Can a B2B company really generate new business leads through their website? Absolutely! Your website has the potential to generate massive amounts of new business, but you have to unlock that potential. Because your website is always available, it has the potential to be your top sales person. Want to know how to generate leads from your website? Sometimes it’s helpful to know what not to do. SO let’s look at some of the most important 6 reasons why a website is not generating leads.
- Lack of Visibility
Perhaps the most common reason websites don’t generate leads is a lack of visibility, or lack of traffic. If your website doesn’t rank on page one of the search engines, Google and Bing for example, and you are not doing any kind of advertising to drive potential customers to your website, then your company is invisible. The only way people will find you or your website is if they know your company name or you hand them a business card. To generate leads from your website, you need to be visible and you need traffic. Just like sales is a numbers game, so is online lead generation.
The quickest way to generate traffic to your website is to use pay-per-click marketing. With pay-per-click marketing, ads for your company appear at the top of the search engines when customers enter keywords related to your business. When they click on your ad, you are charged a fee for the click. It is important to have a good mix of keywords. It is equally as important to work with someone who really understands the workings of pay-per-click marketing to manage your ad spend and work on adjusting your ads to increase your ROI.
The long-term strategy to drive traffic to your website is to hire a company to optimize your website for the search engines. This process, called search engine optimization, is not marketing. It does not generate leads by itself. But, when your website moves to page one, and ideally within one of the top three organic spots for terms people are using to find companies like yours, you will get traffic to your site without having to pay a monthly pay-per-click ad spend.
- Poor or insufficient content
You only have a few seconds to convert a site visitor into a customer—and even less time to make a good first impression. If the copy doesn’t resonate with the visitor, either in tone or content, they won’t feel like it was targeted to them. The impression made by vague details or poor spelling and grammar is even worse. Don’t let poorly written content drive away your most valuable leads.
When describing your product or service, talk about it as a solution to the problems prospects are facing. Mirror your market’s tone and style, and be as casual or as technical as they are. Edit and proofread your work before publishing, or hire someone to do it for you. When content resonates with people, they feel more engaged with the company and, as a result, are more likely to want to learn more.
- Missing Call-to-Action
A call to action is a button or graphic that ushers visitors towards making a further commitment to your brand, usually a landing page or conversion page. Some common examples are: Free trials, downloads, email subscription, tours, donations, etc…
A call to action is one of the quickest way to move visitors towards a conversion rate. Therefore, your CTA should be clear, eye-catching and prominent. Don’t bury your CTA button at the bottom of the page with a small font, Highlight it. Every click is a lead.
- Your website doesn’t have any landing pages or “conversion pages”.
Landing pages, or “conversion pages,” are the important one of a lead-generating website. Landing pages allow people to download whitepapers, guides, product catalogs, etc. from your website by providing some information in a lead form.
Want to learn to create these pages on your website? See, we will explain how to improve landing page performance.
Almost every lead that we see from our website or our clients’ websites come as the result of a landing page. Just putting a “contact us” link or form on your website isn’t enough. A landing page helps explain benefits, gives context and encourages your prospect to take action.
- Your website isn’t mobile friendly
Mobile traffic accounts for more than half of all internet traffic nowadays. Having a mobile-friendly page shouldn’t be an afterthought; it’s a necessity for business in the 21st century. Make it easy to view your site no matter what device someone is using. Because if they can’t view your site, they’ll visit someone else’s.
Another important point to consider: People convert differently based on device. For example, If you have a long form that you want people to fill out, desktop users might have no problem with the request, but many mobile users will immediately bounce from the page. To avoid losing these prospects, offer an option to email a link. It’s far easier for a person to give out an email, and follow up later, than it would be to fill out a 10-minute form on a smartphone.
- Lack of Attention
The biggest reason business websites don’t generate leads is because business owners don’t understand what is required to create a lead generating machine and they don’t give their website the attention that it needs. Just like building a home, building a website is part art, part science. Building a website that generates a steady stream of leads takes time, testing, and analysis.
Your website can be a powerful player in the success of your company, but as a business owner you need to understand that this is not the Field of Dreams. They will not come just because you build it. A website can be your best salesperson, but it needs to be nurtured and tended to.
Want to generate more leads with your website?
If lead generation is one of your marketing goals, it can be frustrating when you don’t get the results you want. But if your site has any of the issues above, it may be an easy fix.
At WebAppt, we have years of experience creating and managing successful lead generation strategies for our clients—and we’ll do the same for you! Contact us today to speak to a strategist.
