How to Quickly Drive More Leads From Your Website
We all want our websites to drive leads and grow our business. It’s also one of the things that I’m asked most—what to do to make a website perform better and drive leads—no matter what type of company or industry. From B2B SaaS to event and hospitality or eCommerce, growing business through digital channels is a priority in 2018.
So what can you do to drive leads through your site? As with almost anything in life and business, there are a number of ways to make it happen depending on where your starting line is and where you want to go, how your business is structured (Do you have a sales team? Anyone that focuses solely on marketing? Have you ever really done marketing in the past?) and other what your technology stack looks like.
Whenever I work with a client my focus is on driving more business for them through their website and digital channels — and my first few steps are almost always the same. Here’s what you should keep at top of mind when planning a new website or when starting a new marketing push and want to get more leads from it.
Tighten Up Your Messaging
Messaging (and content in general) is something that usually is the last thing that gets created when launching a new site, but I recommend flipping the script entirely and starting with messaging.
Having great messaging on your site and in your marketing will resonate with your audience much more than a weak or inconsistent brand message. There’s nothing worse than getting to a website because of a Google search or on a friend’s recommendation and then realizing that after spending some time clicking around on the site you have no idea what the company actually does.
When you have a strong and clear message on who you help and how you help them your audience will be much more interested in learning more. Your main message on your site should really state your value prop and entice someone to stay on the site and learn more.
One thing that marketer tend to do when writing web content is focus too much on product or service features and not enough on the value and benefits that you offer. Instead of just talking about what you do or what your product does, flip the scrip. Focus on the benefit they bring for your audience and solves their problems.
That’s a sure way to get someone interested and drive leads.
Provide Value
The days of a website just being a digital brochure or a place to tout product features or squeeze people into a sales funnel are done. The most successful marketing websites these days provide their readers a ton of value and entice them to engage with you when they are ready to take the conversation further.
A website that provides value to an audience is built in a way that offers great content for people at all stages of the buyers’ journey or sales funnel.
The buyer’s journey is basically the path to purchase that a customer takes when making a buying decision. The stages are:
Awareness: “I know I have a problem, but not really sure what to do to solve it”
This is the stage that most customers are in when they are just starting to research options and learning what is available to them to solve a problem they are facing. At this point most prospects know they have something they want to improve, but might not even know what the name of their problem is.
Think: “My website visits decreased by 30% last year.”
This is clearly a problem they are facing, but the prospect right now doesn’t know what solutions are available to them or ways to solve that problem.
A website can provide value to visitors in the awareness stage by creating great content about the types of problems you solve.
Consideration: “I know of a few options that can solve my problem”
When in the consideration stage, prospects have now framed their problem, found out potential ways to solve it, and are considering the path they want to take to solve it.
Think: “I can increase visits to my website via a paid ad campaign or by writing and sharing more content via social media.”
They now have a few great options for solving their problem, and are considering which option makes the most sense for them. For visitors in the consideration stage, you’ll want to have great content and clear messaging that helps them make a decision.
Decision: “I have decided how to solve my problem, and am evaluating options to execute my decision”
The last stage of the buyers journey is when a prospect is ready to buy. They have decided the best way to solve their problem and now are evaluating what service, product, or company to use to execute their decision.
Think: “I can hire a marketing director and team or I can work with a marketing consultant.”
When in the decision stage customers want to see evidence and proof that you can help them with the problem they are facing. You can provide value in this stage by having content that is relevant to them like case studies, testimonials, and other proof.
No matter where your audience is in the buyer’s journey, it is a smart idea to consistently create and share that your knowledge and insight on a regular basis. Creating content like this builds trust and provides value to your audience, and shows search engines that your site and content is relevant; improving search optimization along the way.
Think About Conversion
A site with good traffic and good content really but no way to convert visitors into leads isn’t a great tool for a marketer. When you’re putting together a site strategy, remember that you can’t just focus on driving traffic — you also have to drive leads!
There’s a lot of ways a website can be built for conversion. At it’s core though, a conversion focused website makes it easy for a visitor to get in touch with you or to get into your marketing funnel. Here are a few ways a site can drive leads:
- Use landing pages and forms to collect visitor information in exchange for an offer (sometimes called a lead magnet, content offer, or premium content)
- Include a newsletter signup
- Use live chat
Remember to Nurture Your Visitors
Don’t forget that most visitors don’t engage or buy on the first visit to a site. In fact, it can take anywhere from 6-12 touches to generate a sales lead!
So with that in mind, stay top of mind with your prospects by engaging with them on a frequent basis – both on your site and off-site. Nurture your visitors with your prospects on social media, through your email list (you are building an email list, right?!) and retargeting ads on social media and display networks.
So if you want to drive leads with your site, you need to remember to focus on the customer and not on your own company and offerings. We’ve all become more savvy buyers because of the internet, now we have to remember to become more savvy marketers!
If you’re in the process of updating your website, starting from scratch with a new site, or just working on getting more value and drive more leads out of your site and need some help, give me a shout. I’d love to help.