You've got a website, now what? It's important to make sure that your website is user-friendly so I suggest viewing it from a visitor's point of view. If this is too difficult for you to do, have an assistant or friend view it for you. The purpose of your website is to market your product or service and generate sales. Your website can't generate leads if it's not set up to do so.
Here are 10 steps to ensure your website is set up to generate leads.
1. Establish credibility
Start building a relationship with your online visitors. Having a website doesn't mean you don't need to interact with your customers. A bland headline like "Welcome to our Website" will surely turn visitors away because it's generic. However, saying "you've come to the right place" encourages visitors to stay on your website, browse, and click a link. First impressions are everything.
2. Respond to inquiries quickly
No matter how you receive business inquiries, always reply promptly to them. The ideal time to reply to an inquiry is within 1 hour. This allows you to build confidence and trust with your visitor and allows you to generate the lead before the visitor changes their mind.
3. Give Facts, Promote Benefits
Supply your web visitors with detailed descriptions of your services or products and create a FAQs page to answer the most commonly asked questions and answers. Look for emotional connections that will reveal the benefits of your product or service to visitors.
4. Be informative during each phase of the buying cycle
There are a number of steps during the buying cycle and it's important to provide customers with information at every turn. If someone is in the research phase of this cycle, be their resource and tell them what they need to know before making a purchase. Offer tutorials and how-to videos. Encourage them to sign up for your e-newsletter.
5. Pricing
Be as precise with pricing as possible. When people are shopping for products or services, they have a budget in mind. While consumers know that a final, absolute price won't be on your website, they do expect to see price ranges. These price ranges will help them determine if your product or service will meet their budgetary constraints. If you sell a tangible item, be sure to have your prices clearly marked with each item to eliminate any confusion. If you sell intangible items, be sure to list the low end and high end price points.
6. Show off your staff
Be sure to include photographs of the people who work in your physical location. Placing photos of real people on your website, perhaps on the About Us page, will create a friendly online environment. Your visitors will know that actual people are involved and this helps to create a face for your company. Another idea is to have a short video from a key person, such as CEO or President of the company. This video could serve as an introduction to the website and company and briefly explain how the website works with visitors.
7. Making contacting you easy
Many websites make visitors search for their contact information. I've even seen some that don't have it listed at all. Be sure that your contact information is visible. Your phone number should be prominent on every page of your website. Include all of your contact information in the footer of your website. This information will carry over to each page of your website.
8. Make call-to-actions obvious
As soon as a visitor logs on to your website, there should be an obvious call-to-action. This could be a suggestion that visitors call you for a free consultation, tell a friend, sign up for your weekly newsletter, etc. You don't want many distractions around your call-to-action item. Remove all unnecessary wording, graphics, image, and button.
9. Link call-to-action with a benefit
At the end of your form, replace the word "Submit" with something more catchy. Think like a consumer at this point. What is the benefit of clicking submit? Consumers are all about what's in it for them. Pair your call-to-actions with a benefit so you both win.
10. Keep your forms simple
Your forms should only contain exactly what's need to contact the prospect. With that being said, you only need to get their contact information. If you don't need it to contact them, don't ask for it. Your forms should have an auto responder so prospects are notified that their response was received by you. Be sure to ask prospects how they would like to be contacted; by email or phone.
Lead generation doesn't have to be daunting. I hear so many people groan about generating leads and it's because their website isn't doing it for them. Put your website to work and get a bigger return on your investment.
Bobbi Dust is a virtual assistant and creator of Your Last Executive Assistant blog. To stay updated on time management, organizational, and productivity tips in a virtual world, visit http://lastexecassistant.blogspot.com/.
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