What companies need now are ways to differentiate themselves, one of which is by having a website that generates leads. Generating leads on a website is not a passive task—it takes time, skill and intention.
There is one caveat: you need to have traffic to generate leads. Without traffic, and, in some cases, without enough traffic, your site will rarely have any kind of conversion. The following are some simple ways to help your website maximize traffic and generate leads.
Start at the Beginning
In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, best-selling author Stephen Covey’s second habit is “begin with the end in mind.” In life, and particularly in websites, one should follow this advice. So many people today build websites with a focus on something else like the colors, the graphics, or some cool feature, but in the end, what matters is your goal. What are you trying to accomplish? Before outlining, designing and building a website, define your online business goals, such as generating leads, and keep these in mind when determining a strategy for your website.
Call to Action
Along with knowing your goals, a clear call to action should be displayed on most pages. In fact, some pages may be dedicated landing pages for users to make decisions, such as contact for a free consultation. You might take this action on your homepage as well, placing your main call to action toward the top of the homepage. Consider making a list of various call to actions you would like customers to take when planning your website.
Contact Info
It’s crucial that potential customers can easily get in touch with you, so your website must have all of your relevant contact information including your location. Furthermore, don't simply publish it on your contact page—put your contact information in the header or footer of your website. A good practice is to make sure modes of contact, such as your phone number and location, are accessible on every page and include a hyperlink to dial your number when clicked. Today, with more people searching the web on their smartphones, this is more important than ever before. Accessible info, along with a responsive website, is invaluable for easy contact.
Contact Form
Along with the contact information, a website should have a contact form. Contact forms can have many functions, including collecting information from the user such as phone number and email address. Contact forms are often quicker for users to complete and keep them from leaving your website. You may consider having some kind of a contact form in major sections of your website as well as on each page. This way, a user is never too far from a contact form.
It bears mentioning that if you have a contact form, when users request information from you, you respond as soon as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to route the contact to the most appropriate person for follow up. For example, if it is sales, route the message to your sales team. If the message is for service, route it to the service team. Failing to follow up is one of the worst things you can do.
Email Newsletter
Do you have an email newsletter? This is one of the best ways to generate leads. An email newsletter can be for those interested in your products or services as well as your current customers. It can be difficult to find customers or convert prospects into customers; therefore, these two types of newsletter subscribers give you an advantage. In this case, they have given you permission to contact them and let them know what's going on in your business. One way to entice someone to sign up for your email newsletter is to offer a valuable free item such as a checklist, an e-book or a series of emails providing information about a problem that needs to be solved.
Ask a Pro
How has your company addressed lead generation from its website? Do you have written goals and objectives? If you need help evaluating your online marketing, including your website’s potential for generating leads, contact us today for a free consultation! www.pleth.com/contact
Sources:
Gardner, Oli. “15 Steps to the Ultimate Lead Capture Landing Page.” Unbounce. Unbounce, 17 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 May 2015.
Stengel, Jim. “How to Create a Branded, Lead Generation Website.” Forbes. Forbes, 7 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.
“The Ten Commandments of an Awesome Lead-Generating Website.” Kissmetrics. KISSmetrics, Nov. 2011. Web. 10 May 2015.
Urban, Diana. “Not Generating Enough Leads From Your Website? Here Are 7 Easy Fixes.” Hubspot. Hubspot, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.