Website Marketing - Generating Leads

In this article we look at what it takes to have a website that earns it keep. In particular, we consider what needs to be done to encourage a visitor to provide you with their contact details and their permission to start a dialogue with them.

Website Performance

Website Marketing is about owning a website that earns its keep. Gaining 'top of the pile' search engine results and attracting visitors to your website is the visibility side of Website Marketing. However, the other portion relates to client acquisition - the performance of your website. Once a visitor arrives at your website what do you want them to do, and how do you keep them there? In this article we will briefly look at how to generate lead. In other words how to encourage a visitor to give you their contact details so that you can maintain a dialogue with them.

The Power Of The Internet

Lead generation is not a new form of gaining new business. Harnessing the power of the Internet does mean, however, that you have an additional means of gaining qualified leads to supplement attendance at trade shows, setting up displays in the hope that people will fill in a form. Furthermore this approach is automated, with leads sent to you in an electronic form.

Most business-to-business websites are about lead generation - about converting visitors into qualified leads. Yet for many, despite attracting visitors to their website, this rarely happens. So how do you do gain qualified leads? Well as with so many website marketing activities, it's all about trust, and giving the visitor a reason to convert from simply being a visitor to becoming a qualified lead or prospect.

Lead generation is a win-win for both the potential buyer and yourself. A buyer is able to request additional information and in return you are given permission to start a dialogue once the now qualified lead leaves the website.

Trust

As you will know from your own experience, people rarely make a major purchase the first time they see an advert. People look around to find a firm that can provide a solution to their problem. It's exactly the same on websites. To turn their problem into your opportunity you need to be seen as trustworthy and able to solve the problem. A powerful way to generate trust is to supply testimonials, or rather, snippets of testimonials, from your existing clients on the website. In terms of showing you can solve their problem what better way than to give away a sample of your work whilst at the same time requesting their contact details? Firstly they gain a better idea about the work that you do, and you gain a qualified lead, with their permission to contact them. Brilliant!

Free Information

As with any form of marketing and advertising you are positioning yourself as the expert or specialist in a particular field. So what better way to educate the visitor than with an offer of a free download (e.g. a white paper, report, article, etc.) or for them to sign-up for e-newsletters, a free trial, and so on. In return for their contact details, of course. By giving away some information you are qualifying your lead, gaining permission to contact them again.

Privacy Policy

If you are capturing personal information I recommend that you provide some idea of what will happen with the information. It may be that a Policy Statement along the lines of "Our Company will not make your contact details available to others" is sufficient. In other cases a fuller statement may be in order. In which case a good place to start is at http://www.privacy.org.nz/effective-website-privacy-notices .

Enquiry Form

In addition to the freebies, or even if you do not provide free information in exchange for contact details, I recommend that you should at the least, give the visitor the option of contacting you via a form on the website (these days, visitors expect to be able to interact with your website). It's up to you what contact information to collect. I recommend that you adopt a minimalist approach. Ask for their name, e-mail address, and possibly their phone number, and ensure that you provide an area for their enquiry or comment to be recorded. Other information that you might like to capture could include the name of their organisation, the firm's postal address, how they found your website, and a list of services so that they can select which one(s) they are particularly interested in. But be wary of asking for too much information.

The Path To Success

If your website lacks all three forms of lead generation your website is not maximising its full potential. Indeed, you could say you website has been set up to fail! Contact us today if you are interested having a successful website - one not only readily found on the Internet, but a website that will also generate leads.