutoring firm established in 2011, are now the world's most highly valued ed-tech company, are providing free access to their services in response to high demand. For example, BYJU has seen a 200 per cent rise in the number of new students using its Think and Learn app since announcing free live lessons, according to Mrinal Mohit, its Chief Operating Officer. There are nearly Ed-Tech start-ups in India alone today, with 435 established in the last 24 months.
Since 2010, these Ed-Tech companies have raised a total of $2.46 billion in funding. India is the most emerging market for Ed-Tech businesses, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion people. But, aside from the monopolies imposed by giant players like Byju’s, Unacademy and others, how can you target the right audience and let them know about your existence?
One such hack is generating Marketing Qualified Leads or MQL. MQL is the most important lead that can get the most efficient conversions in a minimal budget and limited time.
What is MQL? Does MQL target the right audience
MQL or Marketing Qualified Lead is a type of generated lead with interest in the brand and its services. Such leads are the ones that come upfront and reach the company, in this case, Ed-Tech, for their services or product. These are the potential customers looking after the company’s services but haven’t made it to the sales. These leads are more likely to reach the company through ad campaigns, filling the company form, asking for a demo/trial and frequently visiting the company website.
In terms of numbers, marketing is projected to produce approximately 25-30% of total leads, with an estimated MQL conversion rate of nearly 15% of total leads. Unlike marketing, MQL needs a one-time investment that has to be renewed as per the plan. Hence, MQL can easily increase the curb by adding 50% of the leads produced through marketing, based on the size of the market and the leads generated through marketing.
Outsourcing the marketing services and MQL and SQL services increases the conversion ratio and saves a huge initial investment. According to an article by Contact Centre, the cost-savings for this type of solution can be numerous.
The key points that were identified in a recent installation were:
- A reduction in operating costs of 15-20%
- A reduction in call centre training of new agents by 50%
- A further reduction of 10-15% of operating costs compared because the service was delivered from Adelaide.
Additionally, renowned and established BPO Service Providers who operate from Tier-II city can save you a further 10-15% of operating costs than other outsourcing providers because the overall cost is low.
How can an Ed-Tech be so sure of Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)?
1. Best return on investment
Marketing Qualified Lead generator is the best tool because of the higher conversion ratio and targeting the right pool of customers. The average lead-to-MQL conversion rate is a little over 30 per cent across all its industries. That’s a pretty high number.
2. Improving the Sales Workload
A business cannot afford to spend money on poor leads. The sales team saves time as well as resources by focusing on the appropriate leads. And the easiest way to achieve this is to reach out to the leads with the best return on investment.
3. Improving conversion rate through relevant content writing
According to a Marketing Sherpa survey, 79 per cent of marketing leads never make it to sales. Marketing Qualified Leads benefit content marketers because they enable them to pinpoint who they should be targeting with their content, increasing the ROI of lead nurturing efforts.
4. Saves time and effort altogether
Identifying the best audience at the right time is the key. The sales team will be assured that the leads produced are from qualified prospects.
5. MQLs helps you bring more business on a limited budget
Focus on the most customer-centric marketing tactics, such as MQL, rather than wasting a lot of money, time, resources and efforts of the sales team by spreading your wings on different marketing strategies.
How to calculate the Conversion Rate?
A conversion is described as a sale or information submission that is tracked using a tracking pixel. As an example, a conversion in B2B online marketing is generally described as obtaining a lead’s information rather than making a sale. For instance, a company is running ad campaigns and generating MQL for ‘ABC.’ So, to find the company’s conversion rate for ‘ABC,’ divide the total number of conversions by the total number of visitors to that page and multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
The conversion rate will inform you of the percentage of visitors who converted.
Conversion rate = Total number of conversions / Total number of visitors
But it is no easy win that every campaign or paid ad gets you a good conversion rate. Few factors can still affect your conversion rate, and the market won’t react as per the ideal expectations
Factors affecting the Conversion Rate
1. Saturation Level in Industry
Industries that are overcrowded by marketers have less conversion ratio because of the already existing monopoly and no penetration space.
2. Required Prospect Information
The conversion ratio is less in industries requiring much information to make a purchase or sales. Hence people resort to going offline rather than finding their way through online mediums.
3. Pricing Benefits
Consumers in some industries are easy to convert compared to other industries because of the pricing structure and the priority of that very service or product.
Since other factors, such as season, the need of the time and a few more, always stick to compare the conversion rate within the same industry. But it also depends on the right choice of channel.
The choice of the channel not only decides your conversion rate but also highlights your targeted audience, who can be your potential leads. Thus, you should choose your platforms wisely.
Advertising Channels and Conversation Rate
Google Ads turned out to be the highest with 8.2%. YouTube was the lowest with 0.4% in the research. The following research was done a couple of years back, before the pandemic. And ever since COVID, the market and people have been shifting to the online medium, increasing the overall users regularly.
Since this research, few more insights have come from other sources that show that Google has the highest conversion rate and is ajar from the saturation point. Whereas Bing sees a steep decline in the conversion ratio, Facebook has already reached a saturation point in many industries.
Higher conversion rates usually depend on content optimization, understanding the audience, size of the audience etc. For example, a Google ad conversion rate, done by WordPress, showed that while google ads were the market leader, the top-quartile had a conversion rate of over 10%, and yes, that’s a huge number.
So, what do you do if you discover that your conversion rates are below the industry average? Here are some tips that we suggest from our years of experience and services.
5 Tips to Increase your Conversion Ratio
1. Optimize your website
The website’s user interface where you want users to convert has an impact on the conversion rate. Users are more likely to get frustrated and bounce if the forms aren’t intuitive, and they have to think too hard about what to do next. It should be quick, easy to operate and navigate through different pages. If your website is too slow to load the content and graphics, the user will leave it before even seeing it.
2. Add Social Proof
Social Proof is a psychological phenomenon in which people imitate the behaviours of others, assuming that those actions represent the right conduct. Marketers use social evidence as a conversion rate optimization strategy by assuaging consumers’ fears. Companies can also add clients’ testimonials or highlight genuine feedback to inform people about the product/services. They can also add prestigious publications, awards they have won, market case study as per their understanding, blogs, etc.
Adding Social Proof on one’s web page will only help the customers and potentials get the organization’s zest and add a sense of assurance. This will also help the company highlight their achievements and the things they have done throughout their timeline. We have encountered many clients who have realized that social proof is really important on-page and off-page, but they still haven’t done it.
3. Customized message for customer
We assume that if a customer lands on us via ads and isn’t aware of the company and the services, we must tell him. Hence, the customer journey requires different messages at stages to help him with certain information regarding the company and its services. Thus, it’s usually important to discuss the advantages of joining hands with the company and how the services can deal with the customer’s problems. The brand name should be used to add in assurance such as loyalty and long-term relations. If this tailoring isn’t done properly, there are chances that the company can lose a potential client.
4. Ask for less information
In B2C, most companies can reduce the friction by adding minimal information criteria, i.e., limited to just email or phone number, and that’s it. Chances are people aren’t filling the form because of the sensitivity of the information, and you might lose on leads. Especially in B2B industries, companies ask for way too much information to circulate the flier. Since many clients come across it the first time, it is not feasible to expect them to fill up all the required details in a go.
5. Hit and Try for a while
People expect immediate results from day one. However, from our experience in the relevant industry, the company should understand the market and make dozens of tests to improve the landing page. We have seen that a good test that can help to covert towards the landing page takes time. But once it’s done, it doesn’t take much time to give substantial results in a limited time.
Similarly, Ed-Tech must understand that if they expect to build a huge marketing base and potential conversion through it, they have to start investing in it from now on because it can be described as the time of need for their services. Since it’s difficult to focus on just marketing and qualified leads rather than the core competency and services, outsourcing it to trustworthy firms with experience and trust is the best option.
How are BPO providers helping the Ed-Techs with it?
BPO providers are the core competencies in running campaigns, search engine optimization, handling calls, etc. These industries help the Ed-Techs to outsource their services on a low budget and ask them to pay for the services they receive. This model helps the Ed-Tech companies to save their resources, time, man labour altogether. Outsourcing such services also help in getting the best service without compromising with the front-end work. Few industries soon realize the importance and future of MQL and started outsourcing these services. It has helped businesses by running ad campaigns and optimizing their digital marketing channel. Few providers have even taken care of the SQL services of these organizations, such as converting the MQL to the paid user and closing the lead for the client. They have helped them increase their market and businesses by folds and increased their revenue and customer base within the minimal expense.
How to take IT, Lead Generation and BPO services?
To ensure your leads generation and converts at the highest possible pace, Sign up today for a free trial at We Win Limited. It assists you with digital marketing services, MQL tools, and SQL services to ensure that your landing page is fully optimized, engaging the audience and holding customers.
