I’m here to share with you an impassioned plea, so impassioned I’m going to break standard blog protocol and shout at you – our beloved audience: YOUR WEBSITE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE AN ECOMMERCE STORE TO BRING IN BUSINESS.
If your website is already a conversion-optimised machine, well done you! Close your computer, go and make a cup of tea and sit back with a supreme sense of satisfaction knowing that you’re way ahead of most.
If it’s not, then read on. We’re going to share with you 4 steps to get more leads from your website that you can use over the coming weeks to not only get a return from your original investment – but transform it into the number one lead generation source across your entire business.
Prep: Do your homework (or cheat)
In amongst all the fake news, videos of bad driving and political propaganda – there are still some useful things going on in the ever-confusing world of the internet. One of the useful things is around search engine optimisation (SEO). It turns out, you or someone you pay, can look at what prospective buyers in your market are putting into Google to get answers to the questions they have from companies like yours. Neat huh? This is not a deeply technical thing either, there are some nifty tools like SEMrush that get you some of the way there and then the rest is just a few hours desk work.
When you have the words that people are putting into Google, and there’s been a sanity check on how many other people use that keyword, you can feed that into the next tactic.
Step 1: Answer prospective customer’s questions
One cool way to move your website towards lead gen euphoria is to reshape the content your website provides. We know it’s your company website, and it has information about your business, the products and services you provide, the team, your values etc. That’s all good, but quite irrelevant to people in your market who are experiencing symptoms of a problem. You see, when you’re experiencing the symptoms of a problem – you need to give a name to that problem to be able to address it.
Let’s illustrate using an all too common example:
Symptom: I have no hot running water in one sink upstairs
*Quick Google search – ‘no hot running water one sink’
Google finds me a Leek.E Tapscott Ltd – a plumbing and heating contractors that has an informative blog post explaining the various scenarios of losing hot running water, when it occurs and DIY remedial action you can try before you get a teeth-sucking plumber arriving at your front door with pound signs for eyes. I see one that shares all the same characteristics as mine. Bingo!
Problem named: Faulty pump
Did you spot the obvious value exchange in this little example? The fact that I was looking for information about something that’s probably got the cortisol levels higher than the Doctor would is key. I’m stressed. I want to know what is up with this bloody thing (and what the wallet damage will be). Good old Leek.E has come up with the goods. I am thankful to that company for helping me. I now have a positive image of this business.
So the takeaway from this section? Don’t think about selling in the first instance, start thinking about how to deliver the most value to the people who use your site. Ironically, it will help you sell more.
Note: Only powerful when combined with the doing your homework part. Zero use creating this content if no one is going to see it.
Step 2: Use call-to-actions
So if you’re lucky enough to start getting more visitors coming to your website. Congratulations. You’re now in a elite club. Traffic is cool, is gives you a sense of satisfaction that your efforts haven’t been in vain. Someone loves you! Now’s the meaty bit: trying to get the people on your website to take action. Enter call-to-actions (CTAs). Once again, this is straightforward stuff. People are on your site and you want them to do something while they’re there. You encourage them to do that using CTAs. They can be links, buttons, banners, images – you often see them in video content now too (subscribe/watch another video).
Each call-to-action should be positioned on a relevant page: don’t just go sticking them anywhere. You can see Charli’s guide to CTAs for some more detailed guidance.
Step 3: Create reasons for people to subscribe
CTAs are no good unless you have a strong reason for people to fill in a web form. This is one of the trickier ones to get right, but when you do get it right, it can yield big results. It’s crucial to keep the previous point about value front and centre in your mind for this bit. Specifically think about this question, what can I give to my users that is of equal value as them subscribing to our content?
There are no shortcuts here. Visitors to your website see through lame offers. And even if they don’t, if they download a content offer that sounds great – and it’s naff – they’re unlikely to engage with your content again. Consequently, you’ve probably then got a cat in hell’s chance of selling them something.
The focus should be on high quality conversion content, that inspires, educates or helps. It should be put behind a short form that captures the details of willing subscribers.
Step 4: Use web tracking
Awesome! You have marketing leads now coming from your website. Some companies go straight for the high-fives here though and that’s often a mistake. In most cases, these ‘leads’ are not sales-ready. They need tickling under the chin a little bit more from marketing before they get a phone call. If you use a tad more tech on your website, it can really round off this process nicely and get them in the hands of your hungry sales team as soon as possible.
Web tracking is available in marketing automation systems. It ties together the data you get when someone fills in those forms with what they do when they’re on your website. This tracking happens before they fill a form in and after, so it’s pretty handy at spotting buying signals.
Tying all of this together then:
- Someone come across your site after typing in a term that you have produced content for
- They see a snazzy looking call to action and go on to fill in a form on a well designed and alluring landing page
- You then see that the following week they return back to your site and look at the same product page on your website three times
With the addition of the italic section, the whole dynamic of the example engagement above changes. This is why web tracking is so powerful, it stops you peaking too soon and scaring people off and ensures that if there’s a lead who just needs you to reach out first to stimulate a discussion, you’re gonna know about it. Pretty nifty I think.
Marketing automation systems that provide this kind of functionality are better value than ever. With ActiveCampaign, you can get involved for just a handful of pounds each month. Now, there’s no excuse not to take the leap and start tracking!
What are you waiting for?
These 4 steps to get more leads from your website are practical methods that you can implement TODAY. So don’t let this be another blog post that you read, think ‘cool’, then go back to the status quo. Have a go at something new and let us know how you get on.
