At the top of every business agenda – especially in the B2B world – should be lead generation and conversion. And in the modern, digital-first world, a world ruled by the Internet and Google, lead generation and conversion – almost invariably – starts with the website.
The reality is that your website meets your prospects long before you do, and if you do not understand or appreciate what that means, you may want to read on.
Every business wants to generate new business and sell more. More leads mean more opportunities. More opportunities mean more business. And more business means more revenue and growth… providing your sales team are working effectively.
All of this starts with your website – and it is, therefore, crucial that your website is equipped with the right tools and functions to help generate leads for your business. Your website cannot be a one-page, static brochure that offers no way to engage other than “contact us”. Your website must have high-quality content, it must include a variety of Calls-to-Action (CTAs), it must have landing pages to drive conversion activity, and it must grow alongside your business. Configured correctly, your website can do all the “heavy lifting” for you 24/7 and put your sales team in the best position to turn leads into real sales opportunities.
That all sounds great, but how do I turn my website from a brochure into a lead generating machine?
1. High-quality content
Content is the backbone of your marketing activity – it helps you to increase website traffic; attract and retain website visitors; market your products and services; demonstrate your industry expertise and understanding of your prospects’ problems; and improve your ranking on search engines (providing you write high-quality, informative content).
All of the above contribute to your business’ overall lead generation and conversion. Think about it. If you can drive people to your website with high-quality, top of the funnel content – content that answers their key problems and concerns – they will see your business as an authority on the topic and view you as an industry leader.
Blogs, eBooks, case studies, whitepapers, new web pages – anything you write, placed on your website and optimised for specific keyword terms has a chance to rank on Google and therefore be found by interested parties on search engines.
Start creating content for your website, once you have done so, the next thing you need to do is…
2. Calls-to-action (CTAs)
Now that you have people on your website and reading your content, how can you convert them from just website visitors to leads for your business? With calls-to-action (CTAs), of course.
A call-to-action is an image, line of text or clickable button that prompts your website visitors to take a particular action on your website. It is – as HubSpot states – a literal “call” to take an “action”.
The action you want people to take could be anything. Download an eBook, find out more, sign up for consultation, register for our event – the list goes on. The point of using CTAs is to move website visitors through the sales funnel and eventually get them to convert on a landing page.
For example, a prospect arrives on your website and reads a blog related to their business problem. At the end of the blog, you include a CTA to another related blog or content offer they can read to further educate themselves on their problem and the solutions available.
They click on the CTA and then read the blog or other content asset it links to. At the end of this blog/content asset is another CTA that directs them to another piece of quality content – this time an eBook – that is gated behind a form on a landing page that they must fill in with some of their details to acquire it.
Having filled out the form and received the content offer, that website visitor becomes a known lead for your business. See how great CTAs are?
3. Landing Pages
You probably have a rough idea by now of what landing pages can help your business convert website visitors to leads. But if not, I’ll explain.
In essence, landing pages are standalone web pages that are designed specifically for lead data capture and lead generation activity. They advertise specific content offers that are locked behind a lead capture form and the content can only be accessed if the website visitor submits their details. The form length and questions asked to reflect the value of the content offer.
Also, landing pages have no navigation – keeping the website visitor focused on the page in front of them – and include a compelling summary of the content offer available to encourage website visitors to give up their contact information in exchange for the content offer.
To drive website visitors to land pages, you include CTAs in blog posts or other content assets to relevant landing pages. For example, if a website visitor is reading a blog on Inbound Marketing, you could include a CTA in the blog that would link them to an eBook about the business benefits of Inbound Marketing.
By using landing pages, you can quickly generate leads for your business as well as qualify website visitors. If someone is interested in what your business has to say or its products and services, they will quite happily exchange their contact details to find out a bit more information. What an easy way to generate and convert leads for your business!
And finally, my last point…
4. New web pages
One thing that search engines love is fresh content. The more frequently you update your website with new content and new web pages, the more frequently crawlers will stop by and visit. If your content is of high-quality and informative, search engines will reward you with higher indexing (i.e. improved ranking on SERPs).
A higher rank on SERPs – i.e. towards the top of the page – will improve your website’s visibility and organic traffic. Ideally, you want to be on page one of SERP as most people don’t even look at the second page. As you generate more traffic to your website, the number of leads you generate will increase as well.
Your website is not a static one-page brochure! It must always be growing alongside your business! New web pages, optimised for specific keyword terms, will help people to find you online and improve your lead generation and conversion activity.
To succeed in today’s digital-first world, your website must be configured and equipped with the right tools to attract, convert and close customers!
