Lead generation is one of the keys to running a successful business. More leads means more sales opportunities, which in turns means more revenue and continued growth – and after all, isn’t that what business is all about? Making money and providing a service you are passionate about?
Before the internet became a mainstay of modern life, your lead generation opportunities were fairly limited. You basically had no choice but to use traditional marketing methods such as yellow pages advertising, billboard ads and radio/TV commercials. Although those methods could be effective, they were also expensive and very static; once a marketing campaign was underway, there was no way to change it without having to pay a lot of money and scrapping the entire original campaign.
But in today’s digital world, there is a much better way to generate leads that is not only adaptable, but considerably cheaper. By embracing inbound marketing strategies, you can turn your website into a powerful lead generation tool; in fact, we believe a successful business website can easily become your best sales tool.
How do I know if my site is ready to generate leads?
Whenever one of our clients decides to implement an inbound marketing strategy, our first step is to begin redesigning their website. Too many companies focus on the wrong things when building a website. Either they don’t pay enough attention to their site and allow it to be subpar in quality and appearance, or they place too much importance on the site’s appearance and forget about functionality.
Impressive graphics and interactive Flash tools are pleasant to look at, but they don’t help you generate leads. Therefore, you need to strike a balance between strong aesthetics and practicality.
Ask yourself this question: what is my site best equipped to do right now? Or perhaps, what is the easiest goal for visitors to accomplish? Is it finding your contact details? Obtaining information about your products? Regardless of what your answer is currently, there’s only one answer that you should have…
Your website’s primary goal is generating leads
It’s fine to have a bunch of additional features, but your website needs to be designed with one specific purpose in mind: turning visitors into leads. Therefore, every page on your site needs to be geared toward achieving that goal.
With inbound marketing, that means ensuring content is connected to every page on your site. Our primary method of generating leads is by providing informational, valuable content offers to our visitors. We provide these offers in exchange for a visitor’s contact information. This can be considered the most critical transaction in the inbound marketing process (aside from a sale itself).
That’s why content offers need to have prime placement throughout your site. Every blog article you post should end with a link to a content offer. Some websites even go so far as to provide a permanent sidebar that gives visitors the chance to provide contact info.
If you still feel confused about lead generation with your website, just remember this important tip: your visitors should never feel confused about how to get in touch with your company. It should be explicitly clear on every page how they can contact you. Your content is going to help establish your worth as a business and convince visitors to start a relationship with you, but you need to make the process easier for them. The more difficult you make it for a web user to accomplish their goal, the less likely it is they will complete the process.
Comments