Are you generating leads from your website? If your website is not giving you the kind of attention you want, here are 3 ways to get back on track.
Quick Question: Are you generating leads from your website?
If the answer is “Yes”, good for you.
If it is “No’, then read this post.
According to this study, the #1 challenge for B2B companies is generating high quality leads.” Such kinds of leads are hard to come by if you solely rely on traditional marketing techniques.
A lot of people think websites should just be about branding and online presence. No, it’s more than that.
That why I had to compare such websites (information websites) to marketing websites.
Your website can actually be a primary tool to help your business grow in leaps and bounds. It all depends on the purpose behind the design in the first place.
Did you have a reason for getting it designed or did you just want to follow trends because everyone is online?
If the sole purpose of your website is only brand identity, then you’ve completely missed it.
And I’m guessing that was your reason.
Your website can be a money making tool, not just something for people to look at and read about your business. That’s an information website which doesn’t explore up to half the potential of a full marketing website.
If your website isn’t giving you the leads you expect, it’s because you got something wrong from the very beginning.
And it’s a simple rule that’s so evident, but that most of us ignore.
Here it is…
“Begin With The End In Mind”
– Stephen Covey, author “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People”
How many people actually begin with the end in mind?
Really, that quote applies to everything in life…even online marketing.
There’s a reason why successful entrepreneurs always advice to work backwards. See the result you want to achieve, then plan backwards to the starting point.
In lead generation, it’s more than important for you to apply this rule.
The primary reason your website is not giving you leads is simply due to this one reason…
It wasn’t designed to give you leads.
Lead generation can’t be a second objective for website creation. It can’t come after brand identity. Why?
When your website is designed to give you leads, it also helps your brand identity.
How To Fix It
First, you have to realize that the sole purpose of designing your website would be to get qualified leads. For this reason, there’ll have to be several elements in place in order to make it happen.
Yes, it may lead to a redesign if you already have a website up, but you’ll love it in the long run.
So, if your website is not giving you the kind of attention you want, here are 3 ways to get back on track.
1. Include The Basic Website Elements
By default, a website not designed for lead generation is often full of graphics, flash, clever messaging and fancy pictures. Yes, those are really good for a brand. But for lead generation, your homepage has to be straight to the point.
Your homepage has to tell your visitors what they’re there for and how you can help them. And then, it must lead them somewhere else.
Noah Kagan’s website (okdork.com) does a good job with this (see below). Sure he didn’t arrive at that design from the beginning, but the simplicity and call to actions is what makes it work.
Secondly, most business websites don’t have blogs.
Whaaat?
In this digital age where content marketing rocks, having a blog should be your number one priority. If not, how else do you want to educate your leads to the point where they’re informed enough to hire you?
Having a blog helps you take advantage of content marketing. According to this study by Hubspot, companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.
For a lowdown on website elements to have on your website, read this post.
2. Focus On Systems, Not Tactics
Tactics help you implement systems. Systems simply give you direction. Without systems, you’ll be implementing in several directions, hoping one tactic would work over the other.
A system is a collection of tactics to reach a common goal. In a lead generation system, there are only three stages you need setup: lead acquisition, lead nurturing and lead conversion.
The tactics you choose to use at each stage is then up to you.
In lead acquisition, you first need loads of people to visit your site. That’s traffic generation and there are various ways to generate traffic, with content marketing being my priority. But after traffic what next? How do you keep them on the site and make them become subscribers?
Content!
You need valuable content on your blog that your visitors can learn from. To convert them to subscribers you need a lead magnet that either helps them solve a pending problem they may have or get a specific result they want.
In your lead nurturing system, how do you keep them engaged as subscribers? This is where email newsletters come in. I won’t go into that now because it’s beyond the scope of this post.
The final system is lead conversion, where you actually use email newsletters, copywriting and blog posts to convert those subscribes into paying clients. Without having the basic website elements, you’ll neither be able to acquire any leads, nor nurture them.
3. Get Your Mind Straight — There’s Work Ahead
Saying this was easy would be a lie. It isn’t! It sounds simple though.
Yes, it may take a while to implement everything, if you were to do it all on your own. But the results would exceed your expectations if you put in the work.
Brian Clark used content marketing to grow his blog into an 8 figure company – Copyblogger Media. Using content marketing, it took Danny Iny about 4 years to hit his 1 million dollar mark. While you may want to look at the years, instead, look at the figures :).
So you really have no excuse. I don’t either.
If you’re ready to get started but feel this is too much work for you to handle, I can help. I help service professionals design websites with a content first approach. And they’re designed for one thing – to generate leads.
So, if you need a redesign, or you want to a new one from scratch, I’m here to help. From the website design to the content marketing, you’ll start getting the leads you need to pay you top dollar for your services.
Is your website failing to give you the leads you want? Share in the comments.