Your website isn’t something you should configure once and forget about. It has such rich potential for bringing in qualified leads that it should form the cornerstone of your marketing strategy, whether you’re in the ecommerce game or providing some kind of service.
But how can you best use your website to attract relevant leads and help you convert them into customers? If you maximize its potential, it can prove incredibly effective at bringing in new business. Here are 7 ways in which you can get your website generating online leads:
Provide clear contact information
If someone arrives at your website and is interested in what you’re offering, they’ll want to take action of some kind, and that action will often involve contacting you: they may want to learn more, get some final reassurance, or place some kind of direct order.
So if they can’t find useful contact information, that lead will dry up altogether. You should have an email address, a phone number, and a contact form (plus an address if you have suitable physical premises) — and it should be presented in a prominent and easy-to-find position.
Run PPC advertising
Pay-per-click advertising is a reliable and efficient way to drive traffic to your website when done correctly. You can choose from platforms including Google’s network and numerous social media channels, going with whichever you think is most suitable for your target audience.
The important thing to remember with PPC advertising is that you need a message match: when someone clicks on an ad, the webpage it takes them to must match the message of the ad. If it doesn’t, the visitor will be confused and (most likely) leave your website (heatmaps are great for seeing what your visitors are doing).
Target relevant keywords
Keywords are just as important as ever, though they have broadened significantly over time. What’s essential is that your content on a particular topic includes the most popular terms that people interested in that topic search for — this will help Google rank your pages highly.
If your content concerns a product, for instance, then do a search for that product to see what related terms come up. You may find that it’s referred to in other terms, and if you don’t mention those terms, you probably won’t stand a chance of ranking for them.
Returning to the matter of contact information, ensure that your keyword research encompasses not only the topic you’re writing about but also the context of your website. If you’re a business, for instance, then you’ll want to build your brand carefully. What’s most relevant to you?
Imagine that you have just one sentence to work in all the most essential terms. What warrants a place and what can be left out? Location is relatively insignificant to some businesses (CMD Design is based in Nevada but will work with clients elsewhere) but vitally important to others — and Google recommends optimizing for location-based SEO.
If your business has a strong local focus for whatever reason — perhaps your physical location requires it, or you’re online-only but configured for sales tax in just one area (this is essentially what it means when you find online businesses tagged for Nevada) — then the names of nearby areas should be dotted throughout your content to ensure that you stand a chance of ranking in local searches.
Implement sharing buttons
When someone is sufficiently convinced by your content that they’d be willing to recommend you to others, you need to take full advantage of that opportunity by making it fast and convenient for them to do so. To that end, your website should have sharing buttons.
Allow a visitor to share a page by email or through social media. You can even give them suggestions about what to say, or mention a referral scheme that will earn them a discount if they convince someone else to work with you.
Stay active on social media
Where does your target audience spend its time? These days, most people spend not-insignificant chunks of their days browsing social media feeds, and if you want to attract their attention then you’ll need to reach out to them there. This is hugely significant for ecommerce, which is why retailers commit so strongly to PPC work in the social media world (Instagram is particularly valuable these days).
Regardless of how you divide your activity between PPC and standard social media outreach, being active as a business on social media will achieve various things: it will allow you to build customer relationships, show the personality and likability of your brand, and readily promote specific products or services.
Consistently link to your website through your content and you’ll see an uptick in traffic (both standard website frameworks such as WordPress or dedicated ecommerce systems have access to numerous social sharing apps, so find a free one that will add social links to your pages).
Create lead magnets
Sometimes you need some way to incentivize people to take a chance on whatever you’re offering — a tactic for getting your foot in the door so you can earn their custom later. This is what lead magnets are fantastic for.
A lead magnet is typically something you offer for free to compel someone to take the first step in your sales funnel. It could be an ebook guide, a case study, or a useful template. Flipbooks work well because they can be downloaded or used on your site (you can easily create a flipbook using a tool that collates existing content, so give it some consideration).
Answer popular questions
In addition to including vital keywords, it’s extremely productive to focus on answering common questions about your primary topics. This is for two reasons: firstly, someone who finds answers to their questions will be more likely to convert, and secondly, Google may use your answers for featured snippets in its results page, earning you further links.
Try using a tool to find frequently-asked questions about the topic of a given page, then flesh out the content to answer them. You can either work the answers into what you have, or create a distinct FAQ section to get that information across. Either way can work.
The more leads you can earn online, the better, because they’re generally faster, more cost-effective, and easier to handle than traditional leads. Try these 7 tactics to get your website working as a potent marketing tool.
