Having an effective lead generation system in place is crucial to the success of every business, whether you’ve been around for the last 100 years or you’re a brand-new startup. In today’s digital environment, websites are a huge part of every business’s marketing strategy. If you haven’t established a presence on the web, your company is in for a rough road to say the least. You’ll find it nearly impossible to survive in today’s business environment without a web presence.
Some websites have beautiful designs and they look absolutely stunning from a visual standpoint. But these same websites might fail as far as lead generation is concerned. People love the way the site looks, but from an optimization standpoint, it’s a complete disaster because it just doesn’t generate leads.
To help you turn your website into a lead generation machine, we’d like to share our simple optimization tips with you below. Use them to make the most of your website and you’ll suddenly begin generating more leads than you can effectively handle!
Tip #1: Do Not Shy Away from Personal Videos
Believe it or not, many companies and new startups fail to add video to their business website and this is a huge mistake. In fact, from a marketing standpoint alone, you should be creating videos with customer testimonials, product reviews, mission statements, and more and post them to website and YouTube to expand your reach. Other video streaming sites can even help you improve your website rankings.
Ultimately, by adding video to your website, you are opening up your company to the world. You’re giving people a look behind the curtain and you’re giving your customers an opportunity to get to know you and your staff better.
People love doing business with those they know, like, and trust. By sharing videos on your website – especially personal videos – you are giving your customers a glimpse into your personal lives, which will improve lead generation because they’ll feel more comfortable giving their contact details to people that they know and respect.
Tip #2: Focus on Lead Generation Form Optimization
The easier you make it for your customers to fill out your online lead generation form, the better chances you’ll have to get them to sign up for your mailing list. There are a couple of things you can do to make it easier on potential prospects.
First, your lead generation form should only ask for the bare minimum and nothing more. Your customers will shy away from you if you ask for too many personal details. The fewer personal details needed the better when it comes to generating leads from an opt-in form.
As an example, if it’s possible in your industry you should only ask for your lead’s first name and their email address. Asking for anything more is going to put up their guard and potentially steer them away from your business, which is something you obviously would rather avoid. In fact, if you can get away with only asking for their email address and nothing else, you’ll have much better conversions and you’ll certainly generate more leads.
Second, if at all possible, have your lead generation form populate with the lead’s information ahead of time. If your form can pre-populate, all your potential lead has to do is click the submit button to sign up to your mailing list.
Use these strategies to optimize your lead generation form. Your lead conversions will definitely improve as soon as you make these changes.
Tip #3: Positive Customer Testimonials Are a Huge Lead Magnet
During the lead generation process, you want to make it simple for potential customers to sign up to your mailing list, buy your product, or take any other action that you desire. Sharing positive customer testimonials on your website is incredibly effective for lead generation as you’ll soon see.
These testimonials will help you establish credibility, they’ll show your audience that others have used and loved your products and services, and this social proof validates your business. The more positive customer testimonials you can share the better. In fact, if you can get away with only asking for their email address and nothing else, you’ll have much better conversions and you’ll certainly generate more leads. Keep in mind to always check if the emails are valid prior to actually adding it to your marketing automation.
Final Thoughts
It may seem impossible to optimize your website for lead generation if you are inexperienced. So forget about trying to figure it out on your own. Use the tips we’ve shared today and you’ll reap the rewards when more and more leads begin entering your sales funnel.