How to generate leads
Most organizations do not fully utilize their web presence to generate leads and interest in their products. Fortunately, designing a landing page that’s built for leads do not have to be overwhelming or time-consuming. The following steps can help increase conversions, but can also increase your site’s trust factor and authority.
1. Contact Number
Adding a contact number to your website may seem counterintuitive, especially if you sell a digital product. Doing so however, increases consumer trust and lends credibility to your offer. Even if your customers don’t actually call, the presence of a phone number does bring them some comfort.
2. Add Photos and Testimonials For Greater Credibility
Testimonials can be a powerful marketing tool, but adding photos or even rich media such as video or audio can take them a step further. While the rich media versions may be too bandwidth-heavy for lead generation websites, solid testimonials can have a powerful impact and lend support to your offer.
3. Post Forms on Every Page
Having easy access to the actual lead generation form is paramount to increasing the number of viable leads through your website. The less information required for the first step, the more likely people would be to part with their valuable personal details.
4. Use Trust Seals – Build Trust
All of the major trust seal providers claim that incorporating a trust seal on your website can increase conversion rates, but the actual statistics are hard to come by. Rather than installing a seal for pure visual security benefits, choose one that is backed up by a guarantee to the consumer. Customers who saw the seal are 7.6% more likely to buy than those who did not.
5. Make Your Videos Speak to the User
Online videos bridge the gap between online and off-line commerce, as well as greatly increasing conversion rates for a wide range of industries particularly e-commerce websites. The highest performing videos speak to the user rather than at them. Online users who viewed a product video are much more likely to convert over users who simply viewed an ad. Videos help the user feel more informed and confident of their purchase.
6. Use Power Words When Describing Your Offer
Powerful action verbs such as “get”, “feel” and “have” are strong compellers because of their active tone as opposed to “imagine having”, “imagine feeling” and so on. Using action-oriented words in your offer places the customer in a pivotal role as the one receiving the benefits as opposed to simply imagining them.
7. Avoid “Cookie-Cutter” Site Templates
When it comes to quality lead generation, you should avoid any cookie cutter “all-the-work-is-done-for-you” website templates. Instead, invest in the best possible website you can afford, and make sure you make the page’s purpose clear up front so that the designer can tailor it to generating leads rather than looking nice or having all the bells and whistles. Having a well designed site also increases trust and customer confidence levels when shopping online.
8. Consider the End-Goal First
When it comes to lead generation, begin with the end in mind. What exactly does a “lead” mean to you? Defining this will make your testing and analytics goals even clearer, and help you determine exactly what actions you want the user to take as they progress through each stage of your sales funnel. Is a lead considered someone who fills out a form? Someone who signs up for a newsletter? Requests a callback? Clearly define your starting point and you’ll have a much easier time adjusting your conversion goals accordingly.
9. Make Good Use of Whitespace
Whitespace (also known as negative space) is one of those ‘little things’ in web design that can make a big impact. Rather than striving to fill up every empty area on a page, give your content, photos and call to action buttons some breathing room. There’s no need to add something just to take up room, it can end up only serving as a distraction to your customers, and lowering your conversion rates as a result.
The Bottom Line for Best Lead Generation: Test, Test, Test
None of these tips will do you a bit of good unless you test them for yourself and determine what works for your unique situation. Number and quality of leads is a conversion factor just like any other one which you’ll want to see increase and improve over time. Here’s a handy checklist of other things to test to help improve conversion rates.
A lead generation page is also a great way to test crucial design changes before applying them site wide. By split testing changes from one landing page to the next, you’ll be able to see whether or not your lead gen efforts pay off. Having the right testing and analytics software in place will help you determine exactly what’s working – with real-time data, historic timelines, trends and conversion funnels that let you segment down to the smallest details.
Testing is the only true way to know exactly what works for your unique needs, but when designing your lead generation pages, keeping these best practices in mind can help you work less and convert more!
