This is part 5 of an 8 part series.
So, what have you done so far?
- Started your blog
- Applied SEO to your website
- Got started in social media
- Began promoting your content via social media
If you have been at this for a few weeks, your traffic numbers should already be on the rise. You have a growing number of people visiting your website every day.
Yet you still have a problem. Your new traffic is not generating any business. Why go to all that effort to have no increase in sales? Take heart, the process is not done yet. You have set the stage to take the next step: converting website traffic into quality leads.
All that traffic is poised to enter your sales funnel. Now you will start moving those visitors further into the sales funnel by converting them to leads.
How Do You Convert Traffic to Leads?
1. Create a compelling offering
2. Launch a landing page where visitors will give their information in exchange for the offering and don’t forget to say “Thanks”
3. Create a call-to-action to promote the offering
4. Test and Measure the results and repeat.
Step #1 - Choosing the Compelling Offer
Your offering is what will draw people to your website - the visitors. It must speak to your target audience and give them a reason to fill out the form to get access to that prime offering. If you are a vegetable gardening expert, you want to create an offer that will attract someone who wants to grow their own vegetable garden, even if it is for the first time.
You can use product-focused offers as well as content-based offers. You might offer a free consultation, a 30-day trial, or a live demonstration of your product. Use your imagination. You may come up with a unique offering that no one else has used in your industry. If you think it will work for your target audience, try it.
Anything you offer is designed to start a conversation with your target audience. Whether you are the only salesperson or if you have a full sales staff, these offers will get the conversation started so you can lead that prospect into becoming a paying customer.
Step #2 - Create a Landing Page and Download/Thank You Page
In order to give people the opportunity to sign up for your offering, you need a landing page. This is where your various calls-to-action will take visitors. Having a call-to-action with no place to take action is a mistake made by many. It will frustrate visitors and make them go elsewhere.
Your landing page will contain two elements: a description of the offering and the form where visitors fill out information before gaining access to the offering.
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Offering Description - The description should offer a concise list of bullet points about the benefits the offering provides. Integrating graphics into this description is also good. Use clear language with what you are offering: "Download the whitepaper here" or "Get your copy of the eBook here."
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Visitor Form - The information you ask for on the form is what you will use for sales and marketing purposes. Do not ask for too much information as this can turn away people who do not want to become spam victims. Get the information you need to start the sales conversion process. You can gather more information later in the sales process if needed. Many start with name and email address.
As soon as the visitor gives the basic information, immediately redirect them to a thank-you page where they can download the offering.
Not all leads are the same. In the future, you can start filtering out leads for quality. At this point, getting leads in the pipeline is the goal.
Step #3 - Creating Calls-to-Action
You have your offering and a page where people can sign-up to download it. You are ready to start integrating calls-to-action to direct people to the offering.
A call-to-action is a button or link that grabs the user's attention and takes that person to the landing page. You can use many types of calls-to-action throughout your website, in email, on blog posts, inside offers, and in any other marketing efforts you send in a campaign.
The call-to-action and landing page need to align in message and look. If your CTA offers "Download this industry leading whitepaper about X," your landing page needs the same message. If you change the landing page message to "Get this eBook about Y," you have lost your audience. If you are using a graphic element in your call-to-action (button, image, etc.), be sure that look is also present on the landing page. Make sure your message tell the benefits of your offering.
When creating a CTA, make sure it links properly to your landing page. Check it several times before publishing it so your visitors do not get confused or lost. With compelling calls-to-action, you will start seeing leads signing up.
Step #4 - Test and Measure Results
To get an exact measure of your conversion efforts, you need to look at a few critical marketing metrics on the basic elements in your conversion process: calls-to-action, landing pages, and offerings.
Here are the metrics to watch:
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Click-through rate (CTR) on the calls-to-action - You may have two or three different CTAs for a single landing page. You may find that one of those CTAs stands out for pulling people in while the others are only mediocre. This allows you to focus your efforts on the CTAs that work with your audience. -
Conversion rate of the landing page - Your CTAs bring them to the landing page. How many of those people are taking the next step to fill out the form and become a lead? You can offer more than one landing page. Measure which one of the landing pages has the better conversion rates.
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Number of new leads and sales from a particular offering - Your landing pages and CTAs are bringing in leads to a particular offering. Once you offer more than one offering, you can begin to measure and compare which offering is drawing the largest number of leads.
These metrics give you an idea of what is successful and what is not in your conversion process.
To find what is working best, you have to test different CTAs, landing pages, and offers. Make changes every three to four weeks to your CTAs and see if it improves your numbers. Add a different offering every couple of months and see which one gets the most leads. Test different versions of landing pages. Keep a copy of the older ones, you can always switch back if the new version doesn't work.
In a few months, you will begin to get a good idea of what your audience likes in the conversion process and what they do not. But, do not stop experimenting. You can continue to get those numbers to climb.
Also Read:
Step 1: Create A Keyword Strategy
Step 2: Optimize Your Website To Get Found
Step 3: Create A Blog & Marketing Offers
Step 4: Promote Content Through Social Media
Don't want to wait for the rest of the steps? Download The 8 Essential Steps to Successful Internet Marketing eBook now.
