No matter what your business is, you need customers.
Great SEO practices can connect your brand with customers. But don’t think you can just sit back and let customers come to you. You have to be proactive in finding and pursuing leads.
Qualified prospects can become customers and even brand ambassadors. Most large organizations devote roughly 66% of their efforts on generating leads.
How do you find and develop leads? Are you having success or could you use some help? I have four quick tips that I’ve found great success with. Here they are:
1. Focus on Your Homepage
Your homepage is your site’s most visited spot. Social media, referral sites, search engines and other platforms all eventually lead potential customers to your homepage. So you want to optimize your homepage towards lead generation.
Place a well-designed, clear Call to Action on your homepage. If customers want to take action, they shouldn’t have to go to a second page within the site. If they’re not sure if they want to take action, but are on the fence, a homepage CTA can help shift their interest towards your brand.
Some brands find success by placing links to their most recent blogs posts on the homepage. If you decide to do this, showcase about four or five of your most recent posts with a short summary and links to the full article.
Another feature you might want to add is a sidebar. This where you can highlight your best content. The idea is to change the items featured here over time.
2. Include Webinars
Webinars about topics related to your industry are a low-cost and effective way to engage with your audience. You can answer questions directly from potential customers while also creating a human connection.
Link to the webinar within your content. For instance, you might discuss the topic of the webinar in a blog post. Once the customer has read some of the post, and has a bit of information, present them with a link to the webinar. This can drastically increase the number of sign-ups.
3. Simplify Logins
You don’t need a ton of information to pursue a lead. So don’t ask your customers to fill out long forms. People are less likely to fill out a form which asks for an abundance of personal information.
Instead, let customers sign in with the social media platforms they’re already on. Google and Facebook will be your two largest platforms. If customers sign in with a social media platform, you’ll have access to a variety of marketing information such the customer’s full name, address, phone number and even interests.
This can help you create a more complex customer profile and then approach those leads in a more targeted way.
With just one Google account, you can sign into Google Analytics, YouTube, Google Drive, Blogger, Google Docs and more. Over a billion people have a Google account, so you shouldn’t be limiting your lead generating abilities by requiring a Google sign in.
4. Separate Leads from Sales
Generating quality leads is an ongoing process. You’ll want to use A/B testing to determine the most effective headlines, subtitles, CTAs and more.
Split testing is a full-time task. You need a team completely devoted to lead generation. Then you want a separate team dedicated to following up on those leads and actually connecting with potential customers.
Your lead team generates interest. Your sales team then finalizes the sale. The size of the teams depends on your potential customer base. Even if you’re the entire team, you’ll still want to compartmentalize.
5. Use Direct Language
Fill your copywriting with positive, strong words. Encourage your guests to take action. Break up large bodies of copy with sharp, memorable subheadings.
Potential customers are going to scan your copy for quick answers. The easier your copy is to read, the fewer reasons your customer will find to say to “no” to your offer.
Nurturing leads isn’t a process which happens overnight. But when you lay the proper groundwork, your customer base will continue to grow over time. When you understand your customer’s needs, you’ll be able to provide effective solutions and generate more sales.
