Your leads are only as good as the website that produces them. Fortunately, designing a landing page that’s built for leads doesn’t have to be overwhelming or time-consuming. By looking at examples of some of the best converting lead generation websites, you can learn precisely what works — and most importantly, why it works. The following steps are proven lead generation boosters that can not only increase conversions, but can also increase your site’s trust factor and authority.
1. Include a Contact Number
Adding a contact number to your website may seem counterintuitive, especially if you sell a digital product. Doing so however, increases consumer trust and lends credibility to your offer. Even if your customers don’t actually call, the presence of a phone number does bring them some comfort.
One lead generation site for a Los Angeles dentist actually incorporated its phone number as part of its domain name (4getpain.com) and marketing strategy:
2. Post Forms on Every Page
Having easy access to the actual lead generation form is paramount to increasing the number of viable leads through your website. The less information they ask for, particularly on the first step, the more likely people will be to part with their valuable personal details.
Notice how the example below for Allied Van Lines incorporates the phone number, but also asks for a minimum of information from its frequent form. Customers filling out this form are also more likely to do so because they did not have to give out personal information on the first step.
3. Add Photos and Testimonials For Greater Credibility
Testimonials can be a powerful marketing tool, but adding photos or even rich media such as video or audio can take them a step further. While the rich media versions may be too bandwidth-heavy for lead generation websites, solid testimonials can have a powerful impact and lend support to your offer.
The accounting software Free Agent uses testimonials coupled with black-and-white photos, and large turnouts quotes to greet effect on its pages.
4. Make Your Videos Speak to the User
Online videos bridge the gap between online and off-line commerce, as well as greatly increasing conversion rates for a wide range of industries — particularly e-commerce websites. The highest performing videos speak to the user rather than at them, as you’ll see in the 1,000th episode of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV below. Online users who viewed a product video were much more likely to convert over users who simply viewed an ad.
5. Use Trust Seals – But Make Sure They’re More Than Just Eye Candy
All of the major trust seal providers claim that incorporating a trust seal on your website can increase conversion rates, but the actual statistics are hard to come by. Rather than installing a seal for pure visual security benefits, choose one that is backed up by a guarantee to the consumer, such as what OrientalFurniture.com did by using the BuySafe guarantee. Customers who saw the seal were 7.6% more likely to buy than those who did not.
6. Use Power Words When Describing Your Offer
Powerful action verbs such as “get”, “feel” and “have” are strong compellers because of their active tone as opposed to “imagine having”, “imagine feeling” and so on. Using action oriented words in your offer places the customer in a pivotal role as the one receiving the benefits as opposed to simply imagining them.
A lead generation page for a chronic pain course incorporates “power words” directly above the fold for maximum impact.
7. Avoid “Cookie-Cutter” Site Templates
It should go without saying, but when it comes to quality lead generation, you should avoid any cookie cutter “all-the-work-is-done-for-you” website templates. Instead, invest in the best possible website you can afford, and make sure you make the page’s purpose clear up front so that the designer can tailor it to generating leads rather than looking nice or having all the bells and whistles. Having a well-designed site also increases trust and customer confidence levels when shopping online.
8. Consider the End-Goal First
When it comes to lead generation, begin with the end in mind. What exactly does a “lead” mean to you? Defining this will make your testing and analytics goals even clearer, and help you determine exactly what actions you want the user to take as they progress through each stage of your sales funnel. Is a lead considered someone who fills out a form? Someone who signs up for a newsletter? Requests a callback? Clearly define your starting point and you’ll have a much easier time adjusting your conversion goals accordingly.
9. Make Good Use of Whitespace
Whitespace (also known as negative space) is one of those ‘little things’ in web design that can make a big impact. Rather than striving to fill up every empty area on a page, give your content, photos and call to action buttons some breathing room. There’s no need to add something just to take up room – it can end up only serving as a distraction to your customers, and lowering your conversion rates as a result.
10. The Bottom Line for Best Lead Generation: Test, Test, Test
None of these tips will do you a bit of good unless you test them for yourself and determine what works for your unique situation. Number and quality of leads is a conversion factor just like any other – one which you’ll want to see increase and improve over time. Here’s a handy checklist of other things to test to help improve conversion rates.
A lead generation page is also a great way to test crucial design changes before applying them sitewide. By split testing changes from one landing page to the next, you’ll be able to see whether or not your lead gen efforts pay off. Of course, having the right testing and analytics software in place will help you determine exactly what’s working – with real-time data, historic timelines, trends and conversion funnels that let you segment down to the smallest details.
About the Author: Sherice Jacob helps businesses improve website design, ranking and performance with custom blog themes and SEO copywriting. Learn how to increase conversion rates by visiting iElectrify.com.
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