Posted on Sep 6, 2017

How to Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Magnet

You spent a lot of time getting your website and blog just right to attract the dream audience and clients you’re looking for. Only no one is coming. Or if they do stop by, sales and sign-ups are sluggish at best. What are you doing wrong?

Chances are you have a fantastic-looking website that doesn’t actually attract leads. And today’s internet users aren’t going to stick around for long without a compelling reason. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, visitors leave web pages in 10 to 20 seconds – but pages with a clear value proposition hold people’s attention for longer.

Your own value proposition should clearly explain how you’re helping someone, whether it’s through your product, service or blog. You might be helping others master their own bookkeeping as a small business, solve someone’s foot pain with an innovative shoe insert, or connect with others searching for answers through your blog. To do any of that, you need a website that’s clearly designed and attracts leads. The trick is putting all of the pieces together to figure out how to snag new leads that will convert into paying customers or to build a returning audience. Here are some ideas to get started.

 

Look at Your On-site Optimization

Nailing down your on-site optimization can help you attract and retain more visitors and eventually turn them into leads. There are several ways to do this and tons of advice on what to work on first. However, it’s best to start small with something you’re good at.

For example, a business owner with an eye for graphics should focus on their web design by using clean and crisp images that grab attention, and a user interface that helps visitors navigate through the site quickly and intuitively. Meanwhile, a talented writer should focus on blogging or sales copy, and outsource their design and graphics.

Here are some areas to focus on when it comes to on-site optimization:

  • Keywords
  • Metadata
  • Load time

However, remember there is no quick fix to SEO and on-site optimization. Implementing changes requires patience to see the results. But without this step in place, you’re likely to struggle in other areas that could help to turn your website into a lead generation magnet.

 

Redirect Visitors to a Landing Page

Make sure your website is ready to make a solid first impression on your visitors. Instead of sending them right to your product or service page, send them to a landing page encouraging them to sign up for a special bonus or valuable offer. A tool like LeadPages can help do this for you. Create clean, elegant landing pages by dragging and dropping elements. From there, you can just copy and paste the code into your own website or Facebook Page.

leadpages screen shot

Image: Leadpages

 

Create an Email List

An email list is a must if you’re looking to generate more customers and revenue. Provide a way for potential leads to stay in touch so you can follow up with them months down the road and nurture the relationship.

There are several free and low-cost paid email list autoresponders (try or ConvertKit or Constant Contact) that can help you attract more leads. Your visitors can request more information about a product or service, or sign up for updates from your business. Once you have their email address, you can set up an autoresponder that automatically sends an email when they sign up, and then follows up with an update every few weeks.
constant contact lead form

Image: ContstantContact

 

Offer Something Valuable for Free

Enticing someone to sign up for an email list usually takes more than simply asking or posting an email form. You also need to offer something valuable that can automatically be downloaded for free in exchange for their information.

Think about what your target audience would want from your business. If you offer DIY resources and courses on bookkeeping for small businesses, offer them a free video course in exchange for signing up. Or if you sell high-end science kits for kids, offer a coupon or chance to upgrade their product to the premium version. The more valuable and enticing your offer is, the more likely people are to sign up for your email list.

Of course, the question is how to get them that valuable freebie once they sign up. You could monitor your list and send their freebie manually, but people are likely to get frustrated if they don’t automatically receive what they signed up for.

There’s really no reason to do it manually when – as we mentioned above – Constant Contact, and other email marketing tools provide autoresponders you can set up in minutes. After your autoresponder sends a welcome message, it can follow up with the valuable freebie you offered, like a white paper on your industry, coupon for a new product, or a subscription-based email series.

 

Use Multiple Call to Actions (CTAs)

Your call to action prompts visitors on what to do on your website. If they’re reading an article on how to save money on their small business taxes, include a call to action telling them to get the free video course on DIY bookkeeping by signing up to your list.

It’s wise to put CTAs on multiple areas of your website and blog posts to spark action. Internet users are accustomed to being prompted to sign up for things and offering up their email addresses. That also means they’re more likely to tune out your message and need to see it several times before actually taking action.

Your email marketing service likely also offers pop-up ads. Set it to pop up after someone has read through a minute or two of your copy. You can also tweak your settings so that the pop-up doesn’t show up for people who have either signed up or visited your site previously.

 

Start a High-Quality Blog

Blogging regularly can increase your SEO efforts, keep visitors coming back for more and establish you as an expert in your field. Blogging regularly signals that your site is active and relevant to the search engines, but frequency isn’t enough to dramatically improve your lead generation on its own. The length and quality of your content are big factors in attracting more leads and ranking better online.

Blog posts of 1,000 words or more rank better on Google, and 2,500+ word posts can help the growth of your organic traffic. Optimizing your copy for keywords can help your longer blog posts do well. A well-written, informative blog post with images is likely to get shared more by influencers and your audience than a 500-word blog post.

There are some best practices for writing a great blog post that can help improve your search rankings, attract more leads and help improve your credibility online:

  • Use long-tail keywords and phrases
  • Include keywords in the captions of your photos
  • Use a dynamic headline with one of your keywords
  • Make your post highly readable and easy to skim with bold headings
  • Add CTAs to your blog posts to entice readers to sign up to your email list

 

Sell Something Small

Seling something small can help build trust with your audience and test the waters with your leads. Once someone signs up for your email list, you can send them a series of autoresponders that tell them more about your business, give them highly valuable information like a white paper or a free course, and eventually sell a product. A report or ebook on a topic you have expertise in is a good place to start.

A few weeks after your lead buys the product, follow up to see what they thought about it. You can offer to do a free consultation or call to talk more about what other services they’re looking for. And if someone buys from you once, they’re likely to buy from you again. According to SmallBiz Trends, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60%-70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5%-20%.

 

Study Your Analytics

All of the lead generation tips in the world won’t scale very far without studying your analytics to see what’s working and what’s not. Dig into your website’s Google Analytics and other tools you’re using to see what your most trafficked articles are and how well they’re performing.

Brainstorm new topics from the articles, videos or areas of your website that are performing the best. You can also add content upgrades to these articles. For example, a blog post on how DIY bookkeeping can save small businesses thousands could include a call to action to sign up for a free resource to help organize their record keeping. The more quality you deliver to your leads, the more likely they are to keep coming back for more.

Turning your website into a lead generation magnet takes more than just one tactic. It’s also not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It requires persistence and constant nurturing to see results. Take the time to see what’s working and what’s not before making adjustments to propel yourself forward to find those leads, and sales, you’re looking for.

Have you generated leads for your website? What worked for you? Let us know by leaving a comment below:

 

Image: Pexels

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