Picture this. You put countless hours (or dollars) into your company’s website with hopes of generating leads. You have contact, industry, and services pages. You’re proud of your site and smile whenever you view it. Then, months pass for only a handful of leads to come through your site. Where could you have gone wrong? What are areas you can improve?
If you’re wondering how to generate more leads from your website, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve built countless websites with the same goal: to make our clients money by generating leads. We’ve put together four recommendations to get your website working for you and not against you. Let’s get started!
1. Implement Clear Calls to Action
Your customers will navigate your company’s website completely differently than you will, and we cannot assume they know exactly what we want them to do. How to help? Crystal clear calls to action (CTA).
When preparing CTAs, aim for:
- Simple but Direct Text: Don’t let fear of being “pushy” convince you to add vague CTAs. It’s not pushy to ask for a sale, download, or appointment from an interested customer! Add CTAs like “Buy Now” instead of “Learn More.” The key is to use direct and powerful language that entices customers to go deeper into your site.
- A Sense of Urgency: If it’s appropriate for your business, encourage customers to take action by letting them know it’s a limited-time offer or a limited supply.
- CTAs That Stand Out: Your CTA buttons should be different colors and sizes than every other button. Place them strategically throughout your website to remind your customers what you want them to do.
- Transitional CTAs: Transitional CTAs are great for customers who are not yet ready to buy. These CTAs can offer a short PDF, how-to video, or anything else a potential customer would find valuable.
2. Forms. Forms. Forms.
Web forms are essential to capturing customer information, and there is a form for every step of the buyer’s journey. Trust me; we know no one wants to fill out a form, so keep your forms simple and uncomplicated. Imagine having to fill out your name, email, phone number, company, job title, etc., just to download a 2-page PDF – it’s unrealistic!
Our favorite forms to add to a site include:
- Contact Form: Keep these forms simple with a name, email, message box, and checkbox for newsletter subscription. This form gets you a name and email to contact for sales and possibly market to through your sales emails and newsletters.
- Newsletter Signups: To go a step further, if you have a weekly, monthly, or even quarterly newsletter, you should invite your potential and current customers to sign up! A newsletter keeps the conversation going and invites a customer back to your site.
- Offer Download Form: This form ties directly with your transitional CTAs. Your potential customers in the awareness or consideration stages will receive valuable information in exchange for their email. Be sure to make these forms extra easy to fill out!
3. Create Landing Pages
Landing pages are for one thing: converting page visitors to leads. These effective standalone pages are great for ads, newsletters, and so much more. You can have one, or you can have many for each segment of your customers.
For a good landing page experience, include the following:
- No/Limited Navigation Options: Nav menus are distracting. Remember, the goal of this page is to convert!
- An Attractive Offer: Maybe you’re offering a free e-book, an appointment, or a sample. Keep it relevant and enticing.
- One CTA: Studies show that landing pages with more than one link have decreased effectiveness. Remember, you can have multiple landing pages serving different purposes! Keep your landing pages distraction-free.
- Direct and Clear Copy: Your copy should speak specifically to a segment of your audience. Include a strong headline and have a concise body copy that speaks to the benefits of your product/service (keep it customer centered by using “you” instead of “we” or “i”). If it’s relevant, you can include testimonials and stats, too!
- Visuals/Videos: Humans are simple creatures – images capture our attention! The best pictures to include are ones with actual customers using your products/services or photos of the product/the product in use. If you cannot include those, pictures of just people will work, too!
- A Form: Forms=information. Keep these forms simple, uncomplicated, and relevant to the offer.
4. Include High-Quality Content on Your Site
High-quality and consistent content is crucial. Websites need content for SEO to ensure you show up in the SERPs when potential customers ask questions. However, you shouldn’t use your website as a dumping ground for content. Your blogs and page copy should be deliberate, targeting specific keywords, and optimized for SEO.
How do you keep your website content relevant and of quality?
- Start With a Buyer’s Journey: Do you know what your potential customers are searching for? Knowing this will help you create content that answers their questions and relieves their pain points.
- Conduct Keyword Research: What words do people search for when looking for your products/services? What keywords do you rank for, and what do your competitors rank for? This information will help you create an effective content strategy.
- Commit to Regular Blogging: Blogging is the best tool to answer your customers’ questions while encouraging them to take action and move further into the marketing funnel. Use your findings from the buyer’s journey and keyword research for maximum effectiveness.
- Create Case Studies and Whitepapers: Both case studies and whitepapers show how your business helped a customer overcome a problem. These educational tools show customers in the awareness or consideration phase why your product/service is a great option for them. These can also be great tools for your sales team. We’ve done many case studies and whitepapers you can reference for ideas!
- Showcase Your Testimonials/Reviews: Prove to prospective customers that you’re trustworthy and worth investing in! People trust the honest opinions of others.
It’s Time to Up Your Website Game
Whether you invested considerable time or money into your site, you want to guarantee it works as a tool for growing your business. The tips above are only a handful of tactics you can incorporate into your website strategy, but there are many more that you can use. If you’re tired of unqualified leads and wondering how to generate more leads from your website, our team of marketing experts is ready to give you a guiding hand. Contact us today and start growing your business to where it deserves to be.
