Your website is mobile-friendly, you’ve put pop-up opt-ins on each page, and your call to actions are bold and enticing. But that’s not enough! If you want more leads, your website needs to be working harder for you. With the right strategy you will be able to leverage your website to create more growth and profit for your business.
Make Your Website Work Harder for Better Lead Generation
SEO – A Modern Necessity
Search Engine Optimization helps customers find you by getting your website ranked high enough to be considered by prospect searching specifically for the solutions your business provides. Properly done, SEO without a doubt increase traffic to your website and boost your conversion and sales rates. A 2015 lead generation study by BrightTalk found that SEO was the No. 3 most effective lead-generation tool, surpassed by only websites at No. 2 and events/conferences as No. 1.
It may seem complicated and overly technical but the basics of SEO is something you can quickly master. Learning it is free and easy with the dozens on online resources available including SEO blogs that will have you optimizing like a pro in no time.
To start you’ll need to do two things:
- Learn who your customers are and develop buyer personas that let you focus your marketing
- Research and identify the keywords that bring quality leads to your website
From there you can create and search engine optimize quality content that informs or entertains your target audience and entices them to click around your website. The longer they hang around on your website, the more likely they are to buy from you.
- ALSO READ: SEO in 2016 – What You Need to Know
Display Fresh Testimonials and Reviews on Your Website
Your current customers trust you enough to have worked for you or bought from you. But how can you get prospects who are new to your business to trust you? How can you convert leads into sales?
With on-site testimonials and reviews. Almost every consumer in America is searching the internet for reviews and recommendations before they make a purchase (over 90%). If a lead comes to your website before or after the research stage of their buying cycle they should get a clear and bold message about how awesome your business is. Not because your mom said you did great, but because customers cannot stop talking about their great experience or your wonderful product.
You’ll notice my focus on fresh testimonials and reviews being highly visible on your website. A two-year old testimonial isn’t going to wow anyone and it isn’t going to give prospects a clear representation of what you can do for them today. Luckily, you can easily automate the posting of reviews and testimonials to your website with reputation management services like Reputation Loop. Good star ratings and customer testimonials are proven to be highly influential in the buying process for consumers.
Inbound Marketing with Your Blog
Creating compelling blog content is where your inbound marketing journey begins. So what is “compelling” content? It’s content that speaks to your customer’s pain points and provides actionable solutions to their problems. Satisfy their curiosity, answer their questions, and provide relevant and valuable information and your content will quickly build trust with prospects. Converting a lead that already trust your business makes every part of the selling process easier.
Creating content is something you can do yourself, or outsource. But one of the most important and most often neglected rules of effective inbound marketing is to blog and create compelling content on a consistent basis. Start small – once a week if you need to – but get it done and get it live online. And remember that content can take many forms on your blog: articles, infographics, podcasts, videos, photos, testimonials, and more.
Use Videos and Slide Presentations
Publishing slide shows on your site or sites like Slideshare.com give the ADHD internet user a quick and easy way to digest the content you are giving them. It is the same with videos. In an overpopulated internet, your prospect are looking to get the information they want faster and easier.
Quick click slide presentation that educates me or answers my questions? Yes, please.
Hands free, no reading video that demonstrates a product or shows me how to do something? Even Better!
Additionally, video marketing for lead generation is across all sectors of business and retail, and for good reason. You can use videos to gather email addresses as a prerequisite for viewing or place email sign up forms at the end. You can even have in-video call to actions to collect lead information or automatically redirect viewers to dedicated landing pages.
Lead Magnets – High Value Content that Goes Beyond the Blog
A lead magnet is a resource you give people in exchange for their email address. You are going to use that email address to build a relationship that leads to more traffic and more conversions. Prospects are more willing to sign up for your email list in return for valuable content and according to Marketing Week 66% are likely to make an online purchase as a result of a marketing message like those found in high value content. Additionally, as part of the BrightTalk study I quoted earlier, 59% of B2B marketers stated that whitepapers and eBook downloads were the top producers of leads.
Again, you really need to know your customer to get this right so dig deep and invest the time in finding out what really drives your customers to buy. Know their pain points and the problems they are facing and find a way to make their lives better. If you can provide insight that will help their problems go away, they will far less resistant to connect with you. Your sales and customer service teams know what customers are looking for and complaining about. Ask them what lead magnets will truly provide value for your future customers (and current customers).
Here is a long list of lead magnets that you can look into creating for your website:
- Whitepapers (a report or guide that succinctly explains a complex issue or process)
- eBooks
- Case Studies
- Demos and Free Trials
- Free Tools
- Email Courses
- Webinars
- Video Training
- How To’s
- Workbooks
- (Ultimate) (Epic) Guides
- Resources or Tools Lists
- Cheat Sheet or Checklist PDF
- Downloadable and Customizable Templates
- Content Upgrades
- A Calendar or Planner
- Short Free Consultation (15-30 minute)
- Coupons, Discounts, or Promo Code
- Subscription or Membership (w/ Members-Only Goodies)
- Free Samples or Free Gift
- Tickets to Local Event
- Giveaways and Contests
- Test or Assessments (like at the bottom of this post!)
- Buyer Guides
- Freemium Accounts
Rest assured there are many ways to increase your leads and revenue without redesigning or rebuilding your current business website. Having an effective lead-generation strategy that leverages high-value content ensures that your audience gets what they want, while getting you the quality lead contact information you want.
Use the Local Score grader below to search the most important business listings and customer review sites so you know where your business’s online presence is shining bright and where you can implement a plan for improvements today.
What’s Your Local Score?
Enter any business name and zip code and see how you show up on directories.
About The Author
Zach Anderson is the co-founder of Reputation Loop (helping small businesses grow by generating customer feedback and online reviews) who loves online marketing and golf.
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