Updated January 2019 – Better digital lead generation strategies
Better lead generation on your website
What makes a good website? Ask that question to 100 different people and you’ll get 100 different answers. However, to us the answer is simple. A good website is one that brings you all the qualified leads you can handle and ultimately adds to your bottom line. You can always make improvements to your website – as long as you are tracking what happens to the traffic that arrives there. It’s important you have a process to monitor and measure what’s working and what tweaks you can make to improve the effectiveness of your website as a lead generation tool. A strong understanding of your competitors will help here too so a competitor analysis strategy is valuable. The end game is better lead generation.
Are you missing out on valuable leads?
Our free website review will tell you
In this article, we’re going to outline three strategies that you can implement quickly to achieve better lead generation on your website. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Our digital marketing experts would be delighted to review your website and make specific in-depth suggestions based on your particular niche.
Give the people what they want
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. One of the secrets to successful digital marketing is giving people what they want when they want it. The Internet has changed how we make decisions on what to buy. Google called this online decision-making moment the Zero Moment of Truth back in 2014 – or simply ZMOT.
Nothing has changed – or more to the point everything has changed. We are all making decisions at the Zero Moment—the exact point in time that we have a need, or are driven by commercial intent – or maybe just have a question we want answered. If you’re the business that answers these questions at the exact time you’re potential customer is asking, you’re improving a consumer’s life – and that consumer will consider you ‘better’ than your competitors who weren’t ‘there’ at their ZMOT.
Search engines answer billions of searches – Google handles over 40,000 search queries every second on average. Imagine the power that comes with being able to reach those consumers when they’re most engaged.
Be present in the moments that matter
As a marketer your job is to be present in the moments that matter – so use analytics to tell you when and where your customer is searching for you. When you know that, it’s a case of being there and offering something useful and relevant so that you can add them to a list that you can then nurture. If you’re not selling there and then – maybe you’re in the B2B world – but using data capture on your website, this means that you need to offer something that your prospects are actually interested in – in order that they hand over their details. There’s a range of strategies you can use to do this. Some of our favourites are:
- Offering valuble insight in a white paper via a landing page
- Capturing emails before playing a video that will offer education (rather than sales) Use with care.
- Offering a discount on an initial purchase that will happen in the future.
There are variables that will decide which strategy will work on your website. The basic premise though, is make it useful, relevant and engaging and give the visitor a very good reason to part with their precious email address…
Never letting go…
One of the best times to capture a prospect’s details is when they’re about to leave the website. This is when you can make a quick, simple direct offer to them using a data capture pop-up. Keep your requests for info to a minimum – just their email address if you can, and make sure the benefit of what you’re offering is immediately obvious. This is why discounts work particularly well. Offer your prospects £50 off their first order or free shipping if it works for your products or services. If they take you up on the offer, you’ll have their details and you’ll be able to start an indoctrination campaign.
Remember, these are people who were about to leave your website without leaving you an email. Without the offer, you would have definitely lost them. That means that you have every reason to offer them something worthwhile in order to capture their details. Understanding conversion rate and lifetime value of your customer will help you work out where to invest here.
The basics of better lead generation
It can be easy to forget the basics of lead generation. One simple rule to follow is Make it Easy to Contact you in the way the customer chooses.
Offering brochures? Make it quick and easy and ensure they are far enough along the path to purchase to want to give you address details if you’re posting out.
Have a simple contact form on your website and make sure that it is easy to find on every page. Make sure your phone number is prominent and that you use call back forms that offer options to the customer.
Ensure that once you have their email, your CRM system is generating high converting automated email campaigns – and review their success regularly against meaningful metrics.
Don’t forget the basics – if you want to generate warm and qualified leads, offer a solution to a ‘pain’ your customer or prospect has, with credible and useful information at the ZMOT. Deliver this to them with the minimum amount of fuss on their part, and only ask for the right amount of information based on the stage of the path to purchase at which they find themselves.
Don’t ask for too much – ensure what they are getting is worth the trade for their email address – and then it will be easy to persuade them that you’re a supplier they want to hear from again.
We’d be delighted to help you implement better lead generation as part of your overall digital strategy. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
