Foundation First - Why Your Website and Content Matters - David Pisarek
20 Surefire Ways to Generate More Qualified Leads
1.
2. MAKE SURE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION IS
CLEARLY STATED ON YOUR HOMEPAGE.
How are you different from your competitors? What value can you provide your
customers? What objections might your prospects have that you can address?
Underneath your value proposition should be a clear call-to-action (CTA).
3. CONTINUALLY ASK YOUR
CUSTOMERS FOR FEEDBACK.
Figure out their pain points and what they are looking for.
When analyzing results, determine any patterns or commonalities.
Then, aim to solve those problems.
5. ...BUT AT THE SAME TIME,
DON’T ELIMINATE FIELDS
just for the sake of capturing leads. Keeping the “Job Title”
field on there, for instance, may decrease the number of
leads you get but will increase the quality of leads. And
better to have a small number of high-quality leads than
a large number of ineffectual leads.
Test to see what fields result in the highest number of
high-quality leads.
6. USE SOCIAL PROOF TO WIN OVER LEADS.
Brag to your prospects—maybe even tell them the percentage of people who have used
(or continue to use) and have been happy with your product or service. Testimonials and
reviews can also help boost your credibility, thereby increasing conversions.
7. CHANGING YOUR CTA FROM A
TEXT LINK TO A BUTTON
can increase conversions by as much as 28%. Just make sure that
the button is a color that stands out from the background.
8. ENGAGE IN CONVERSATION
on websites like Reddit and Quora. Provide helpful answers and
establish yourself as an expert on a certain topic—or several topics.
9. Use generous white space and concise copy, and make sure that
everything on your site is easy to find and all calls-to-action
are prominently placed.
CREATE A WEBSITE EXPERIENCE
THAT DELIGHTS YOUR VISITORS.
10. POP-UP OPT-INS ARE UNDOUBTEDLY
MORE EFFECTIVE THAN SIDEBAR OPT-INS
1,375% more effective to be exact. Add pop-up opt-ins to your website, but be
sure to time them appropriately so they pop up at just the right time.
Use exit-intent technology to sense when visitors are about to leave your
website. Or have the pop-ups show up after visitors have finished reading
your blog post or have been browsing your site for a few minutes.
11. WHENEVER YOU ASK FOR
AN EMAIL ADDRESS,
provide something in exchange, like an e-book or access to an
exclusive webinar. By providing your lead with something of
value, you’re more likely to be rewarded with their email address.
12. THE COPY AND KEYWORDS
USED IN YOUR GOOGLE ADWORDS SHOULD
BE SPECIFIC AND HIGHLY TARGETED.
Using generic keywords might send you leads but they are not likely to be highly
qualified leads. And since you are paying for each click, getting unqualified leads
to your site will only result in wasted money.
13. ENCOURAGE ALL NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
TO REFER A FRIEND TO YOUR BUSINESS.
Provide each recipient with a unique referral link, which they can share with people.
Then, for each new lead they get you, offer them something in return, such as entry into an
exclusive contest or a discount on your product or service.
14. GATED CONTENT, WHICH IS LONGER-FORM
CONTENT THAT REQUIRES USERS
to submit their contact information in exchange for access, can be very effective in
generating high quality leads. Requiring that extra step will eliminate low-quality
leads and help ensure that the leads you do capture are really interested and
more likely to purchase down the line.
15. GET ENGAGED IN CONVERSATION
ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
Search for topics on Twitter that relate to your niche, and then get
involved in the conversations. Answer questions that people are
posing and provide them with suggestions.
16. RUN A CONTEST, BUT MAKE SURE
THAT THE PRIZE RELATES DIRECTLY
TO YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
If your prize appeals to everyone (like a free car, for example), you can
expect to attract low-quality leads, the majority of which probably won’t
have any serious interest in your product or service.
On the other hand, if you sell beauty products and give away some of those
beauty products as the prize, you are going to appeal to qualified leads or
people who would be interested in your product anyway. And on that note…
17. CREATE QUIZZES THAT ARE
CLOSELY RELATED TO YOUR BRAND,
and then send the results only once you have captured the user’s email address.
Again, the key here is to make sure that the quiz content is relevant and relates
directly to your product or service.
An added bonus is that you can use the quiz results to better understand your leads
and create subsequent content that is more tailored to them.
18. BUZZSUMO, WHICH IS A SITE THAT
SHOWS THE MOST POPULAR CONTENT
for any topic, might just become your new best friend. Once you determine
what people actually want to read about, you can use that information to
then create new, related content.
19. PROMOTE YOUR TWEETS.
And within the promoted tweet, link to your landing page that relates to the tweet.
20. HOST A GOOGLE HANGOUT SESSION
REVOLVING AROUND A PARTICULAR THEME,
be it a product demo or an industry-related discussion. Record the session and
then post it to Youtube.
Also, be sure to connect with each partaker afterwards to thank them for
participating—and suggest related content that might be of interest to them.
21. USE SLIDESHARE AND LINK
TO YOUR LANDING PAGE IN EITHER
the description, your profile or in the presentation itself. SlideShare gets over
60 million visitors per month, so can be an invaluable source of leads.