Looking to improve your website's lead generation capability but not sure where to begin or what should be included on your website to do so? Find out how to improve your website's lead generation with these top tips!
While there are a number of B2B website lead generation strategies and practices out there, website lead generation is less about finding the “perfect” method and more about doing the simple things better. The fundamental website elements that many businesses overlook - things like content, calls-to-action and so on, are often the most important to increasing a website’s lead generation capability.
In this blog, I’ll go through some of the main B2B website design best practices for lead generation and how businesses can utilise them.
Include a contact number or contact us button
The contact us number and call-to-action (CTA) are both relics from a time long past – a time where salespeople had all the information and if anyone wanted to find out more about a product or service, they would have to call in and speak with a business’ sales team – but they still have a role to play on any business’ website.
While the number of leads generated via a business’ contact number or contact us button will be minimal, it’s important to note that they are not there to drive lead generation but support it by helping website visitors.
For example, if website visitors have questions and those questions are not answered by the content on the website, the contact us button/number gives those visitors the option to call in, speak to the relevant expert and get the information they need.
Also, including a contact number/contact us button also provides comfort to existing customers in that if they experience any problems – maybe they need technical support with a product the business provides – they can easily get in touch.
It would also be worth including a query box alongside the contact us button so that website visitors can explain their problem or issue in more detail – providing context to the marketing, sales or customer service team on the other end – so that the most appropriate person can call the website visitor back at their earliest convenience.
Ultimately, the contact number/button is there to help businesses connect with website visitors and build trust – not for businesses to deploy a salesperson and start selling in products or services. Including some way for website visitors to get in touch is best practice in B2B website design. When prospects are ready to buy, they will raise their hand and say so.
Content, content, content
Content is the foundation of lead generation and lead nurturing. Content allows businesses to attract interested prospects, engage with them, convert them and eventually move them to a point of purchase.
Content optimised for specific, long-tail keyword terms will help interested parties to find a website or specific web page, allowing businesses to generate a stream of targeted traffic – i.e. people interested in what the business provides.
A blog, for example, is a great way for businesses to attract potential leads and demonstrate their expertise. Providing businesses have developed buyer personas, they can create tailored blog content that answers the most pertinent questions web visitors have.
After creating high-quality blogs, businesses can then use the information they have on their buyer personas to create prospect-orientated eBooks, white papers, research articles, reports and other content assets that help potential prospects to better understand their business problems and explore the solutions available on the market.
The above content assets are then linked to via CTAs on the website and in blogs, hosted on landing pages and locked behind a form that website visitors have to fill in to access the content in question.
By following this process, businesses can convert website visitors into known leads by obtaining their information in exchange for content.
Having content on a website is absolutely necessary for any business looking to drive lead generation activity. Without content, what will website visitors engage with and how will they show businesses that they are interested?
Content is perhaps the most important B2B website design best practice for lead generation, make sure to include it.
Make sure forms are on every landing page
It goes without saying but every landing page should have a form associated with it. Landing pages are designed for the sole purpose of driving conversion – but without a form for a website visitor to fill in and download the content asset being advertised, how can a website generate leads?
The number of fields on the form should correspond directly with the value of the content on offer. The standard form fields are first name, last name, email and company name – but if it’s an in-depth market research report on offer, asking for more information is perfectly acceptable as the content is far more valuable.
Take advantage of lead flows (slide-in CTAs)
Another B2B website design best practice for lead generation is to include slide-in CTAs (known as lead flows in HubSpot). These CTAs are a lot like pop-ups but instead of interrupting website visitors the moment they arrive on a web page, they appear or ‘slide in’ after certain conditions have been met.
For example, in HubSpot, lead flows can be set to appear after x amount of seconds of if a website visitor has done a certain action, such as scrolled halfway through the page, scrolled to the end of the page, stayed at a particular point on the page for x seconds – and so on.
This kind of feature allows websites to capture the attention of interested website visitors who might have been side-tracked or distracted – and would have potentially left the site – and gets them to convert there and then.
Create compelling CTAs
Including a variety of CTAs above and beyond just that of ‘contact us’ will provide website visitors with other ways to engage with the website and the business. Some website visitors will know exactly what they want, whereas others will want to find out more or learn about something.
With this in mind, including a number of different CTAs, such as ‘find out more’ and ‘learn more’ for example, will encourage website visitors to take action.
The CTAs included on the website depend on what the business in question wants to achieve – whether that’s driving a website visitor from a blog to another related content offer or getting a website visitor to sign up for a product demo or newsletter.
Use customer testimonials and case studies as social proof
Today’s customers are smart, resourceful and perhaps most important of all, sceptical. They want to know everything there is to know about a business’ products and services before they make a purchase, and they want to know just how ‘good’ the business is.
One of the best ways for a business to demonstrate it can deliver is to leverage customer reviews and testimonials as a form of social proof. Businesses should ask customers to leave reviews wherever possible and create case studies to showcase just how great a job the business is doing.
This kind of marketing collateral will help to build awareness and brand sentiment, thus increasing the chances of website visitors actually engaging with the business and becoming leads.
Design a prospect-orientated website
User experience (UX) is incredibly important when it comes to a website’s lead generation capability. Think about it – if website visitors cannot use or navigate a website with ease, what are the chances they will stick around and actually arrive on a landing page where they can convert?
With this considered, businesses need to ensure that their website is fast, clear, easy to use and navigate, and the most important pages are available for website visitors to click onto. Businesses should also test different website layouts and the placement of key buttons (such as CTAs) to determine what website layouts work best for engagement and lead generation.
The placement of text is also crucial. A well-placed value proposition – i.e. what the business does – can help to draw website visitors to the website and keep their attention for longer. A value proposition should be included at the top of each page as a main title.
Ensuring the website is optimised for mobile devices is also essential. Mobile search exceeded that of desktop search in 2015 – and since then, the number of searches from mobile devices has only continued to increase. Businesses need to optimise their websites for both mobile and desktop if they are to capture interested parties on both platforms.
That concludes my B2B website design best practices for lead generation. If you think about and apply the practices listed in this blog, you will no doubt be able to increase your website’s lead generation capability.
