- Is your website working hard enough to capture and convert leads? There are always ways to improve, and this guide explores some of them.
- Aaron Haynes, CEO and co-founder of SEO fulfilment company Loganix, provides 6 ways to grab and keep your users’ attention.
- From publishing case studies to rewriting your call-to-action links, many improvements can be made quickly and easily.
Written by Aaron Haynes, CEO and co-founder of Loganix, an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals.
Even if you’re able to generate a lot of leads for your business, you’ll usually need to do more work to turn those into sales. So, you need to have measures in place to ensure you truly grab and keep the attention of people who visit your website to find out more about what you’re selling.
In this article, we will take a look at six steps you can take to optimize your website, so you’re able to capture more and better leads for your business.
1. Publish case studies that show off your skills
To make more sales, you need to earn your prospective customers’ trust, and the best way to do this is by showing them what you’ve already done. Publishing case studies is ideal for this because they help you show the results you’ve achieved and also allow you to share the thoughts of your previous customers.
To publish high-quality case studies that will secure more sales, make sure that you highlight the important aspects of your journey with previous clients. You need to outline the client’s challenges, the solutions you offered, and the client’s results. Doing this will help your prospects see that you are capable of achieving the same results for them.
Let’s take a look at a website that knows how to publish case studies that show off its skills.
Drift is a conversational AI platform that helps businesses to engage in personalized conversations with their customers. On their website, they make it a habit to publish customer stories that showcase how they’ve helped clients achieve great results. For instance, one of their customer stories shows how they helped Skillsoft create a superior experience for prospects. In the case study, they outline the challenges Skillsoft was facing, as well as the goals and objectives it wanted to achieve.
They also highlight the solutions offered by Drift and the results from implementing these solutions, like a 200+ increase in meetings booked. They also saw a 70% increase in the number of prospects who went from being a marketing qualified lead (MQL) to a sales qualified lead (SQL). Using case studies is an excellent way for Drift to show off their skills and success stories, and it’s something you can also do for your website if you want to capture more leads.
2. Use content to position yourself as an expert
Showing off your expertise and building authority in your field will be great for your SEO and earning customers’ trust. And there are several types of content you can create to do this. For example, you could create ultimate guides that allow you to educate your audience on a specific topic, or how-to guides that include step-by-step instructions for performing a particular task.
You can also provide webinars, which are online workshops or video presentations you can use to teach your audience or share ideas with them.
Lastly, you could try to provide blog posts that can shed more light on news and events occurring in your industry. And if your company regularly sends out email newsletters to customers, you can even include links to these relevant and helpful blog posts to show your expertise.
Let’s study an example of a company that does a great job of establishing authority in its field using industry news content.
3. Make the most of your website’s homepage
Many companies focus on optimizing their service or product pages, but neglect to use the same strategies for their homepages. However, this is often the page people will land on first, so you need to focus on getting it right.
One thing you need to do on your homepage is to make sure it’s as easy as possible for people to take the next step. You can do this by providing a sophisticated search tool or pointing people in the right direction with a strong call-to-action (CTA). You should also try to provide multiple contact options to make it easier for people to reach you if they have any questions or concerns.
Now let’s look at a website that has implemented some tactics to make sure it’s getting the most out of its homepage.
Sleeknote is a lead generation tool that helps businesses create engaging pop-ups that can turn website visitors into customers. On their homepage, you’ll find that they’ve made it very easy for people to get in touch if they have any questions or concerns.
They’ve highlighted their contact number so prospects can give them a call, and they’ve also created a chatbot — or Sleekbot, in this case — that can help connect new or returning visitors to their customer service team.
These tactics play a part in making sure that people aren’t left idle on their homepage and also improve their chances of getting more sales. You should also try to create multiple contact options for your website so your visitors have an easy way to reach you in case they need more information that would help them convert.
4. Use strong calls-to-action to move people through your sales funnel
If you want to turn website visitors into sales, you’ll want to harness the power of strong CTAs that can guide visitors towards the next action they should take on your site. To create strong CTAs, make sure you’re using command verbs like “subscribe,” “get,” or any verb that tells people exactly what to do on your site.
Also, you should try using your CTAs to create a fear of missing out (FOMO) in your prospects, so they’re motivated to buy your products or services. Lastly, go for bright and bold colors when designing your CTA buttons to make sure they stand out from the rest of your website.
To give you some inspiration, let’s take a look at a website that uses strong CTAs to move people through its sales funnel.
Evernote is a note-taking application that allows people to capture and store their ideas where they won’t lose them. Looking at their website, you’ll find that they use a bright green color to make their CTAs stand out from the rest of the elements on the page. They also use strong text telling people to try their tool for free, which can help them attract people who might not yet feel confident about spending their money.
By using these tactics to create strong calls-to-action, they do a great job of moving people into their sales funnel so they can nurture and convert leads into customers. You can also emulate what they’ve done by using bright colors for your calls-to-actions and strong CTA copy that will incentivize your prospects.
5. Display reviews from your past customers
People tend to trust word-of-mouth recommendations over marketing, so it’s a good idea to ask your customers for reviews or testimonials you can publish on your website. These will show that you’ve done a great job in the past and will generate more leads for your business.
You can ask customers for testimonials by sending them emails to ask for feedback on how they liked your products or services. You could also send people an email that includes a link to your profile on popular review sites like Yelp or Trustpilot so they can leave a review for your brand.
To give you some practical examples, let’s take a look at how different companies have chosen to display reviews on their websites.
A Gift Personalized is an online store that sells custom and personalized gifts. On their homepage, they have a section where they display ratings and reviews from previous customers. This shows the positive comments from people who have bought products from their store, and it can encourage future prospects to buy from the website.
They also display individual ratings for each of their products, and this can help website visitors decide what to buy. It’s a great example of how you can use reviews to convert more website visitors into customers, and you should consider doing the same on your website.
My Visa Source is an immigration law firm and, to show how credible they are, they’ve included customer testimonials on their website. On their homepage, they have a review from a client who expresses how thankful she is to the company for helping with her case. It’s a great technique that can help them turn more visitors into clients, and it can also help convince prospective customers who might have been nervous about using the company’s services.
These two are great examples of how you can display reviews on your website. You could also consider adding headshots of your customers alongside their names, as this will lend credibility to your reviews.
6. Help customers make informed purchases with valuable content
People at different stages of the buying journey will have different needs, so you need to create content with this in mind. For example, some people might not even know your services exist (and that they need them), while others might just be weighing up their options before making a purchase.
There are three main stages of the buyer journey — awareness, consideration, and decision — and you can use different kinds of content for each of them. For the awareness stage, you should create content like infographics and blog posts to introduce people to your brand and what you do. And, for the consideration stage, you could provide comparison pieces or buying guides that can help your prospects compare various options available to them.
Lastly, the decision stage is where a buyer is ready to make a purchase, and they’ll want to see case studies or testimonials that can convince them to buy from you.
For inspiration, let’s take a look at an example of web content that has been designed to target people at the consideration stage of the sales funnel.
Mailchimp is an email marketing platform for small businesses. On their blog, they have a post that works well for prospective customers who are in the consideration stage. The post compares Sendinblue vs. Mailchimp, and it gives all the necessary information that people could need to decide what marketing platform to choose. It can also help Mailchimp capture more leads when people see how good their product is compared to another tool.
You can also create comparison posts to help your prospects in the consideration stage, but make sure that you’re using an unbiased and neutral tone so you can help your audience make informed choices without a hard sell.
Summary
To recap, we’ve looked at six tips that will help you capture more leads with your website. They include publishing case studies to show off your skills, using strong calls-to-action, and displaying reviews from past customers. And the great thing about these tips is that you can use them whether you are just starting your business or have already invested a number of years in it.
If you can get started with these, it won’t be long before you begin to see an increase in the quality and quantity of sales you’re getting for your business.
Aaron Haynes is CEO and co-founder of Loganix. The company is an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals, which provides the services businesses need to improve their online visibility and grow. If you liked this article, check out the Loganix blog, where you’ll find more SEO guides full of expert advice.
