If you’ve started to notice that everyone has a website these days, you’ve probably also started to think you should have one too. And you’re right, in this particular instance, to follow the trend. No matter how large or small your business might be, almost all of us expect to be able to find companies online.
If you’ve gone one step further than just pondering websites, then the term ‘lead generation website’ has probably also been thrown around, whether that’s in meetings or just from the general whispers around on the internet. Your follow-up question should then be “what is a lead generation website?”, because if you’ve never heard of it before, you should probably get a better understanding of it before you dive head-first into this kind of venture.
Don’t worry – we’re here to help you saddle up and get to grips with this common terminology from the world of web design and marketing here at Leblek. We’ll be hitting all the questions people should ask, but don’t, so that you know whether it’s the right thing for you and your business as you take your first steps towards a more successful future.
What Does A Lead Generation Website Do?
If your business, whether it’s B2B (business-to-business, where you deal with other companies) or B2C (business-to-consumer, where you deal with individual members of the public), is reliant on people getting in touch in order for you to make money, then it’s likely you need a lead generation website.
Y’see, lead generation websites should do exactly what the name says: generate leads.
Leads to you might be different to other businesses though. They can range from phone call enquiries and email enquiries to quick form submissions, but it all means you get potential customers contacting you asking about your business. “Can I get a quote?”, “How much do you charge?”, “When can you come out?” etc. these are all great opportunities for you to convert and secure more work.
A lead generation website acts as an online advertisement for your business that pushes the user towards getting in touch with their enquiry if your business is providing the service they need.
That last part is important, because while it can be easy to generate plenty of traffic, getting the right quality of enquiry is crucial. You don’t want people who can’t afford your products and services or who aren’t in your local area wasting their time as well as yours. Your end goal shouldn’t only be to generate traffic, you also need the right people to take the right action once they reach your site and that can be trickier to achieve than it sounds.
For now, let’s just concentrate on some core principles, we’ll come to the different strategies later.
How Do I Build A Lead Generation Website?
Now you know what website lead generation is, you’re probably wondering how you go about getting in on the act. People will often ask “how do I build a lead generation website?” but the sad truth is that, unless you’re a skilled and professional designer, you can’t just throw up any old website and expect the same results.
There are a whole variety of things you need in order to build a lead generation site for your business that will actually work. Here are eight ingredients your website is going to need:
A compelling value proposition – That means you need to make it obvious to people what you’re offering and why they need it. What are the real, tangible benefits that will make it impossible for a user to pass up the opportunity?
A website design that’s easy to navigate – While a flash-looking website is always nice, it has to also be functional for the average user. Can they find the information they need quickly, and can they also access your site on their phone? These considerations are important to make sure people can easily contact you.
Top quality content – Very few websites can get away with having zero content. It’s even worse if your content is poorly written. That’s because readers need to find the information they’re looking for without much effort before they switch off; that can be direct help and advice or just some reassurance that you know what you’re talking about.
CTAs (Call-to-action) – When a user lands on your site, you need to drive them towards contacting you. That’s where CTAs come in handy, showcasing prominent messages that make people do the thing you want them to do, depending on where they are in the process. That could be calling you, signing up for your newsletter or leaving their details for a free quote – regardless, the messaging has to be pitch-perfect to avoid turning them off.
A way to capture leads – This is your rod to catch leads with, usually a form where users can leave their details and their specific enquiry so that you can follow up, but it could also be the functionality to click and call for instant capture.
SEO principles baked in – For any good marketing strategy online, your lead-gen website needs to be founded on the principles of search engine optimisation in order for it to gain visibility in search engine rankings. This metaphorical cake won’t rise without this crucial ingredient.
Performance tracking – Knowing what works is great, but knowing what isn’t working quite as well is even better, because then you can improve your website even further and gain more leads. That’s why analytics tracking for data is our friend.
A strategy – It sounds simple, but a lead generation website needs a strategy since you might need to coax users at different points in the sales funnel (that’s business talk for “where they are in the buying or decision-making process”).
Combining these ingredients will help you generate more leads, but if you’re now left wondering how on Earth you’re supposed to take care of all that, then don’t worry. At Leblek, we can help you with all of the above, working with you on the right strategy and design to get the most from your website, and we can even take care of the ongoing management to keep improving results.
Why Is Lead Generation Important For Your Business?
This answer to this question should be fairly obvious by now: because you rely on people contacting you to make a living. No matter how large or small your business may be, very few can survive on word of mouth alone in such a competitive world. Having a website that generates leads is crucial to success so that you can convert those leads into sales, either immediately or after providing a quote or survey.
Once it’s set up, getting high-quality leads through your website is a simple way to generate business since 99% of the population now has a smartphone in their pocket.
You will need to keep reviewing any strategy, creating fresh content and making improvements to the site over time to provide higher conversion rates (again, that’s where we can help!) but you should then be able to sit back and let potential customers reach out to you. No more walking down the street, ringing a bell and shouting about your services to unsuspecting members of the public.
At the very least, the fact that a potential user was exposed to your business and what you offer is great news. While they may not need you right now, they may remember you and your brand in four months when they do – that’s another lead chalked up to the website you had specially made. Clever you.
What Are The Different Lead Generation Strategies?
Lead generation isn’t just one strategy. Oh no, there are a whole host of ways in which you can gear up your website to better attract and convert users – it all depends on what you’re selling and who you want to sell it to. Here are just a few routes you can take that make a lead-generation website different to the run-of-the-mill sites out there:
- Social proof – It’s not another baking metaphor, this time we’re talking about giving people a clear indication of trust by showing them that other customers have had a positive experience with you, making them more likely to take the next step and reach out. This can be in the form of reviews, testimonials or user-generated content.
- Changing up your messaging – Depending on where they’re at in the buying process, your audience might be better served with more specific messages. Instead of generic “Find out more” buttons, encourage them to take action with things like “Get your free quote” to encourage form completions or “Read our guide” to prompt downloads.
- Become an industry authority – There are so many benefits to adding informative and insightful content to your website, but whether you’re posting articles, videos, infographics or imagery, it should all add to your authority. Prove your knowledge and show users you’re at the top of your game to make them more inclined to trust you and take action.
- Upgrade your popular pages – Once your site has been up and running for a while, see which pages users are landing on the most and add CTAs or forms that encourage them to take an action. This turns views into leads, which is the ultimate goal.
- Make things easy – No one wants to struggle in this life, especially when all they want is your phone number. Sometimes the simple, obvious stuff can be overlooked in the pursuit of an aesthetically-pleasing website, so don’t forget to feature prominent information such as your contact details or other online enquiry features for visitors to use and get hold of you quickly.
There are, of course, a lot of other strategies you can deploy in line with what you want to achieve. If you’re not sure which directions are applicable for you and your business, let’s talk. From optimising your site to improve conversion rates, to handling content marketing strategies, it’s kind of our thing.
How Can I Tell If My Lead Generation Website Is Successful?
Knowing how well your lead-generation website is doing begins back at the start of the whole process. Setting out your goals and your key audiences will give you a direction for the design and functionality, but it will also give you some reasonable benchmarks to look back at.
Your biggest indicator of whether things are going well is how many leads you’re getting. You could have the world’s most visited website in your industry, but it’s no good if people aren’t contacting you, downloading your content or buying your products and services. Your Lead-to-Visitor ratio is a good indicator of the percentage of visitors to your website who then take the action you’re looking for, though this can be skewed if your content becomes widely successful outside of your initial, intended audience.
You can also use a variety of testing techniques to find out what encourages more leads on your website once you begin generating enough traffic. This conversion rate tactic will allow you to learn from data to improve results in other areas, putting the science of analytics on your side.
Lead Generation Websites At Leblek
Yep, you guessed it, this is the part where we tell you that you need us, even after we’ve given away some of the secret spices we use to achieve the best results.
That’s because your time is better spent doing what you’re good at – running your business and getting the day-to-day stuff right. Meanwhile, we’re the experts when it comes to lead-generation digital marketing, including user-focused web design, search engine optimisation strategies, content creation and conversion rate optimisation, so let us handle the task of driving more leads to you.
Whether you want people to pick up the phone and call you, fill in a form for a quote or sign up for your newsletter, let us cook up the right website to bring you success. Contact us today and we’ll help you start a lead-generating website for your business.
