How To Optimise Your Website For Lead Generation

In this article we explore how to optimise your website for lead generation.

What Is A Lead Generation Website?

Your business needs a website. A central location online in which to direct customers to find out more about your business or to buy your products immediately.

Moreover, you can use your website to promote your brand, raise awareness and to maintain relationships with regular customers. Essentially, it’s an online window into your company.

However, it’s one thing to have a website, but is it working effectively for your business? Is it attracting your ideal customers or do you have no idea who is visiting and why?

For example, if you have a website, but it’s not regularly updated, it will slip further down the search engine rankings and disappear from view.

The higher up the search page, the more people will discover your website.

Think about it, how many times do you choose a business on page 2 of google, do you even click through as far as page 3?

By optimising your website, you can attract new customers to your business, ultimately, creating new leads and building sales.

If you’re keen to get more interest in your company and you’d like to grow as a business, then you can achieve this by optimising your website for lead generation.

The Lead Generation Funnel

Essentially, lead generation is about creating leads, otherwise known as potential customers, who show an interest in your business.

Then, with a strategy in place, you can nurture those new leads into the lead generation funnel, giving them the information they need, until they buy your product and become a customer.

As a customer, you then use other marketing strategies to keep them loyal and interested in your business so they become returning customers.

For the purpose of this article, the focus is on creating those leads by optimising your website.

Or, looking at how you can attract people to your business in the first place through your website.

Where Does Lead Generation Begin?

To start with, someone visits your website. They may have found your site out of the blue by stumbling upon it in a google search. Or someone else may have told them about it.

Perhaps you gave them your business card at an event. Basically, they may have a genuine interest in what you do, or they may not. They are still just a generic visitor.

Ideally, at this stage, you want that visitor to become a lead. So it’s now your job to persuade that visitor to take a further and real interest in your website.

How do you do this? By encouraging them to stay on your website for longer, have a look around, find something of interest and ultimately, to give you their contact details.

So, how do you achieve that? By providing useful and relevant content which gives them something of value. As well as several easy ways to get in touch with you.

For example, if your business is an independent estate agency, you could offer blogs and tips on how to prepare your house for viewings. Or a Q&A on what people are looking for in particular as they view homes.

As long as it’s relevant to your business and you are offering something interesting, the original website visitor will spend more time on your website looking around.

Or maybe you provide an independent legal service. Your website hopefully has a list of testimonials from happy customers.

Perhaps you provide industry news, or useful contacts and you are offering particular information about services.

However, you want your business to grow further. Using this example, the business owner can optimise their website by engaging their ideal customers.

Who is an ideal customer? This is where analysing website traffic can help. More on that later in the article.

Essentially, you are looking for a visitor to enter their contact details in order to read that article, case study or blog. When they do this, they become qualified leads.

People who are showing enough interest in your content to hand over their personal contact details.

When this happens, you can nurture them through the lead generation funnel, maintaining their interest as they move towards placing an order, or using your service. Hence becoming a firm customer.

Lead Generation Website v Information Website

To understand if you need a lead generation website, start by considering the purpose of it.

Firstly, the aim of a lead generation website is to turn a visitor from a general web user into a lead for your business. Hence maximising the chances of that person becoming a customer.

Therefore, you need content which will attract the type of customer you are looking for. Essentially you are creating reasons for them to spend more time on your website.

Meanwhile, if your website is purely to inform people that your business exists, this is a different purpose.

Henceforth, think about how you use a website. What makes you stay on a website for longer. Or what makes you leave that website within seconds?

If you visit a website and you are interested in the information, you may look further into it. There may be an article that is of interest. Or a how to video that will benefit you.

Perhaps the photos on this website make you look at something in a new way. Or maybe the blog is so interesting, you want to follow it more.

While on the website, did any of this lead you to handing over your contact details for more information?

If yes, then you have visited a lead generation website and you are now a qualified lead.

8 Steps to Optimising Your Website

So how do you create a website that attracts leads and converts visitors into paying customers?

In other words, what do you need to do to optimise your website?

Here are five steps to help you optimise your website for lead generation which ultimately can help you to grow your business.

1. Contact Detail

It’s obvious, but make sure your contact details including your business email and phone number are on your website. Make it clear and easy to spot.

You can take this a step further by adding an online enquiry page or live chat feature. Thus visitors can ask you a question straight away, rather than waiting for an email back.

Also, some people prefer to chat in real time online, rather than make a phone call.

By creating all these options, you are giving the customer several ways of getting in touch with you.

Furthermore, if you’re able to respond to queries quickly, it will maximise your chances of converting leads.

2. Reviews and Testimonials

It’s time to blow your own trumpet! Another way to optimise your website is to get people to say nice things about your business.

How many times do you read a review before you buy something?

Gathering reviews and testimonials on your website will also build up your credibility.

Especially if this is the first time customers have found your business. It will give them more reassurance about you.

Reviews can also persuade visitors to convert to customers.

Therefore, a clear and genuine page for customer reviews is a great tip for optimising your website for lead generation.

In addition to this, you want people to find your reviews on google. A really good review could go a long way in attracting new leads to your business.

3. Create Useful and Engaging Content

Ultimately, there are a variety to ways to create useful content. You can be as creative as you want, but here are some tips to follow.

• Post informative content that adds value. Don’t just create content for the sake of it. What are you offering a visitor and is it interesting enough to read?
• Vary the content you use. For example, you could use articles, blog posts, infographics, video clips and images. If you’re not sure what to use, ask yourself what the purpose is of the content? Is your customer searching for a way to fix something? A ‘ how to fix it’ video clip might be more useful than a blog. Or is your customer looking for a particular service? Perhaps a useful article about the different services your business offers is more useful than another image? Think about the value your content offers.
• Create a content strategy. Maybe you have ideas for lots of different content, or you don’t know where to start. Try creating a list of ideas and a content strategy first. There will be days when you are not sure what to write or create, but you shouldn’t just post anything for the sake of it. This may lead to you losing credibility and authority with your customers.

4. Using Call To Actions Well

At the end of any content item or landing page, you need a call to action. You’re providing this great, useful content to a customer, what should they do next?

Well, you want them to get in touch with you, or to buy your product. Therefore, you are taking them to the next stage of lead generation.

A call to action button basically is a way of getting your customer to do something. For example, they could subscribe to your blog, download your newsletter, or give you their contact details.

Your aim is to encourage them to become qualified leads for your business.

The top tip here is to think carefully about your wording.

Try not to be aggressive. For example, a button with ‘Click Here’ or ‘Call Us Now’ or ‘Buy Now’ could come across as demanding.

How about trying options such as ‘Interested in More?’ Or ‘Follow Us For New Products’

5. Evaluate Website Traffic and Use The Data

Monitoring website traffic is your friend.

It can provide incredibly useful information which you can then use to direct your content, sales, design and even your service into more targeted areas.

For example, you can see who visits your website and when.

What is the best time of day and what page do they visit the most? What age group or gender are more likely to offer you their contact details. Which is the most popular blog post and why do you think this is? Can you do more of those posts?

All of this useful data can direct you to optimising your website to attract more lead generation.

If your website is appealing to women in the 30-40 age bracket who are searching for a particular item, how can you improve your website even further to interest more women?

That doesn’t mean you alienate other age groups, you are just learning who the ideal customers are to qualify into leads.

6. Add Contact Forms To Popular Landing Pages

Analysing your website traffic can sometimes raise surprising facts.

Perhaps your blog page is the most popular one, hence it could be an excellent lead generator without you even realising it.

Therefore, you want to add to a call to action here, perhaps a ‘Follow the blog for more tips’.

To use the data wisely, you can start by looking at where your online traffic comes from.

Do you get visitors from your email marketing, social media or live chat window? Essentially, where are you attracting the most visitors from?

If it’s your blog page, you want to make sure that when visitors land on that page, they are being nurtured through to the next stage.

Therefore, you can add more blog posts at the bottom of that post, which may be of interest to your visitors.

In addition to this, you could add a form to get those all important contact details. Hence you are maximising the potential of that page to create new lead generation.

Another example is your social media platforms. Maybe your analysis shows that visitors are finding your website because they click on links from your business Facebook page.

Hence, step one is to carry on updating those particular pages they are landing on to engage their interest further.

Step two is to create another form on those landing pages, to optimise lead generation.

Notably, you don’t want to add a form to every page on your website, this could turn away visitors!

Place the contact form on the most popular landing pages, in other words, the pages on your website where most people are visiting.

7. Website Design

Clearly, an attractive and easy to use website is more likely to engage visitors than a boring, dull one. However, optimising your website for new leads goes beyond this.

For example, even the design of your content forms is important. It’s very easy to be put off by a form.

Hence, you need to make them interesting enough for a visitor to fill in. It doesn’t have to be over the top, but it should be a nice design and simple to use.

The same applies to the whole website. Don’t make the web pages too busy, it should be a clean design with attractive images and clear intentions.

Furthermore, each landing page must be appropriate to what you have promised.

For example, if a visitor is on your Facebook page and they find a link to your website through a blog post about travelling, make sure the link leads to that blog post, not to a page about services or reviews.

8. Thank You Pages

Don’t underestimate the power of thank you. A lead that converts to a customer is growing your business.

Hence you can say thank you by leading the customer to a specific page once the purchase is through.

On this page, you can include further lead generation tools such as social sharing buttons or a related offer or discount to encourage your customer to return in the future.

Therefore by providing good quality customer service throughout a journey, you may find that customer telling their friends about you and creating further leads.

Three Top Examples of Website Lead Generation

Sometimes it’s helpful to see how other businesses optimise their websites for lead generation.

Here are three great examples. There are many more.

Try thinking about what websites you use, especially how you found them and what made you sign over your contact details for further information.

This will help you to gain an insight into how to improve your own business website.

• MailChimp

MailChimp is a marketing automation platform and email marketing service. Their services include getting your business online and marketing it.

This platform uses a range of automated tools which helps you build lead generation and to make your life as a business owner a lot easier.

For example, it can personalise your workflows to suit each customer. And it can send transactional emails based on the customer activity on your website.

The Mailchimp website itself is clear and easy to use, with quick tips, how to videos and infographics. As well as case studies and articles.

On the home page, there is a clear Call To Action button with the wording ‘Get Started Today’.

Click on this, and you are instantly led to a sign up form to create an account.

On the sign up form, there is also an opt out form for marketing emails.

Once again, this maximises the chances of lead generation, as you can begin to send out marketing emails about the company if you have permission.

• HubSpot

HubSpot develops and markets software products for inbound marketing, sales and customer service.

On the home page of the Hubspot website, the HubBot appears instantly. This allows visitors to ask questions and get answers in real time.

Hence visitors are showing an interest in the company immediately by engaging with the HubBot. Then, the visitor will be nurtured through the next stage of the process.

Once again, the wording for the call to action is a great example of optimisation for lead generation. It simply reads ‘Get HubSpot Free’.

The pricing plans change depending what you want to do with your business, but it all starts for free.

• Lead Genera

Lead Genera is a UK based specialist in Website Design and Development, as well as Lead Generation, Digital Marketing and E-Commerce.

leadgenera.com home page uses a real time messenger system as well to engage visitors quickly and easily.

The social share buttons appear on the top right of every page and the call to action buttons are within instant sight and easy to spot.

Furthermore, when you click on each website page, the main titles slide across so the page is not static.

For the visitor, this is more visually appealing and draws the eye to the exact information the business wants you to read.

Why Optimise Your Website for Lead Generation?

In summary, if you want to build new leads for your business, then optimising your website is an important step.

By carrying out the tips mentioned above, you will gain a more engaging website which will increase your chances of converting leads into customers.

Furthermore, the data you gather in the website analysis will help you to qualify your leads, so you can spend more time on attracting your ideal customers and less time on random visitors who may not go any further.

In simple terms, optimising your website allows you to maximise its usefulness.

If the purpose is to gain more leads for your business, then some straightforward adjustments will start to benefit you immediately.

However, you can maximise your lead generation even more by asking an expert.

Lead Genera is a company which views each client as if it were their own business. The aim is to help your company grow through generating new leads.

Moreover, the focus is on generating quality leads. The leads which convert to your ideal customers, growing your business and delivering a measurable impact within days.

If you’d like to learn more about lead generation services, including how to optimise your website, contact Lead Genera today via leadgenera.com