The goal of most websites is to market and advertise a
business, while also converting leads (or sales). They all serve a purpose.
There is no point in having a website just sit there idle. It can be your best
‘employee’ when optimized correctly, helping you to convert leads 24/7.
The problem is that most businesses don’t have their
websites optimized correctly to take advantage of their traffic numbers. Every
time someone lands on your website it’s an opportunity to collect a new lead
that you can then market to at a later date and eventually turn into a paying
customer.
To help you generate more leads on your website here are
some optimization tips that you should consider putting into action.
Offer something of value as bait.
There isn’t anyone that is going to visit your website and
just voluntarily enter his or her email address into a form without getting
anything in return. You have to have something to entice them to hand over
their information. The most common piece of bait you can use is an eBook or a
case study.
It needs to be based on a topic of interest and it needs to
be something so interesting and special that it can’t be found anywhere else. “When
you are able to offer something that they cannot turn down you will see your
conversion rates shoot through the roof,” says Chris Moberg of Slumber Search,
a consumer resource that provides reviews on the best mattress
options. “Go above and beyond to give them something of tremendous value and
watch how quickly they will submit an email address.”
Include a CTA at the end of each blog post.
If you are publishing content on your blog and it’s
attracting organic search traffic then you need to take full advantage of that
and include an offer at the end of each post. Something as simple as ‘If you
liked this article make sure you subscribe to our newsletter so you know when we
update the blog’ can help you build your list quickly.
You can also add calls-to-action in the middle of your
content, like this
blog does, as they place surveys in the middle. Placed at the right time,
when the reader is interested and engaged, helps to increase the conversion
rate.
If your article provided value the person is going to be
interested in reading more and will hand over their email to be alerted of
future posts. You can then send them an email thanking them for joining and
give them a little background information on your company and explain what you
sell or provide.
Use an exit popup offer.
Popups sometimes get a bad name, and they can be annoying if
they disrupt a visitor when they are reading content or trying to perform an
action on the website.
But popups that are triggered when the person is trying to
leave are a great way to help you collect leads. The trick is to give them an
offer they cannot pass up. I like the big full-screen exit popups because they
force the person to stop what they are doing (leaving your website) and the
offer gets all of their attention.
If it is good enough they will convert. Use FOMO (fear of
missing out) to your advantage. Making them click on something like ‘No. I hate
saving money’ to pass on the offer will push a large percentage of people to
convert rather than pass on something they will later possibly regret missing
out on. If you want to see a great example of an exit-popup in action, head to Perth Web Design.
Give an instant discount for joining your email list.
If you are running an e-commerce website that sells items,
then there isn’t a more powerful offer than a discount. The trick is to make it
instant and let them know that they get it right away.
If they have to go check an email or click on a link to
activate a discount they are going to pass. Let them know that they get it
right away. Something like ‘Enter your email address to instantly reveal a
discount code for 20% off right now’ lets them know that they get instant
gratification. “We use this approach, and recently a coupon
code for firefly 2 has helped us not only attract more email opt-ins, but
also many direct sales as well,” says Pedro Del Nero, CEO of e-commerce site Vaporizer
Vendor.
If they have any doubt or think they have to jump through
hoops to get your offer they will pass. Nobody wants to waste time or run
around in circles. Give them what they want right away with as little friction
as possible.
Consider gating your most helpful content resources.
If you have some epic pieces of content on your blog that
receive a lot of traffic you might want to consider gating it, requiring an
email address to read it fully. There are many plugins available that will make
the first few paragraphs readable and then it will have a little message like
‘to continue reading please enter your email’ and this simply syncs t your
email list.
“We provide our most valuable information and content to our
email subscribers,” says Irene McConnell of Arielle Executive. “We may create a
specific opt-in form with an offer to access a whitepaper titled, ‘Resume Tips by Arielle
Executive’ and use that as incentive to join. This tends to work very well”
This is something you don’t want to do on a new blog with
little traffic, but if you have a blog that is pulling in high organic numbers
you can quickly spike your lead numbers by rolling this out. If you need help
creating content worth of gating, you can check out this service.
Be transparent and let them know what they can expect.
If you have an option to join your newsletter for example,
you need to let the person know what they should expect. What do you think will
pull in more leads?
‘Join our newsletter!’ or ‘Sign up now to receive tips and
breaking news every Friday!’
The second one is very descriptive and the person knows what
they are getting. The generic message leaves too much to question. Are you
going to spam them? Will they ever hear from you?
You also want to make sure you don’t overwhelm your visitor
with too many options. You have to give them one main path to follow on each
page. If someone lands on this commercial pest
services website, they have one option, and one option only. The visitor will
either convert or leave. If they are visiting the website in the first place
that means there is already a high likelihood of them converting. The
simplicity they encounter increases that even more.
You have to be transparent and let them know when they will
hear from you and how often, as well as what to expect each time you email
them.