Each year, business owners around the world spend lots of money trying to get new people to visit their website, and to get earlier visitors to return. For some websites, any traffic is good traffic, but for those in retail, the endgame for their online engagement is to get consumers to purchase products from the website.
In most cases, consumers visiting a website for the first time are not looking to make a purchase. Chances are high, however, that they may return later to make a purchase, depending on their first experience. For that reason, it is important to present your website in such a way as to inspire visitors to return to make a purchase.
Exercise: Look through your website. Make a list of what you have in place right now that will capture the details of the cluster of visitors who aren’t buying from their first visit.
Why should you collect leads?
In our tip “It’s not just one sale” we give you a clear picture of why you should value every visitor on your website, and what their value translates into for your business.
You should collect as many leads as possible for your business because:
- Collecting leads from your website visitors allows you to build and nurture a relationship with a potential consumer for your products or services.
- It allows your website visitors to sign-up to receive some important information from you from time to time, including a free guide, new products/services announcement, a demonstration of your products/services, discounts or deals, etc.
- It provides an opportunity for your new lead to be nurtured with further valuable information through a series of emails or newsletters packed with additional value and assistance.
- It is a simple way of allowing people to self-qualify. In the event that your website visitors feel like they do not belong with the product or service you are offering, they can unsubscribe from your correspondence. This will definitely make it easier for you to focus only on people that are interested.
- It provides an avenue for you to make an offer to your lead as a culmination of your lead generation process.
The beauty about this whole process is that you can set up and automate the system to work round the clock and interact with every visitor on your website, regardless of what time they will pop in.
Your lead generation system will form the difference between a first-time visitor wanting to come back or not, and further translate to whether you will make a sale or not.
How to generate leads on your website
We’re going to focus on the services side of lead generation because there’s not a tangible “product” or “trial version” of a product to sell. You’ve most likely interacted with lead generations on other websites – so stop and think about what could work for your site?
- Trade something of value (most often a PDF or eBook) for an email address.
- Have an active email list? Are you clearly telling people why they should join (i.e. what’s in it for them)?
- Website chat – in addition to instantly interacting with someone, many of these serve as an easy way to get the name/address of someone interested in your services.
- Pop-Ups – (hear us out on this one). 77% of online users today say that pop-up ads are a nuisance. But, 83% say it’s really just the obnoxious ads they would like to get rid of. (Source: How to improve lead generation in 2021). This gives a clear message that IF…IF you use them the right way, Pop-Ups on your website can increase your leads.
But, before these can be effective, you need to have a website that is optimized properly.
- Do you have a good funnel in place that leads people to the key information they need to know?
- Do you have clear call-to-action buttons that tell people what they should do? I.e. don’t bury a newsletter signup with a link hidden on a page that simply says “sign up now”.
- Are you properly engaging with your target customer and giving them the information they need?
Whether you make use of pay-per-click ads, social media, or any other method to drive people to your site, you will need to have an effective way to communicate with them, and an engaging way to invite them to stay connected with you.
For your visitors, your website should not only respond to their needs, but also inspire them to also become sales leads for your products and services.
Exercise: Of the lead generation systems you’ve encountered on other websites, what has engaged you? What turned you off? Of those that engaged you, how could you turn what they did into something you can do for your customers?
Your Online Partner… for Success
Would you like to explore the ideas you have for increasing leads from your website with Christy? Schedule a free 30-minute session to explore the possibilities.