5 Tips to Optimize Your Company Website for Lead Generation Plug the leaks and you will see your conversions grow.
By Vinil Ramdev
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Lead generation is a strong pillar in online marketing. It is the core of any online marketing effort. Great marketers are always looking to generate leads, and convert them into paying customers.
Websites should be strategically optimized for lead generation. This is the act of making sure that everything on your site is geared towards forcing customers through your sales funnel towards the ultimate goal of making a sale.
It's easier than you think to make this happen, and this guide is going to show you how to go about optimizing your site for leads.
Understand Your Current State
You need to understand where you currently are on the lead generation front before you go any further. Track your successes and failures to find out what you are doing right and where you could improve. There are plenty of grading tools you can find via a quick Google search.
These tools will rank your website based on the lead generation sources you already have, such as calls to action and the number of landing pages.
Optimize Via Steps
If someone searched for an Australian politics Google infographic and found a similar infographic or blog post on your site, this content shouldn't then include a link to something different like US politics. Everything on that page should be dedicated to one topic.
Once a visitor hits your page, you can begin measuring the path they take to an actual conversion. This could be going from a blog, to a product page, to a review page, and then finally to the purchasing page. This is known as a conversion path. Make sure you optimize based on the steps they are following.
Grade every page and make sure there are no leaks. In this case, leaks are referring to items that could send someone to another page unrelated to this one. Your conversion path should be a closed tunnel.
Personalized Calls to Action
Dynamic content is content that adjusts based on who happens to be viewing it at the time. Your system uses the available information on that customer in order to create a unique experience for them. It's like with Google and the fact that two different people receive entirely different search results.
Include personalized calls to action because they have a higher conversion rate. What this shows is that dynamic content works.
There are plenty of tools available that can help you create dynamic content for your site.
Testing is King
You will not find any shortcuts in this process. "Comprehensive A/B testing is absolutely everything and there's no getting around this," says Kyle Sanders, Head of Search at Complete Web Resources. "You need to split test everything you do in order to see how it impacts your click rates. This is not something you can predict because even the most unexpected things can have hugely positive effects."
Everything should be tested and this has to be an on-going process. Only by constantly trying out new things are you going to stumble upon a formula that actually works.
And even when you do find something that works, you should continue to test because what works now likely will not work three months from now. The modern business world is continually changing and you can't rely on one success to carry you forward forever.
Split testing is simple and anyone can do it. All you have to do is run two almost identical features or pages at the same time and see which one comes out on top.
Nurturing Your Leads into Customers
Sending regular follow-up mails and building a strong relationship with your customer will allow you to turn mere leads into customers. It's not just about optimizing your website; it is about optimizing your entire business. Keep giving your customers what they want and you'll increase your probability of turning those leads into sales.
Again, this is another part of your business that you need to continue to split test. Continue to test till you get the desired results.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website for leads is about making it a closed tunnel. Understand your conversion path, and guide customers through it. Don't give them the chance to jump onto something else. Plug the leaks and you will see your conversions grow.