Winning a battle generally requires a good strategy. And the battle for more leads is no exception.
Sure, you may be able to luck out for a little while if you don’t have a strong online strategy. But that won’t last forever. The only way to consistently generate leads online is to work at it like you would any other part of your business.
Sounds like it could be time-consuming though, right? Well, it doesn’t have to be a huge pain. Just follow these seven strategies and you’ll be well on your way.
1. Figure Out Where You’re At Now
It’s going to be tough to measure a change if you don’t know where you started from. If you’re going on a diet, you need to have a starting weight to measure your progress against.
It’s the same with lead generation. Your first move should be to run internal reports on your site. You can evaluate the traffic that your landing pages are getting. And you can also check out how your calls to action are doing.
You also may want to invest in an SEO audit or other evaluation tools that tell you where you currently are.
2. Use Personalized Calls To Action
Calls to action are necessary, and they can be great for generating leads online. If you can get visitors to follow through, however. Personalizing those calls to action is your best bet for creating that follow through.
If you have an email sign-up system in place, use that to “welcome back” returning customers. Show them products and images that are based on their past searches.
Basically, make sure that there is something in the call to action that they know is meant just for them.
3. Start A Blog
Starting a blog is an excellent way to generate more leads online. For one thing, it provides value to potential customers, giving them a reason to come to the site.
But it can also lead to more people finding their way to your site through a Google search for something similar. The idea is that you write about topics in your sector or industry. These should be topics that you think are interesting, or you have some special knowledge about.
There are likely a large number of people who are interested in the same things. You want your blog post to pop up on Google’s first page when they search for that topic.
The next step is making sure that your posts actually do make it to that first page. Using the right keywords will help.
4. Optimize For Keywords
Building strong SEO and generating more leads online both start with keywords. Use keyword tools to identify keywords that are relevant to your customers. You want to look for keywords that have a high search volume, but low competition.
Use these keywords both in your blogs and on the pages on your site. But remember that there can be too much of a good thing. Keyword stuffing will actually hurt your SEO efforts.
Find the right keywords and work them into your site and your blog posts naturally. This will draw more traffic to your site and help you generate more leads online.
5. Kickback Emails
Let’s say that someone has just given you their contact information on your site. Now they’re on your email list, that’s great!
This should lead to what’s known as a kickback email. You may not have heard of this term before, but it’s really just a thank you email.
It can also include a very specific and personalized offer along with the thank you. It should use the customer’s first name, or offer a deal on their first purchase. Something that makes them feel valued.
Kickback emails are great for driving engagement. As an automatic response, it doesn’t take much effort on your end. But it does have an effect on your new leads who are getting the email.
6. External Linking For More Leads Online
Have you noticed that many articles and blog posts are dotted with links to other sites? This isn’t an accident. These links are an important part of growing SEO and generating leads.
When you link out to another site, you’re basically giving them a vote of confidence. And when another site links to yours–say, to a blog post–it’s a vote of confidence for your site. And Google’s algorithms will take note of that when ranking your site.
Getting external links from other sites may seem difficult, but there are a couple ways to go about it. The most important step is to have something worth linking to. This is another reason why having a blog is a good idea.
If you have valuable information on your blog, other people are much more likely to link to it. But you can also find other businesses that may complement your own. Take, for example, real estate agents and moving companies.
They don’t compete, but they do work in the same sector, and they serve the same customers. Reach out to other businesses and see if you can’t help each other out.
7. Always Be Testing
At the beginning of this post, I told you to find out where your lead generation is now. This last strategy is similar in nature. You have to know if what you’re doing is working.
That’s why you should be consistently testing different parts of your site for effectiveness. Calls to action, page layouts, and images can all be tweaked and changed if need be.
But you have to know that there’s a need. A/B testing on these elements of your site will help you understand if you need to make these changes. It could be as simple as changing the wording in a call to action. Or it could be a larger change to the overall site design.
The point is that you won’t know what decision to make unless you regularly test your site.
Wrapping Up
Generating more leads doesn’t have to be a huge hassle. If you’re looking for more leads and don’t feel comfortable going it alone, then contact me today to learn more.