What is your website meant to achieve? Incredibly, it is a question some business owners cannot answer. As such, they find themselves in a position where they may have invested in a professional web design but have a website that they cannot assess because they have not set any goals for it.
We trust your website does have one or more objectives to drive your business forward be that to convert to sales if it is an eCommerce website, boost your branding, or generate new leads. This third goal is one which the vast majority of websites should have, regardless of whatever else it has been designed to achieve. A website is prime online real estate and provides a business with an excellent opportunity to add prospects into its sales funnel.
As attractive an option as that may sound, unfortunately not every website is optimised to generate leads. It may look great, have excellent content, and function well, but for some reason, visitors to that website are simply not taking the action required for that business to consider them a lead.
If this is a frustration that you have been having with your website, then you want to keep reading as we are going to outline 5 simple steps that you can take to improve your web design. This will not only turn your website into a lead generator but better still, a consistent lead generator.
Ensure You Have Clear And Unambiguous Calls To Action
One of the biggest web design mistakes we see is that whenever a visitor lands on a site there is no clear pathway to signing up as a prospect. This is usually down to the fact that calls to action within the web design are either weak or worse, non-existent. Wherever you have an opt-in form or contact form, make it abundantly clear what the visitor has to do, otherwise, they will do nothing.
Ensure You Have Signup Forms On Every Page
Most websites have more than one page, and many business websites have multiple pages. Each page is an opportunity to induce a visitor to become a lead so you must have a signup form on each one. It may take them clicking through several pagers to accept you are a trustworthy company and that the content you publish is excellent, and when they do, you should have a signup form immediately available to them.
Offer Irresistible Freebies And Incentives In Return For A Prospect’s Details
To encourage visitors to your website to part with their email address or telephone number, you should offer them an incentive. What that may be will depend on your type of business and what incentives are effective within it. It should be free but also have a genuine value, rather than a hyped one. Suggesting a 10 page eBook is worth $200 kills your credibility so keep your freebie offer realistic.
Ensure All Sign Up Forms Work Properly
One of the most frustrating things a business owner can discover is that the signup forms on their website are not working. That means most of the traffic they have been sending there has been for nothing. First, ensure your website is designed by professional web designers and this sort of problem will not arise. Second, check each signup form works properly through to the thank you page.
Ensure The ‘Thank You’ Page Takes Them A Step Closer To Becoming A Customer
Whilst getting a prospect to give you their details is important, what happens after they do so is every bit as important. Your thank you page should be consistent with the rest of your web design, and it should also say more than just ‘Thank You’. You could outline some of your current offers, provide a bonus freebie, or simply explain to them what the next stage in the sales process might be, such as a free consultation or quotation.