How many touches does it take for your audience to convert? 

According to some research, it takes on average 8 touchpoints from the initial interest to the full commitment to purchasing. Some research suggests it's as many as 22 "touches"! In other words, most leads will need to interact with your company's marketing content at least 8 times before they are ready to buy. 

There are several steps in the sales process:

• Interest and awareness
• Researching and considering your brand
• Conversion

A sales team will typically prepare interactions to help keep leads in the loop and move them from one stage to another. If your business doesn't have sales professionals, your marketing activities will need to guide your online and offline visitors through the buying process so they don't get stuck in a particular stage. 

But how can your business figure out the right activities to increase conversion rates? 

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Figure out your best-converting activities

How you attribute conversions and track leads can make a huge difference to your strategy. Research tools such as WhatConverts do the hard work for you, not only naming and identifying unique leads but also identifying where they came from. 

For small businesses and marketers trying to build value-generating campaigns, it is a fantastic way of:

• Spotting the different touchpoints
• Recognizing at which stages specific activities should occur
• Following the entire lead journey, from first contact to sales
• Avoiding costly efforts that don't generate sufficient leads

Test and experiment with trackable campaigns

Some activities, such as marketing campaigns using Google Analytics and Google Adwords tracking methods, provide greater insight into your audience's mindset and preferences. Therefore, Google provides marketers with unique experimenting options, allowing you to optimize your marketing content through testing:

• Which text receives more interactions
• Which text brings leads to the next stage
• Which landing page design work best
• Which keyword triggers conversions
• What time and location are more effective
• Etc. 

The more you test, the more data you can receive to improve your marketing touchpoints, even recognizing which type of campaign is needed for different stages. Even small tests can give you meaningful results. Don't be afraid to try!

Ask your customers

Sometimes, the fastest way to know what people think is to ask them. While data can show interaction and engagement with your marketing activities, it will not answer the most important question: why something works. 

As a small business, you can gain valuable insights by inviting a few selected customers to a question panel, where you can interview them. To make it easier for them to say yes to your invitation, consider offering them something in exchange for their time (a PR opportunity, discounts on future products, or even free access to your new offer as a Beta-user or founding member). Here are some questions suitable for customer interviews:

• What did you think when you saw x? (you can show them some of the marketing campaigns they interacted with)
• What made you trust us?
• What didn't you like/ did you find confusing about our marketing activities?
• How do we (the company) compare with competitors? (you may discover some unpleasant truths about your marketing and how it positions the brand)
• How does our offer compare with competitors? 

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The interview process may be unpleasant if customers are willing to be fully honest. However, it is an opportunity to improve your marketing activities in the future. 

Potential customers usually need to interact with your brand several times before they decide to purchase. Understanding which activities and content deliver the best results can make your marketing much easier in the future.