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Your website can be an excellent way to generate leads for your business. Just don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you simply build one, your clients will come. There are a few best practices to increase the chances that potential clients who visit your website will become actual customers. Pete Gosling, CEO of Gosling Media, shared some tips that will convert more of your website’s visitors into loyal clientele.
Have a Well-Designed Home Page
“The home page is critical and tends to be the most highly trafficked page,” says Pete. It’s the first thing the majority of people will see when they visit your website, so you want to make a good first impression. Make it simple to understand and navigate so that visitors will have an easy time getting the information they were seeking.
Test Your Website
Broken links on a website are the worst. No one likes being redirected to that error page that says the webpage you were looking for is unavailable. Avoid that by making sure all your links work. “Make sure your website is functional and test it. Just keep testing it. You have to click through every single link,” Pete says. Testing every link manually may become tedious, so you may use tools such as semrush.com and ubersuggest.com to help simplify the process. The goal is to make sure clients have a good experience accessing your website and don’t want to leave prematurely.
Have a Clear “Call to Action”
"In order to become a lead, the visitor needs to take some kind of action so you’re then able to follow up with them,” Pete advises. This usually means having a button on your website where you offer something that your clients will appreciate, perhaps an ebook to download or a video link that can be emailed, in exchange for their contact information. Make the call transactional so that your lead will feel as though they are gaining something of value in exchange for submitting their name and email address. Also, avoid using vague terms such as “learn more” when asking the client to take a particular action. Be as specific as possible as to what action you’re requesting your potential lead to take. Once they click the call-to-action button and enter their information, you’ll have a way to stay in touch with them periodically, whether by newsletter, email, or other means.
Don’t Forget to Say “Thank You”
Having a thank-you page appear after the lead completes a transaction can present many opportunities to connect further. “The session doesn’t have to stop the second they hit submit on that form,” says Pete. You may be able to redirect them to other relevant content or even upsell a related product or service.
Track Your Leads
Thank-you pages can also be used to track leads. Although it’s possible to track leads using Google Analytics, having a dedicated page that can indicate a unique individual signed up to receive more correspondence is a very useful tool. A similar process may also be used for paid advertising, where you just add a code to the specific page you are tracking.
For more insights on how to convert website visitors to business leads, check out our webinar “Get More Leads From Your Website,” presented by Pete Gosling.
