Optimizing your website for lead generation is essential, but it takes more than simply adding a ‘Click Here’ button at the bottom of your homepage and hoping for results.
To truly drive engagement, designers and content marketers need to take a strategic approach. Here are nine actionable tips to help you effectively optimize your site for generating leads.
How to Build a Lead Generation Website
To optimize your website effectively, it’s crucial to understand the fundamentals of lead generation. How does a casual visitor turn into a valuable lead?
The lead generation process typically begins when a visitor clicks on a call-to-action (CTA) button on your site pages or blog posts. This CTA directs them to a landing page, where they are prompted to fill out a contact form.
Once the form is completed, visitors are automatically redirected to a thank-you page, confirming their submission and solidifying the interaction.
Now that you’re familiar with the basics of lead generation, let’s dive deeper. Here are the steps to create a lead generation website from the ground up.
Set Your Goal
Before building your lead generation website, start by defining your goals. While your primary objective is to generate leads and acquire prospects, it’s important to be more specific. What actions do you want users to take on your site? Are you aiming to educate potential customers about your product or industry?
If so, consider offering a free resource, such as a whitepaper or e-book. In exchange, ask visitors to complete a form and deliver the resource directly to their inbox.
If your goal is to increase sign-ups for your product, focus on creating visually appealing landing pages with clear calls to action and simple, user-friendly forms. By setting clear objectives for lead acquisition and selecting the right features, you can design a website that effectively meets your goals.
Choose a CMS Tool
A successful lead generation website relies on a content management system (CMS) that supports lead capture and conversion.
Your CMS should include essential lead generation tools such as sign-up forms, email marketing features, contact forms, live chat, and analytics to track your performance.
If you lack web design experience or don’t have a designer on your team, it’s best to choose a CMS with drag-and-drop functionality or pre-designed themes.
This will allow you to build an attractive and effective website without the need for extensive coding or web development expertise.
Create a Landing Page
Once your lead generation website is ready, it’s time to focus on optimizing your landing page. Your CMS will be invaluable in making it easier to refine the page for higher conversions.
A high-converting landing page should include the following key elements:
- A compelling headline
- Concise, action-driven text
- A product image that highlights your offering
- Bullet points outlining your unique selling propositions
- A clear and prominent CTA button
These elements will help capture your visitors’ attention and guide them toward taking the desired action.
How to Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generation Machine: 9 Best Tips
Now that you have created a lead-generation website, here are some useful ways to make your website generate leads.
Add Forms to High-Traffic Pages
Before you start, it’s important to assess your current lead generation state so you can measure improvement. Some website pages might be strong lead generators, but you may not realize it.
To start, audit your website to find where most of your online traffic and outreach are coming from – in other words, lead generators. Some of the common sources through which a business receives visitors include:
- Email marketing: Visitors can visit your site from an email campaign.
- Social media: You can attract visitors through social media interactions on your posts.
- Live chat: Leads sometimes communicate with your customer service team via live chat on your site.
- Blog posts: Your strongest performing blog posts may also be driving traffic.
Once you know where the leads come from, ensure the landing pages are designed to keep visitors interested. For example, if you discover that most leads come from LinkedIn, update the pages they visit with engaging content encouraging them to stay on your site. Add long-form content gated by forms that collect contact information on your most-visited web pages.
Measure Lead Generator Performance
Test your current lead generators with tools such as Website Grader. They can grade your landing pages and CTAs, providing ideas for improvement. You can also compare landing pages that have different conversion rates.
For example, if Landing Page A gets 1,000 visits but only 10 leads (a 1% conversion rate) and Landing Page B gets 50 leads from 1,000 visits (a 5% conversion rate), it’s clear that Landing Page B is more effective. Next, you need to analyze what sets Landing Page B apart from Landing Page A and adjust accordingly.
Run internal reports that track visits, CTA clicks, and shares of the thank you pages. Knowing what your best-producing offers are will help you create more of that kind of content.
Optimize Every Step of Your Lead Generation Process
If a visitor searches for “lawn care tips” and lands on your blog post titled “10 Ways to Improve Your Lawn Care Regimen,” make sure to link that post to a relevant offer, such as lawn care services – not a snow-clearing consultation.
Furthermore, the content of a page should correspond with the offers to keep visitors interested and engaged. When visitors land on a site, their conversion path begins. In a perfect world, this journey ends with filling out a form and becoming a lead.
However, sometimes it doesn’t work. At this point, the conversion path can be optimized in an attempt to increase the chances of success. Here’s how you can improve your lead generation process by testing these three key elements:
Call-to-Action
Use contrasting colors to highlight your CTAs on your website. Make them simple, clear, and followable. Graphic design tools like Canva allow you to design amazing free visuals within minutes.
Landing Pages
Landing pages have the potential to generate results. According to one report, inbound traffic helps increase leads by 6.66%. Ensure your landing pages are clear, focused, and relevant to the visitor’s interest.
Thank-You Pages
Don’t ignore the thank-you page, where visitors land once they submit a form. When done right, it helps convert your potential visitors.
Thank-you emails often have higher engagement rates. According to one study, they have a 42% open rate and a 14% click-through rate (CTR).
In addition to saying ‘thank you,’ include a download link for the offer and add social sharing buttons or a related offer form.
Start with a Simple CTA on Your Homepage
While a homepage design catches a visitor’s attention, the call-to-action (CTA) maintains it. However, don’t immediately overwhelm your visitors with overly complex or lengthy content.
Since your homepage is at the top of the marketing funnel, it should offer something simple like a free trial or a subscription to a recurring campaign. Here are various CTA ideas to consider:
“Subscribe to Updates”
Many visitors are not ready to buy on the first visit.
Instead of pushing them to buy now, entice visitors to subscribe to an email list that delivers industry trends or news about your product. Then you can update them frequently with no obligation on their part.
Contact people who opt-in, check their interest, and nurture them into marketing-qualified leads.
“Try Us for Free”
Free trials and demos fuel growing businesses’ success. They help generate demand and build a list of potential leads actively testing your product.
On the homepage, offer your product for free for a limited time using a convincing CTA and a form to collect their name and email. Once the product demo is over, continue to follow up with the user for feedback and further relationship building.
Offer E-books for Download on Blog Posts
Another effective way to stimulate interest in your business without being too aggressive is to include links to download e-books or whitepapers on select blog posts. This allows your visitors to explore the same topic more deeply after reading your post. This strategy blends lead generation with search engine optimization (SEO).
Your blog content helps build the page authority needed to rank higher on Google. 72% of digital marketers believe content is the best weapon for improving ranking in search results. Organic visitors are usually looking to solve a pain point, making them high-value leads.
Select keywords relevant to your industry and publish a series of blog posts around those topics. Then, craft a very detailed report revealing more of the subject matter. Package the report as a downloadable PDF and use that in exchange for the visitor’s name, company, and email. After someone downloads the resource, push it via email and follow it up with another email, likely a “thank you” for downloading.
Develop a Live Chat Service for Your Website
Live chat is gaining popularity, and many customers now expect it when browsing potential vendors. If you do not offer it, you are losing one of the largest lead-generating channels.
It was surveyed that 41% of people consider live chat more useful than any other service method.
Use live chat for lead gen after auditing your site on the pages with the most traffic. Then, using the right resources, implement a live chat tool on those pages where visitors usually need help or more information. Live chat lets you gain insights into their needs while casually answering their questions. You can also add your customer support team so that every visitor’s queries get addressed wherever the conversation may go.
Customize Your CTAs
Dynamic content enables each visitor to have a different kind of website experience. When visitors come to your website, they should find buttons, images, or even product options tailored to their interests, past page views, or previous purchases.
The best part? Personalized CTAs outperform standard CTAs by a whopping 202%. This means dynamic content and website personalization make all the difference in lead generation.
Test, Test, and Test
Testing improves performance at your website. A/B testing can profoundly enhance click-through rates. For example, a simple email A/B split test may increase the conversion rate by 49%.
Interestingly, small changes, such as A/B testing your landing page’s layout or CTA, could make a huge impact. Here are some tests you can try on your site:
- A/B Testing: Experiment with different button colors, text, and locations on the page.
- Bounce Rate: If visitors leave your site quickly, check your content. Are there large blocks of text? If so, try to shorten it and add bullet points or snippets for easier reading. Also, ensure your language is readable and not filled with jargon.
- Form Fields and Placement: Check the different lengths of your forms and top versus bottom page placement.
- Meta Descriptions: Try several meta titles and descriptions. These are important to improve the status of your SEO.
Nurture Your Leads
Remember, no lead capture will automatically become a customer. Your nurturing efforts are what truly matter.
Once a visitor fills out a form on your landing page, place them into a workflow to keep your brand on their radar and deliver content that interests them.
Begin lead nurturing with targeted follow-up emails with valuable content. The more you engage with them, the more you learn about their needs and preferences.
Conclusion
Seeing the growing number of visitors each time you check your data is exciting. But it is time to act if these numbers do not bring you qualified leads.
Working with real leads is the only way to make sales and expand your business. Therefore, do not let any opportunity slip out of your hands. To get started, you can use custom CTAs, offer free e-books, and use easy-to-fill forms to capture interest. You will never miss any valuable lead or a visitor leaving you behind. With a lead-generating website, you can keep increasing your brand awareness and build a strong foundation for long-term business growth.
