Now that your business website is receiving a healthy amount of traffic, you’ll want to take the next step: turning those visitors into sales leads. But how do you do this? Once you’ve attracted the traffic to your web page, the battle is half won. There are several very effective steps you can take to ensure an increased amount of that traffic takes the important next step from a simple site visitor to a source of potential business. The following tips will show you how to convert a higher percentage of your website traffic into sales leads.
Request Details from Your Traffic
Web traffic can certainly be measured in number of unique visitors, but the real measurement of success comes from the business that the website ultimately generates. One tried and true method of increasing sales leads is through a simple request of your site visitors, typically upon entry.
On the landing page of your web site (the first page visitors encounter), you can create a basic web form which allows the visitor to share some of their important details, such as contact information and other potential demographics. This has the dual power of gathering methods to contact the visitor again (via email, phone, etc.) and also provides your business with needed demographic information, which can aid with market research and creation of better approaches.
But Users Want Something in Return…
It isn’t enough to simply ask your site visitors for their information. Often, this brusque approach can turn away potential sales leads. The preferred (and much more effective) method is to offer your valued guests something in exchange for their information. When they sign up with your web site, they may receive a free eBook, or have their name entered into a prize drawing, etc. The enticement of something free or possible winnings is enough to get most people signing up and sharing their information with no problem.
This offer should ideally still be part of your landing page–something site visitors can’t miss or must click through to access the full site. Make sure your offer is clear and attractive. The text should be something like, “Download your free eBook HERE.” Following their input of details, the page should automatically and swiftly redirect to the download page. Don’t forget a big thank you to the visitor for his or her time.
Integrating A Call to Action
Perhaps your site traffic has arrived to your website via a blog post or other page; in this case they will not automatically arrive at the landing page with the associated offer. To help with this, and to continually draw the site visitors into the net of sales leads, you should intersperse various calls to action around the site. These calls to action briefly share the available offer (“Enter the Contest!”) and then provide a form or direct link which will take the visitor to the landing page. Be consistent with the wording you use on each call to action and on the landing page itself, to make sure the message is really getting across.
Make it Worth It
Once you’ve gathered email addresses and other valuable contact details from your traffic, make sure their next interaction with you is highly positive. Don’t use these email addresses to spam your sales leads with unwanted and useless information. Provide these potential customers with top quality information–content which is useful, beneficial, and informative. Once you’ve obtained sales leads, you must reel them in by promoting your goods or services effectively and smartly.
Measure Your Results
As your website will be constantly changing and evolving, make sure you’re consistently measuring the results of your work. Trying out various SEO practices and lead generating tactics can be extremely worthwhile, but once you observe and understand those tactics which really work, you’ll be on to something.
When utilising a technique such as the call to action, for example, check out your conversion rates to see which links have been more successful (based on location on the website, size, position, etc.) These elements that have proven successful should be replicated or imitated in the future. It’s a great idea to test various versions of these elements offer several weeks and see which version is the most successful at generating sales leads.
Over time, you’ll notice which patterns have proven most effective for you and your business, and if you continue pursuing those avenues, an ever greater percentage of your website traffic is going to turn into sales leads.