Generating more leads is vital to the success and longevity of every business. And while it may seem easy enough, it is an issue that a lot of organizations struggle with. And what can digital marketers do? There are a lot of things you can do to generate more leads with your website, and we will be covering the most important methods in the following lines. So, if you wish to up your game and generate more leads, read on…
What Does a “Lead” Really Mean, and Why is it Important?
In the context of marketing, lead basically means contact with a potential buyer. Different organizations may have slightly different definitions of the term -some say any contact can be considered a lead, while some argue that it is determined to be a customer- but generally if a user shows interest in your products/services and share contact information, you’ve got yourself a lead!
The above definition should also answer the question of why generating leads is important. No matter what your industry is, if you are selling something, anything, you need more people to be interested in that, so that your customer base -and your business- can grow. Lead generation is very important for businesses of all sizes, from humble start-ups to influential industry leaders.
Inbound Lead Generation vs. Outbound Lead Generation
When it comes to lead generation, inbound vs. outbound is a question that has to be discussed. Basically, inbound lead generation is creating specific evergreen content -and campaigns- with the aim of attracting visitors and converting them to leads. This method works by simply making your online presence easier to notice- through SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, etc. In inbound lead generation, users choose the time and place of the action (when to visit your website, when to click a button, etc.)
Outbound lead generation is directly sending messages to your target audience- this means in this scenario, you are the one determining when the interaction will happen. Therefore this method is also known as “interruption marketing”. To generate outbound leads, you can try email marketing, display advertising, and even cold calling…
While the objective stays the same for both approaches, the tactics used are obviously different. Inbound certainly establishes more trust, while outbound shines with its ability to better target specific people/companies. Outbound is definitely faster -as you take control and decide when it’s gonna happen- but with inbound, users have more awareness -that’s why they have found you- which means it will be easier to convert. And which one to choose? The boring answer again- it depends… You should create your own strategy based on your business, goals, and audience, and you can certainly combine the two; making experiments to see what works the best.
10 Tips to Generate More Leads from Your Website
Now that you know why leads are crucial for your business, let’s see how we can actually get them.
Here are our 10 hot tips for those who wish to generate more leads on their websites:
1- Optimize Your Website for Maximum Search Performance & User Experience
First thing’s first- to generate leads, you need visits, and to get visits, you need good search results. Optimize your website for the best user experience and make the necessary modifications for a better SEO score. The main points to consider here are:
- Mobile friendly web design
- Unique, helpful content
- Good loading times
- Quality incoming links
2- Have a Basic CTA on Your Homepage
It’s great if you have a beautifully designed homepage that catches the attention of visitors, but you have to keep that attention as well. And to do this, you need at least one CTA on your homepage– which should be enough in most cases, as you certainly don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with CTAs everywhere.
You have a lot of options to consider for this: you can offer your visitors free trials, e-books, subscriptions, etc. Try to find what will appeal to them the most, and don’t be invasive!
3- Add Forms to Pages With the Most Traffic
If some of the pages on your website are getting more traffic than the others -which will be the case most of the time- you should use those pages to get more leads, and adding forms is one of the best methods to do so. First, identify which pages are getting the most traffic, then install forms to harvest valuable contact information.
4- Carefully Analyse the Performances of Your Lead Generators
Analysing is one of the most important aspects of digital marketing: it shows you how your website performs and gives you valuable information on what to do to make it better. Lead generation is no exception to this rule. This means you should regularly check how your lead generators are performing and find ways to improve them. For example, let’s say you have two landing pages with the same number of visits, but one has a 5% conversion rate while the other has 9%. Try to find the reason for that and optimize your page accordingly. Evaluate everything- form performances, CTA clicks, landing page conversions, and improve your lead generators based on your evaluations. Unbounce can be help you to create the optimal landing pages for your website.
5- Offer Value
No one likes to give their contact information for free to some website that will probably regularly e-mail them about new products and/or services. If you want your users to willingly share their information with you, you should be able to provide them some value in return. High-value content can be anything; from industry reports to case studies, e-books to webinars, podcasts to sneak peeks and tutorials, etc.
Once you have something worth their time -and data- you can ask them to fill out a simple form, and from there you can start working your e-mail marketing magic!
6- Place Your CTAs Strategically
Truth is, most users will not be scanning your web pages line by line, so if you are placing a CTA on a page with relatively high traffic, you better place it strategically so more people can see it. Make sure they are not only visible but eye-catching, and on a part of the page visitors’ eyes naturally go to. There are studies made on this, for example, it is known that the users view the left half of the page more than the right half. Do your research, consider your page layout, and place your visible CTAs in the right spots. To get the best results, you can perform A/B tests with your CTAs, so you can see where they work the best.
7- Analyze User Behavior (Heatmapping)
Understanding what actions users take on your website in detail is key to better optimize it to capture their attention. Using heatmaps is a good way of doing this. Basically, a heatmap is a graphical data representation that provides information on user behavior- where they move their mouse pointers, where they click, scroll, etc. Using it, you will be able to get valuable information such as:
- What really attracts attention of your visitors,
- What do they ignore,
- Different actions users take on PC, mobile, etc.
- Changes in user behavior after you make an optimization on your website.
You can use tools that employ this method, such as Hotjar, which does not only have detailed heatmaps, but also provides you with live webpage visit recordings -this lets you see all that users do on your website- real-time suggestions, and surveys so you can get valuable feedback from your visitors.
8- Have a Live Chat Service on Your Website
Installing a live chat tool that your visitors can use to get information from will certainly increase your lead generation capacity. It won’t be an interruptive experience, as users themselves choose to interact with it or not, and it will be of immense help to them when they need assistance and/or information.
9- Use Dynamic Content/Personalized CTAs
Using dynamic content, you will be able to optimize your pages/CTAs for individuals, which means people visiting your site will see the banners, images, buttons, etc. specifically tailored to fit their interests. You can use various tools to get personalized content and CTAs on your website. They can help you generate more leads, and this in the end will increase your conversion rates dramatically.
10- Make Forms Easy-to-Fill
Internet users are not known for their patience- this is a fact. If your forms -which you use to get precious leads- are not easy to use, this with no doubt means that you are losing some leads- and possible sales. Besides being easily distracted, your visitors probably are not crazy about giving out a lot of information either. Someone who might be OK with giving out his/her email address may understandably not be OK with handing out a phone number/address, and in this case making those fields required can cost you a lead/conversion. So, optimize your forms and make them easy to use to get the best value out of them.
Conclusion
More leads mean more clients, and more clients mean more money! This means no matter what type of business you are running; you don’t have the luxury to overlook the importance of generating quality leads from your website. Getting more visits to your website is always great, but at the end of the day, you need more than just people browsing your pages, scrolling up and down without actually doing anything. And as you can see, there are a lot of different approaches when it comes to making them act… Find the correct tools to analyse and report, experiment with different methods, and find the strategies that work the best for you.