How to Covert Website Traffic into Leads that can Boost Sales

1. Evaluate your traffic sources

First, evaluate where your traffic is coming from. If you’re doing any advertising to generate traffic to your website, make sure your advertising campaigns are focused on reaching your target market to ensure you’re hitting the right market that would be interested in what you’re offering or selling.

For direct mail, make sure you’re hitting the right neighborhoods or get lists of people who fit your target audience. For print ads, get into magazine and newspapers that fit your demographic requirements. However, before you even endeavour to explore traditional advertising such as magazines, newspapers, billboards, direct mail, radio or television, make sure people can find your website easily online when they search on Google or any other search engine or reputable online local directory.

Search Marketing is not about just being found for your brand name. Most people who are searching for your brand will most likely find you easily and have a higher likelihood to be engaged on your site because they are specifically looking for your brand.

Above and beyond that, you need to be found for relevant keywords that are directly related to your services or products offered on your website That requires having a search marketing campaign that will drive targeted search traffic directly to your site. Search Marketing includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Paid Per Click Search (PPC), and Display Advertising which is targeted banner advertising on Google’s Display Network.

If you are running an effective Search Marketing campaign, (which I recommend should be done using an experienced Search Engine Marketing agency) then you should be getting extremely relevant and targeted leads to your website.

The question is: Are leads converting into inquiries? If your answer is NO, move on to step #2.

2. Evaluate your Website

Start by looking at your analytics and web logs to understand what visitors are doing once they land on your web page.

Analyze: What is your bounce rate?

Bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave your site within a couple of seconds and do not engage in any activity on your site.

We should always be working to improve a website’s bounce rate. If you have a bounce rate higher than 50%, that is not a good sign. That means that over 50% of the people who visit your site leave without doing anything.

At this point you need to revisit your website home page or landing page with fresh eyes and re-evaluate why people are leaving and determine what you can do on your web pages to engage visitors and capture those leads.

5 Tips to Reduce your Bounce Rate and Convert Traffic into Leads:

1. Make your site Attractive, Engaging and User-friendly

• Does your website appeal to your target audience?
• Does it truly reflect your brand?
• Is it simple and straight forward to navigate?

Tip: Make sure your site is attractive, user-friendly and engaging to your target market. You probably have a lot of research and experience with your target market, so assuming that your brand and products appeal to your target market already, make sure that your website truly reflects your brand and your overall business image.

2. Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

– Do you have a clear and direct Call-to-Action that clearly tells visitors what they should do next and what is the benefit to them?

Tip: Make sure your Call-to-Action is clear and visible on every page and that CTA should clearly tell people what to do next (to help turn that visitor into a hot lead).

Sample CTAs:
1) “Call now for a free consultation.”
2) “Fill out this form to receive a free white paper.”
3) “Purchase now to receive 30% off.”
4) “Purchase before and get free shipping.”
5) “Watch this video to learn more.”

Ultimately, a CTA should lead people to a clear action that you want them to take. Do not assume that they’ll take action on their own.

3. Clear and Visible Phone Numbers

Do you have a clear and bold phone number in the top right corner of your screen within every page of your site? The top right corner of a web page is a standard place where people expect to find a phone number. If you do not have a phone number there, do you have your phone number on every page on your site in a visible and prominent area?

Tips: – Do not put phone number as a graphic; otherwise people on mobile phones will not be able to click on them directly to call you.
– Do not use phone numbers that spell a WORD. Meaning, do not use letters instead of numbers, as people will not be able to “click to call” from mobiles, and people who are looking at a screen and dialing from their mobiles will not know which letters correlate to what number.

Remember: The easier you make it for people to reach out to you, the faster they will. The more frustrated you make them, the quicker you’ll lose them.

4. Simple and Short Inquiry Forms

Do you have a simple and short inquiry form that people can fill out quickly and easily?
The shorter your forms the higher chance you’ll have of people filling them out if they feel they’ll get something of value in return.

Tips: Just ask for information you absolutely need. For newsletters, ask for emails and possible first name if you plan on personalizing your communication. For inquiry forms; ask for names – first & last, email address and comment field. Make phone numbers, company information and addresses optional if you need to request that.

– Forms placed towards the middle right side of a web page generally convert better than forms on the left side of a web page.

Are you keeping important information and graphics above the fold? Only 20% of visitors scroll.

Tip: Keep your most important information and lead-generating actions above the fold.

View the example to the right of a web page that converts traffic into leads.

Overall, when evaluating your website and landing page, always ask yourself, is it clear and obvious what you want your visitors to do next. Are you doing everything you can to lead their eyes and mouse in the right direction?

Don’t be afraid to make changes, test and evaluate those changes, and keep tweaking until you are satisfied with results. Ultimately, you want to ensure that your bounce rate is going down, while page views and time on site are going up. However, the most important thing you want to measure is lead conversion – Are phone calls, inquiry forms and online purchases, or anything else that you consider a conversion going up, and continuing to go up on a monthly basis?

Implement these changes and let me know if your leads and online conversions are climbing, as they should be.