If you are actively using the Internet to try and bring in sales, there’s one metric you are probably more focused on than anything else: leads.
But even with lead generation, there are different characteristics of bringing in a lead.
First and foremost, there is the act of quantity: more leads means more sales. So it’s imperative that you consistently have a stream of leads coming in.
But those leads won’t do you much good if they aren’t high quality. Better leads mean conversion increases. You turn more of the leads coming in into sales.
And of course, timing is everything. Why take two weeks to convert a lead into a sale if you can do it in one? But in order to do that, you have to build trust.
While your website may have been developed for a variety of reasons, chances are at least on some level you were hoping for lead generation. If people come across your website, connect with you and buy from you, all the better. But did you know there is a precise process to build that up?
Your website can be a lean, mean, lead generating machine if you connect all the pieces together. Smart marketers know their website is the hub of everything they do.
No matter what online tools you use: social media accounts, banner ads, email marketing, search engine optimization techniques, Google ads – they’re all designed to bring people back to your website.
Where you have the opportunity to convert them into paying customers. But you need a few well-designed tools in place.
Here’s how.
Landing Pages
If you don’t have specific landing pages in place, you’re losing money. The good news is that even with a few creative and good looking pages, you’re going to see a significant jump in the number of leads you capture through your site.
Why? Because you’ll focus in on who your true customer is. It’s something that the industry calls “attention ratio.”
People only have the ability to focus on a few things at any given time. Make it too confusing, make someone think beyond the task at hand, the higher the chance of losing them in the process.
Landing pages can help your visitors concentrate and focus on whatever you choose to focus on. You guide them to these landing pages with ads or graphics that mirror the content on the page. You give them exactly what they clicked for. This always works better than dropping them onto your home page, for instance.
And when they make the connection between what they clicked on and what they see when they arrive, there is a better chance they convert.
Form Optimization
If you’re using your website for lead generation, you’re using forms. And you probably know that people in general hate forms.
We don’t want to surrender our information – any information – unless we connect and feel comfortable with releasing it. We just want to get what we came for, not slow down and take the time to fill something out in order to see what we choose.
So the more difficult you make the process, the less likely they’ll leave their information. The more information you ask for, the greater the chance of them leaving and finding your competition instead.
Keep forms short. The fewer fields you use to ask for information, the more likely someone will take the time to fill it out.
Make sure your forms are mobile friendly. Because your audience is using a phone and a tablet, and if you don’t provide a seamless experience on whatever device they choose to use, you’ll lose them.
Provide The Content They Are Looking For
Think of the customer you worked with yesterday. Who were they? What problems did they have? What solutions were they looking for?
Now think about the customer you worked with last week. They had different issues, different pain points, different concerns.
Even if they purchased the very same product.
We all approach a situation in our own unique way.
Think about the purchase of an air conditioner for a moment. Let’s put two potential customers side by side. One may be looking for a new air conditioner because the one in their home stopped working. The other customer may be looking to buy a new one to increase efficiency in their home, even though their current model works just fine.
Same end goal; different reasons for buying.
That means when they start looking for solutions online, they search in different ways. It’s all about the customer’s journey.
Is your content focused enough to “speak” to each of these customers in their own unique way? Or are you generalizing and assuming your customer will figure it out?
People like to think “that’s me.” They like to see themselves in a situation. They like to work with companies when they can say “they understand me.” And if you provide the right content on your site, your chances of finding all the different potential customers that exist out there increase tenfold.
Lead Your Viewers To Another Page
When your readers find you, make sure you give them a reason to stick around. Any time they are led to a page on your site, there should be another related piece of content waiting for them.
You can do that in a variety of ways: hyperlinks to other content on your site, short forms asking for more information, other blog posts, white papers, ebooks, research reports. It might even be more sophisticated like an email class, a webinar, or a free demo.
They key in leading your viewers to another page. There should always be another step.
Some will take it and keep clicking and reading. Those are the people you want to please.
Every time someone clicks, they become more enthralled with who you are and what you do. And the more they read, the more they begin to trust you. And build a relationship with you.
And ultimately do business with you.
There’s a fine line between releasing information for free to capture attention, and “gating” the information with a form to begin the process of understanding who they are. An email may be sufficient in exchange for a free report. A phone number, of course, is needed to make contact and provide a consultation or even a demo.
While you shouldn’t go crazy with this technique and have content popping and flashing every few seconds, the goal is to make them think beyond what they are reading right now. You want to be in the right place at the right time. Balance is key.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to increase both the quantity and the quality of the leads to your site. Whether you’ve optimized plenty of times before, or you’re new to the concept of website marketing, understand there is a fine line between capturing your prospects attention and losing it altogether.
We can help you with all of your SEO and SEM needs. If you would like more information on how to lead website visitors to your content, we can help.
