Your website should be built with a purpose. It should be designed to deliver results for your business. It should be a lead generator. It should serve up new opportunities in the form of prospects that are interested in what you sell. Ideally you want visitors to ask for a quote. These are prospects that are hot to buy.
What are the steps to turn your website into a lead generator machine?
- Solve a problem: People use the Internet to find information and to search for solutions to problems. Think about what problem your product of service solves for people that do buy what you sell. Talk about the problem on your web page and show why you have the best solution. When you talk about your product, focus on the benefits and not the features and specifications.
- Clear action: Your call to action should be clearly visible and compelling. Make it bold and position it above the fold where it can be seen when people first arrive to your page. Your headline should be compelling and attract both a visitor’s attention and curiosity.
- Collection form: Your email collection form should collect the minimum amount of information necessary to respond to interested prospects. Resist the urge to ask for extra information that may be nice for you, but unnecessary. Many people will abandon forms that request more than name and email.
- Free incentive: You want to offer an ethical bribe. Offer something of value for those that sign-up on your email list. This could be a free eBook, a free tool or even free shipping on their first order. You need to be creative and offer something that your customers would consider valuable.
- Build Trust: People won’t leave behind their email address if they suspect you will spam them with unwanted emails. Provide assurances that their emails will never be given or sold to others. Include logos of organizations you are associated with such as the Better Business Bureau. Even displaying your phone number and physical address shows that you are a real company.
- Buyer Keywords: Even the phrases you optimize your site for are important. 1-2 word phrases are very general and tend to attract “lookers.” These are people early in the buying cycle. People looking to buy use 3-5 word (or longer) phrases that are much more specific and concrete. Example: “Business sales consultant in Portland, Oregon” is specific and the person searching for this is likely to take action.
Lead generation is not a one size fits all formula. You need to make your offer compelling to your buyers. Once your lead generator system is in place, use the process of conversion rate optimization to keep improving your lead generation.