Website lead generation starts with the homepage. After all, your homepage is probably your most visited page. A headline with a strong call to action (CTA) at the very top of the page is a good place to start. Now, “strong” doesn’t necessarily mean you have to write something witty or smart. Something as simple as “Start Your Free Trial” can be compelling. Keep the headline and the CTA in sync with the rest of the content, including the images that you are using. The idea is to catch your visitors’ attention immediately.
Heatmaps and other analytics tools can help judge whether your homepage is working. Compare your bounce rates and engagement rates against industry averages to gauge how your homepage is performing. If you are confident about the first page of your website, here are other proven lead generation tactics that can work for businesses of all sizes.
Four Website Lead Generation Tactics
You have probably read this a hundred times before, but it still deserves reiteration: A/B test important elements of your webpages. For a dedicated landing page, that would primarily mean your CTA and corresponding images. Sometimes, changing the color of your CTA button can yield remarkable results. Together with A/B testing, here are four lead generation tactics to consider:
Opt-In Forms and Gated Content
Gated content is content that you offer to your visitors in exchange for them identifying themselves. A common example of gated content is an opt-in form that lets users start a free trial.
To fully utilize the power of gated content, see what pages of your website are getting the most amount of traffic. Offer something of value to visitors on these pages in return for their contact information. E-books or whitepapers are another example of gated content that you can offer to visitors. Let’s say you are a SaaS company. Using traffic analysis, you figure out that your products page is one of your most popular pages. Treat your products page as a landing page. Break it up into logical sections, highlight the best features of your product, and include a compelling CTA. Plutio’s landing page is a good example of this. The project management SaaS platform has highlighted its core features in separate sections, complete with images and unique CTAs.
If you have gated content that follows a blog post, make sure the blog post has enough valuable information for readers to part with their contact information. And keep your opt-in forms as short as possible. Usually, a visitor’s name and email address should suffice. However, if your lead generation strategy dictates you need more information, use APIs to auto-populate fields. For example, in the B2B space, you can ask visitors to log in with LinkedIn to access gated content.
Chatbots for Engagement
Live chat on your website can be a valuable lead generation tool. The idea with chatbots is to help users find information when they need it the most. Once you have helped your site visitor, you can configure the bot to leverage the engagement for an opt-in.
The key is to build a chatbot that’s as conversational and as human as possible. There are companies that allow you to build custom chatbots for your website. A good example of a chatbot that’s geared for lead generation is one that answers visitors’ questions before pushing a sales message.
For example, instead of directly pushing a sales message, the Bot Lab’s chatbot asks visitors what they are looking for and provides quick links to tips for increasing conversion rate, real-world success stories or an option to chat with someone. Even the language used by the bot is very human. For instance, consider this: I ask the bot to speak to someone and here’s the message I received: “Just jumping in here — looks like a Superuser isn’t available right now. You can schedule some time to chat with them here, or just leave a message and I’ll make sure they get it. I’ll send you a meeting invite. What’s your email address?” It sounds very human, doesn’t it?
SEO
Google processes more than 3 billion searches every day. Translation: People rely on search engines to find the information they are looking for.
However, if you are still relying on SEO tactics from 2010, you are bound to fail. Keyword-stuffed pages no longer work. Instead, focus on quality, relevant content that’s updated regularly. Additionally, create evergreen content that can make it to Google’s Knowledge Box.
Earn those backlinks organically instead of relying on spammy sites to hack your way through it. Equally important are the keywords you are targeting. Keep a mix of high-ranking keywords and long-tail keywords. That is just the tip of the iceberg, albeit an important one. The subject of SEO demands an entire article of its own.
A Referral System for Building Leads
Use your existing customers to find new potential customers. For example, Shady Rays asks customers for a friend’s email address in exchange for a $15 discount. The caveat here is that such a referral system might result in a lot of low-quality leads. Thus, you should keep a close eye on the KPIs to see if a referral strategy works for your business.
Of Course, Optimization Is Key
Whatever lead generation strategies you are employing, every step of the strategy should be optimized. Create user personas, provide value and align everything with your visitors’ objectives. What do you want people to do when they land on your site?