There are many reasons B2B companies consider a website redesign. Creating a lead generation engine should be at the top of the list. Other reasons might include complying with Google’s mobile-friendly requirements; or, perhaps updating the website to reflect changes in the business. For most marketers and their bosses, the biggest concern is how do we get more qualified leads, and new business now that we’ve invested heavily in the website.
Whatever the reason for the change, it’s the perfect time to take into consideration your business goals, and what you want your website to do. The only business case for a website redesign, in our opinion, is to attract more visitors and turn them into paying customers. Sadly, most B2B websites are still not living up to the charge because they're functioning like online brochures. Econsultancy (2016) found that only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their website conversion rates. If you can relate, you're in the right place. Read on.
Move beyond the brochure website to a lead-generation engine
The basic corporate website, no matter how creative or good-looking, is still a passive brochure. It will tell visitors about the company's services, its history, who's on the team, and its static. On a brochure website, even a blog (if there is one,) is more of the same. The information is company-centric and focused primarily on pushing out traditional, outbound sales information.
Follow these guidelines for some inbound marketing magic, and to turn your website into a Lead Generation engine.
1. Be Customer Focused
Publish and offer content (blogs, white papers, infographics, videos, etc.) that meets the needs of your customers.
How do you meet your customers’ needs? First, understand who they are and the problems they typically come to you to solve. Define a Buyer Persona and the stages of their buying process from first awareness to deciding to buy. Armed with information about what your ideal customer is looking for, you will be better able to create content that meets their needs.
Targeted content leads the right visitors to your site and builds their trust in you. Inbound leads are typically more qualified.
Almost half of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. If your customers are not viewing your content, they’re probably viewing your competitors' content instead. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
2. Have Calls-to-Action Everywhere
Place targeted and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) on each page, and especially the home page near the top. A call-to-action lets your visitors know how they can get the information they’re looking for, or how to take the next step with your company. Examples of CTAs are “Download this Ebook”, “Get 10 Tips to …”, “Request a Demo” and so on.
A lead generation website has multiple calls to action to attract visitors wherever they may be in their buyer process. Offers for educational information help the buyer at the research stage. An offer for a product demo will appeal more to visitors who are further along in their buying process.
Calls-to-action are often in the form of text links, buttons or images that, when clicked, send the visitor to a landing page.
3. Send Visitors to Landing Pages to Convert Them to Leads
A lead-generation landing page is much more effective at converting visitors to leads than a traditional webpage. Landing pages have characteristics that differentiate them from a typical corporate webpage. Effective landing pages have one purpose, that is, to present an offer and a form to capture the contact information in exchange for receiving the offer. That’s it. Landing pages do not have any other links or information that could distract the visitor from the decision to be made on the page: accept the offer - or pass.
4. Convert Visitors to Leads with Just the Right Forms
To turn a website visitor into a lead, the bottom line is you must capture contact information with an opt-in form. Successful lead generation websites have the right form for every purpose. A common mistake is to make the form too long and ask for too much information about the type of offer.
A form to download an ebook or list of tips (awareness stage) will convert more with just a name and email address. For offers with far more value, like a product demo or consultation, it makes sense to request more detailed information. You’ll get fewer, but more qualified leads.
5. Make Your Opt-in Offers Irresistible
Offer valuable content that will resonate with your buyer persona and address their needs.
Your ebook, white paper, or infographic needs to evoke a “heck, yes!” response from your visitors, so it’s a no-brainer for them to part with their contact information to receive your offer. Generic offers like, “Join our mailing list,” “Receive our Blog,” or “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” will not work unless you can describe how doing so will specifically help them. In the end, if your offer doesn’t excite your visitor, you won’t generate very many leads. Do the work ahead to target your business, your content, and your website to the right person.
6. Nurture all Leads with Personalized, Automated Email Follow-Up
67% of B2B marketers say they see at least a 10% increase in sales opportunities with lead nurturing, with 15% seeing opportunities increase by 30% or more. Capturing leads is just the beginning of effective lead generation. To turn leads into real business opportunities, there has to be follow-up. Automated follow-up is a key component of the lead generation system.
7. Promote Your Content and Offers Through Multiple Channels
In the end, a lead generation website is only as effective as the traffic it receives, meaning taking strategic action to drive targeted traffic is critical. Here are a few ways to help your ideal clients to find your lead-generation website.
- Optimize all your content and website pages for search traffic with strategically chosen keywords.
- Promote all your content on social media platforms where your ideal customer can be found.
- Promote your content and offers in email to your contact database.
Before you delve into a redesign project, or even if you’ve just finished one, make sure to include these must-have elements that will turn your website into a lead generation engine.
Next Steps
If your website site lead generation results are disappointing, start by setting up a website evaluation for specific tips customized to your website for generating more leads. Please do us a little favor and share this article with others, for there’s a good chance that it will help them with their lead generation, too.
To help you get started using personas and content marketing, DOWNLOAD THIS FREE GUIDE "7 Tips for Creating Irresistible Content and Offers". You will learn how to create content that drives traffic and generates leads.
Marketing Monsoon, LLC is a growth agency specializing in lead generation, sales enablement, and customer engagement for alternative energy, healthcare technology, and staffing and HR companies. Our expertise includes strategy development, content marketing, lead generation systems, local search marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. Get started on your strategy today by reaching out to Marketing Monsoon at (866) 851-1793.
