Are you hoping to generate more leads from your website? Of course you are. If you’re not an ecommerce site selling products directly online, the main goal for your site is most likely to generate leads.
Every website is a potential channel for revenue. But to create a steady stream of prospects that you can turn into customers, you need a holistic and strategic approach.
Having an awesome website that looks great, tells a story, and functions at top speed are crucial – but that’s only the first step. If your site isn’t optimized to generate leads, you’re missing out on a key piece of your marketing strategy.
Why You Need a Next-Level Website
Optimizing your website for lead generation (i.e. taking your website to the next level) can help you get more leads, increase conversions, and see more ROI from your ad spend overall.
A website optimized for lead generation:
- Meets your prospects at every stage of the buyer journey
- Moves the reader strategically from page to page
- Provides value and information first and foremost
- Anticipates what visitors to your site want/need, and when
There are a number of strategies that work together to help create your next level, lead generation optimized website.
Why Use Google AdWords?
People often ask whether Google Ads really works, and if it’s worth putting money into. As part of a well-rounded marketing and SEO strategy, absolutely! The truth is, the biggest players in every industry are using Google AdWords. So, if you’re not running pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-click ads (CPC) via Google, Bing, and Facebook, you’re giving money away to the competition.
Google AdWords is an investment – and it can be super effective when done by a pro. Google AdWords is an excellent tool for bringing in more leads with minimal risk. It lets you test out ideas and gain valuable data about your business.
The data you get from AdWords helps you find your most effective keywords, learn which type of ad copy performs best, and remarket (show ads to visitors who didn’t buy the first time they interacted with your brand).
The ongoing data from PPC and CPC ads is useful for refining an existing SEO strategy or developing ads that complement your organic search results.
Here are some of the top benefits of the platform:
- Scalable – The more you spend, the more leads you get.
- Measurable – The platform provides tons of very specific metrics to help you see what works and what doesn’t.
- Targeted – Narrow your paid search traffic down to a specific location, language, time of day, browser or device, and more. In other words, you can tailor it to exactly the type of people you want to reach.
- Iterative – Learn what’s working and make changes along the way.
- Fast – In tandem with your site’s organic SEO strategy, AdWords data can significantly accelerate results.
So, PPC can actually be a huge generator of revenue/leads for your site as part of overall SEO strategy – PPC data to quickly get insights
Google AdWords as Part of Overall Marketing and SEO Strategy
Google AdWords shouldn’t have to work alone. A website optimized for leads provides multiple entry points to capture customer contact info. After that, you can begin to nurture a relationship with your new prospect. Following are some top strategies for turning your website into a lead generation machine.
Build an Email List
People who visit your site may not be ready to buy right away, but they are interested in you. A strategically placed ‘Subscribe to our updates’ message gives you a chance to stay connected to this prospect without them having to commit to a purchase.
Once you’ve captured their email address, you have an opportunity to build trust with the customer and offer value via their inbox, whether that’s product information, helpful tips or exclusive offers.
Use Forms (Where it Matters)
Chat forms and email contact forms put you one step closer to your potential customer. Chat forms answer essential questions and build trust and authority at early stages of the customer journey. Email forms get them to the next step in the sales funnel.
Use forms on your pages with the most traffic, whether it’s blogs, social media, or your team page. Always use a form instead of just hyperlinking your email address – it’s easier for the user and makes them more likely to reach out.
Use CTAs Strategically
Lead generation often begins when a customer clicks the call-to-action (CTA) on your site. The CTA leads to a landing page where they provide contact info, schedule a call, or set up an appointment.
CTA’s need to be done well in order to work. A strong CTA is personalized, uses active messaging, and stands out via contrasting colors, for starters.
Instead of something like “Dear Shopper”, a personalized CTA addresses the customer by name. HubSpot says personalized calls-to-action perform 202% better than basic calls-to-action. You can also personalize based on browser type, language, whether they’re a current customer, and more.
Lead Magnets, Landing Pages, and Follow Ups, Oh my!
Before they’ll give up their email address, you have to offer something the reader wants. A lead magnet is a highly useful, information-rich document offered for download (often in PDF format) in exchange for someone’s contact info.
More than just a great way to help build your email list, lead magnets are where lead generation meets search engine optimization (SEO). Lead magnets, landing pages and thank-you pages work together to generate leads by giving users information that’s important to them.
An effective lead magnet offers high-value content such as:
- Case studies
- Webinars
- Tutorials or how-tos
- White papers/industry reports
- Product Demos
- Podcasts
- Sneak peaks or previews
- How-to guides or eBooks
The landing page is often a pop up that appears after the user has spent a certain amount of time on your site. The landing page can offer up your lead magnet, encourage the user to sign up for your email list, start a free trial of your product, or something else. More about creating and optimizing awesome landing pages here.
Once you’ve got their email address, don’t let that lead go cold!
The thank you email (or follow up email or kickback email) is where you provide the lead magnet to the customer – and it’s also a great opportunity to nurture your new prospect through an automated cycle of emails. Encourage them to share something on social, click through to your website for more information, send a promotion or other helpful tips.
Test, Adjust, Repeat
Every business wants the magic formula that sends them to the top of Google Page 1. But in 2019, having awesome SEO (link to Awesome SEO article) is still a long game, which means that the best strategies are both agile and iterative.
As keyword rankings change, business objectives shift, new content is created, and Google AdWords data rolls in, you can be sure we’re constantly searching for insights and making adjustments that lead to greater results. We’re with you every step of the way.
