9 Ways to Ramp Up Your Lead Generation

Lead generation is one of the primary functions of your company’s website. When done well, producing and nurturing online leads can trigger transformational growth in your business.

Conversely, when little effort is given to ongoing lead generation, companies can see their sales dry up, causing them to join the multitudes of other failed businesses in the scrapheap of history.

Here are 9 (easy) changes that’ll make a big difference for your company’s lead generation efforts.

Turbocharge Your Calls to Action

Effective calls to action are critical to the lead generation process. Calls to action are the portal for a visitor to convert to a lead. They should be brief, direct and compelling.

1. Positioning (Within Pages)

People have argued back and forth for years about whether it’s better to place CTAs at the top, middle or bottom of pages.
Turns out, it’s a little more simple than that.

The best place to plop a CTA is where a reader has the most interest in clicking it. If you just put a “subscribe” button at the top of your site’s blog, how many new readers would click it?

Not many. But at the bottom of a post? Now we’re cooking. Here, any readers who might be interested in subscribing for more content can and will.

2. Positioning (Within Your Site)

There’s no “one CTA to rule them all.” You might have different products, different goals, and different CTAs. What works to snag email subscriptions probably won’t work as well for online consultations or direct eBook downloads.

Place the right CTA in the right place to strategically convert users at every point in the browsing experience.

You do this by analyzing visitor flow, and looking for ways to streamline their browsing and buying process.

Again, Google Analytics is a great tool to get a feel for how your site users behave.

3. Formatting

Zzzzz…sorry, but formatting and design are crucial for online conversions.

Your CTA walks a fine line between boldly standing out and fitting in with the rest of your site’s color scheme and design philosophy. The CTA itself also can’t look “salesy” or boring.

Don’t be afraid to take up a ton of real estate for your CTA, either. Remember, this is your money-maker. You wouldn’t hide the cash registers at a physical store, would you?

We more than tripled MEGA LED’s conversions in under 4 months with this simple CTA.

Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse

Offers are straightforward, but that simplicity disguises the fact that many companies are clueless when it comes to making enticing offers.

4. Create the Right Offer

Creating the right offer means creating an irresistible proposition for your target audience.

Developing a compelling hook is essential if you expect visitors to interact with you. Downloadable content gives the visitor a reason to trust you and sets yourself up as the authority.

Writing high quality eBooks, guides, white papers or other helpful tools will give your website the leverage it needs to win over visitors and convert them into leads.

5. Give Away Your Secrets, But Not All of Them

There’s an Indian folk story about a young wrestling student who learned 1,000 of his master’s 1,001 secret moves, and brashly challenged the old man to a public match.

Of course, the wise master soundly stomped the young buck using his trump card—that last trade secret he’d protected for his entire life.

Your offers have to contain information that is both as unique as possible and useful. Be too vague and no one will waste time reading your content. But don’t tell your readers everything, otherwise they don’t need you for anything

6. Match Your Buyer’s Enthusiasm

You’re not going to offer the same product or information to longtime readers of your blog that you would to new recruits.

For example, a company that sells swimming pools might offer an informational eBook on pool care and maintenance to new subscribers, but could also provide in-depth buying guides to people who’ve repeatedly expressed interest or are already deeper in their sales funnel.

Craft unique offers for your prospects to insert at each and every point in the buying process—some people are ready to jump in feet-first, but other leads need nurturing until they’re ready to swim in the deep end.

Lead Nurturing 101

Nurturing leads means prospecting out in the wilderness, then refining those prospects into potential buyers. One of the easiest ways we nurture leads (because it’s damn near automated) is with email campaigns.

7. Nail the Subject Line

The subject line is your email’s headline, and we all know X% or Y/Z readers ONLY read the headline.

Writing email subject lines is very similar to creating potent blog headlines.

Above all else, your headline has to tease the potential of some great benefit to your reader, or the whole email is getting tossed in the trash.

8. Keep It Simple

Do you appreciate weekly novels in your email inbox from companies you barely know?

Nobody does.

Keep your emails extremely concise and potent. Don’t push for the sale too hard in the initial stages of your drip campaign. Always include some real information the reader can use, and link it back to your site if they want to learn more.

9. Get In, Make Your Offer, Get Out of the Way

Get out of the way!

When you do make your offer, it doesn’t need a lengthy anecdote or piles of stats or a collage of funny pet pictures as an introduction.

Emails are one of the most brief communication tools we use with potential customers, and your offer needs to get out of its own way to see any success.

Save the extra bits for blog posts or newsletters. Your offer is just an offer.

Focus on Results

If you have room for improvement in any of these areas make a plan now to get the changes made as soon as possible.

Conversions are the key to online growth, and these guidelines are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nurturing baby leads until they grow up into big, healthy sales.

Baby steps first.