A lot of effort goes into launching a business, from website building to product creation. However, if you think your job is done after those initial stages, you may end up kicking yourself. Marketing accounts for a large portion of a company’s success, and if ignored, may lead to wasted ideas and financial distress.
While traditional methods of marketing may still prove effective, newer forms, like “lead-generation marketing,” have become more popular due to the high-quality results they offer. Over 55% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers, as of 2020, spend more than half of their marketing budget on lead generation processes. HubSpot also reported that 67% of businesses use lead generation to measure their “content success.” So, if you’re seeking a new and improved way to harness consumer engagement, lead generation may be the way to go.
Simply put, “lead generation” revolves around identifying prospects, gaining information about them, and utilizing appropriate tactics to convert said visitors into leads—i.e., individuals interested in purchasing your products or using your services.
It’s one thing to lure potential buyers to your website, but quite another to have the means to hold their interest once they reach your landing pages. Both increasing traffic and making the most of it are vital, so you’ll need to understand the different ways you can achieve each of these goals.
Accelerate Lead Generation On Your Website
Benefits of lead generation
As mentioned above, there are several advantages of utilizing lead generation, including the following:
- Increased sales
- Higher-quality leads
- Enhanced visibility and market presence
- Ability to target specific customers
- Collection of valuable prospect information
- Brand loyalty
- Further business opportunities
- Building relationships with customers.
Accelerating lead generation on your website
The following list will cover 12 techniques for increasing website traffic, improving conversion rates, and optimizing overall website functionality through different lead forms. It’s vital, however, to understand what you want to accomplish and what will fit the personality of your business.
Rather than implementing each and every method of lead generation, it may be more appropriate to utilize tactics that suit not only your company but the prospects you’re hoping to secure. There’s no point pouring money and time into techniques that don’t align with your business values.
Understand your target audience
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that converting prospects into leads, and then leads into customers, may prove difficult if you don’t first understand the desires, problems, and circumstances of the people you’re targeting. Digging deeper into what makes your prospective customer base tick may mean the difference between a shallow understanding (leading to unmet expectations), and a comprehensive understanding of consumer intent. Building customer personas is a good step to ensure you’re effectively catering to your potential buyers. It is an essential part of your sales funnel planning strategy, allowing you to better understand your unique sales points.
This can be done through collecting and analyzing quantitative data, like location, age, and job, and qualitative data, like the challenges and desires of a potential customer.
Utilize social media platforms
One of the most popular tactics for uncovering more prospects and driving them to your website is social media. There are currently around 4.33 billion social media users worldwide. According to a 2019 study conducted by Sprout Social, 77% of consumers are more inclined to purchase products and services from a brand that they follow on social media over one that they don’t. Many marketers agree that these figures shouldn’t be ignored, with approximately 66% of B2B marketers revealing that they’ve successfully generated leads through social media marketing. To make the most of your social media marketing efforts, it’s important to syndicate your B2B content the right way. This means strategically distributing your content across multiple social media channels to maximize its reach and impact.
Possible social media tactics you might consider include:
- Consistent posting
- Relevant content
- Paid advertisements
- Building a social media community
- Videos and photography
- Contests and giveaways
- Utilizing influencers and brand ambassadors.
If you’re thinking about using social media to accelerate your lead generation, you’ll probably want to make use of the most popular platforms—Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
Embrace email marketing
You may hear the term “email marketing” and think it’s an outdated strategy, however, according to HubSpot, approximately 79% of marketers give credit to email as their most effective distribution channel. Sending generic or personalized messages that encourage your targeted prospects to take a specific action—leading them to your website—not only gets you specific information about them but also gives you the opportunity to nurture and convert them into customers. While sending emails, always consider maintaining security during the transaction processes. You can use a DKIM record generator to prevent email modifications and have safe communication with your prospects.
Considerations if you’re using email include:
- Lead scoring (methodology used to rank prospects)
- Email automation
- Gated content (only available to individuals who fill out a form)
- E-books, guides, courses, online tools, etc.
- Clear and concise messages and formatting
- Creative subject lines
- Incentives
- Calls-to-action (CTAs).
Host an event
Drawing more prospects to your website may involve hosting a digital or physical event for potential buyers. This may present itself in the form of a seminar, workshop, webinar, Q&A or social meet-up. Giving prospects and leads a chance to directly interact with you, ask questions and air concerns may allow you to gain their trust and convert them into ongoing clients.
Things to think about when hosting include:
- Quality set-up, including lighting and sound (especially if hosted online)
- Potential partnerships with other businesses
- Promoting RSVPs
- Post-event activities and follow-ups.
Blogging
Quality content is an extremely important factor in lead generation. Consistent blog posting will not only keep your existing customers interested, but may also tempt potential leads to jump on your brand’s bandwagon. The more you blog, the more likely individuals are to click on CTAs and fill out forms. It’s also considered to be one of the most cost-effective long-term strategies that can drive targeted traffic to your website.
Popular tactics include:
- Lead magnets and gated content
- Unique content that answers the audience’s questions and problems
- Content upgrades
- Surveys
- Interactive content.
Testimonials
Including testimonials, both on-site and off-site is recommended. Business testimonials are traditionally known as customer or partner statements used to build trust, authenticity, and reputation. According to statistics published by Big Commerce, approximately 92% of consumers rely on reading reviews and testimonials when deciding on a purchase. 88% stated that they place the same amount of value on online reviews as they do personal recommendations. 72% also revealed that they’re more likely to trust business websites that include testimonials.
Networking
Networking may be your ticket to engaging leads that you’d otherwise have no access to. Branching out and sharing your vision with others may aid you in driving up website traffic while attaining loyal customers.
Networking methods include:
- Volunteering
- Connecting with local businesses
- Forming relationships with non-competitive companies
- Social media networking opportunities.
Networking, both online and off, can help boost your reputation and assist in generating referrals to your website.
Industry research reports
Another popular lead-generating strategy is providing industry research reports to magnify transparency and openness.
These reports generally consist of the following:
- Executive summaries
- In-depth market analysis
- Industry trends
- Company outlook, values, and characteristics
- Operating conditions.
Optimize website functionality and processes
If your website is lacking in functionality, aesthetic appeal, or security, it’s very likely your prospects will bolt in the other direction. Ensuring your site is properly maintained is a key step towards building your client base. Confirming that you’ve adopted and implemented the correct lead generation processes is also crucial.
This involves establishing the correct amount and high standard of landing pages and CTAs, as outlined above. According to a HubSpot survey, businesses that had over 30 landing pages on their sites were able to generate seven times more leads than those that only included five or fewer.
CTAs are also extremely important, but it’s key to use them wisely and carefully. Their purpose is to convert guests into leads through encouraging and tempting reminders, rather than overwhelming and forceful demands.
Improve website’s support services
Ensuring your site is easily navigable and informative is fundamental. However, if any problems were to arise, it’s important for existing and potential clients to access help easily and quickly.
This may be achieved through the following approaches:
- Real-time responses
- Chatbots
- 24/7 online or over-the-phone support services
- Easily accessible “help” and “FAQ” pages.
Utilize website analytics
Taking advantage of the analytic tools available to you may help you understand how your website is performing, the behavior of your visitors, as well as how to optimize your conversion rates. These tools are there to highlight what you’re doing right as well as what areas may need improvement. If you ignore this valuable data, you may lose out on the bulk of your target audience due to an easily remedied problem or trend.
A/B testing
A/B testing is an effective method of determining how different aspects and functions of your website are being received by users. In simple terms, two versions of a specific element of your site—a subject line, blog post, landing page layout—will be given to two separate groups. The version that performs better will end up being the one used for your website. This in turn could help improve your rate of conversions, as you’ll have a deeper understanding of what your customers prefer.
Final thoughts
Accelerating lead generation on your website isn’t always an easy task. It takes a lot of planning, a strategic approach, and careful execution. The above methods, however, have all shown signs of potential when it comes to attracting prospects, turning them into leads, and then converting them into loyal customers.
