Generate more leads with your website

Matt B.No CommentsTips, Website design

 

Every business needs a website whether you run a small business or large enterprise.   One of the primary reasons you have a website designed and placed on the web is to advertise and generate more leads.   But, there is more to this process than “if you build it they will come.”

There are two pieces that need to come together for your website to generate more business for you:

  1. Traffic – People must visit your website for it to become an effective sales channel.
  2. Once people arrive at your site, you must engage them, establish trust, and provide them a compelling reason buy your product or service.

 

Generating Traffic

Getting your website in front of your target audience is key to converting web visits to customers.   Here are a few quick tips on how get people to your website.

  • Submit your site to Google and Bing –  If we design your website, we will do this for you.
  • Setup a Google Place Page – This is one of the most overlooked ways of boosting your chance at a top spot in Google’s search results.   When a business is setup as a Google Place,   your website has a better chance of being displayed on the map at the top of the results.
  • Optimize for keywords – Make sure your page title and headings contain keywords that potential customers might be searching for.   Don’t overdo it or search engines will penalize you.
  • Quality content – Create informative content.   Search engines are getting better and better at detecting the quality of content and factoring it into their search rankings.   Make sure your content is grammatically correct, spelled correctly, and relevant to what your customers are searching for.
  • Put your website address in your email signature
  • Get listed in relevant local business directories
  • Pay per click advertising –  Google, Bing, and Facebook all support pay per click advertising.   With this method of advertising you create an ad with one of these networks and choose relevant keywords and specify how much you will pay for each click on the ad.   You only pay for actual clicks.   Cost can range from pennies per click to a few dollars per click depending on how competitive the bidding is for your keywords.   Facebook allows you to advertise to very specific demographics based on age, interests, etc.
  • Send a regular newsletter to your customers –
    Creating a newsletter and including links to blog articles is a great way to get users to stay connected with your business and bring them back to your website.  Be careful though not to fill their inbox with only ads and your latest promotions or people will add you to their SPAM list.   Offer them informative and educational content that they will enjoy reading.
  • Start a blog – A blog is a great tool to help get you more exposure in the search engines.   Write quality content giving your customers educational information and you will establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Converting Traffic to Sales

Getting people to your website is only half of the equation.  The other half is engaging them to interact with you.   Here are a few tips to grab the attention of you audience:

  • Your website design should be clean and professional –  If your site looks ugly, is shoddy, or looks like an after thought many visitors will immediately leave the site (often with a few seconds).   A good website design must look like you made an effort to be professional.   Your website communicates the type of experience a customer can expect when they interact with you in person.   First impressions matter!
  • Use good headlines –  Good headlines entice the user to read more,  arouses their curiosity, and confirms that they arrived at the right place
  • Identify your customer’s problem and offer your solution – When writing content for your website, the first step should be to identify you customer’s pain points and tell them how you can help them.
  • Use clear call to actions –  A call to action encourages the user to take action based on what they have read.  For example,  links such as “Request a quote”,  “Call us now for a free quote”  are asking your visitor to take an action.
  • Establish trust and legitimacy –  The internet is full of fakes.  Prove to your visitors you are a real business, with real people.    A few ways to do this are:
    • Include professional photos of you and your staff with short biographies.
    • Include your physical address if possible.
    • Write genuine content and tell your story in a truthful, conversational, and transparent way .   Your content should reflect the personality of your business so people aren’t surprised when they meet with you or call you on the phone.
  • Use photos showing how your product or service makes people better off –  Again, these should reinforce a genuine emotional connection with your potential customer.   Just remember your product or service must live up to this inspired emotion to have a happy customer.
  • Offer a free resource – Offer a free resource to your visitors such as a free guide, white paper, or how-to article in exchange for joining your mailing list.   Mailing lists are invaluable in maintaining contact with potential customers until they are ready to make a purchase.