How To Turn Your Website Into a Lead Generating Machine

Let me ask you a question?

How many new clients did you get from your website this year? This week?

If your answer is none, then there is a problem with your website that is costing you business.

Today, 98% of purchases begin with online research. Your site is often the first impression a new customer will have with your company.

How do you know if your website is defective? Easy, how many inquiries are you getting from your website in the last week, month – year?

Today, your prospective new clients are the most educated and well-informed group of consumers in history. They “Google” it when they are shopping.

The bigger the ticket item you are selling or if you are in a heavily competitive business the more vital it is to have a professionally designed website.

Five or ten years ago you could get away with an “electronic brochure “ site design but today you will lose business because of it. The days of being able to have an “electronic brochure” of a website are long gone.

Something is wrong with your website: does it seem more difficult to get a new client today than ever before?

The reason it seems harder to get in front of prospective new customers today is that you don’t have your business set up as a lead-generating machine.

Step 1 and the 880 HP Hellcat engine of your “lead machine” today is your website. If you do nothing else but have a good site you will be way ahead of the majority of competitors in your area.

10 Ways to Turn Your Website into a Lead-Generating Machine

1. The number one reason is your website doesn’t generate business is that it is outdated. The site looks old, the content is confusing and difficult to read and navigate. There is no flow or logical next step for the visitor to take on the site. The site is a smattering of random information.

2. The content is difficult to understand. If a visitor to your website is greeted by strange words, industry terminology, and terms, visitors will get confused and quickly leave your website.

Don’t assume consumers will understand your industry lingo. They generally don’t and won’t take the time to look up they will just leave your site and go to a competitor’s website.

3. Your website is difficult to navigate. When a prospect goes to your website they are usually looking for an answer to a question. People are not going to hunt and peck around to find what they are looking for on your website. If they don’t see it – they will leave, quickly.

When people go to your website they should be able to easily see where to go to get information or at least a promising direction for the answer.

Unclear navigation is the number one reason why visitors will leave a site.

4. Generic content. This is a real killer. All the search engines are built around helping people find useful content and answers to their questions.

Making your site a resource by providing useful information will help you rank higher in searches.

5. Make sure your site is registered with Google business as well as the other search engines as well. This is the basis of getting more traffic to your website.

6. Make getting reviews from customers a priority. Reviews do two things: 1. They provide validation for buying decisions. And 2 they help you to rank higher on searches the more reviews the better.

7. Hire a professional to design your site.  Look, I know it may seem easy to DIY with one of those website template sites. Unless you are a designer and understand the importance of things like eye trail, site navigation, and programming you are wasting your time. There is a lot more to designing an effective website than putting a pretty picture and logo on a page.

The cost for a custom website averages between $1800 to $3500 depending on what you need and want. We also offer a monthly lease option for a new site that ranges in cost from $129 to $169 per month and includes hosting on a high-speed server.

8. Branding is neglected. Your prospective new customers have hundreds of options for similar products and services at their fingertips.  Your new customers buy you first. The more personal and helpful you make your website the better.

At the end of the day, what are you selling? It is not your product or service. You are selling help. Solutions to a problem. If you think about it – that is your brand, the place that provides help and solutions to problems your customers have.

9. No call to action or a hard-to-find call to action on the website. What do you want your site visitor to do on this page?

• Do you want them to download a report?
• Schedule an appointment?
• Go to the next logical page on your site?
• Call you for a consultation?

What?

The call to action needs to be clear. Every page should take the person to the next logical step. The next step for the visitor should always be obvious and easy to see. This is the foundation of an effective website.

10. Your phone number is hard to find. Look, at the end of the day, most businesses don’t make a sale unless you get in front of a client. The first step is usually a phone conversation.

Your phone number should be all over your site and should not be in small print in an obscure place on your site. You need prospects to call you, every fiber of your website should be your be geared toward inviting a person to call or take the next step.

The formula for an effective website is:

1. Get and hold attention.
2. To provide help and answers.
3. Add value by educating and enlightening.
4. Invite action regularly, often on every page.
5. Get visitors to want to have a live conversation with you.

TRAFFIC: the most overlooked thing about websites today is you have to drive traffic to your site. You can have a beautiful website and still get no leads from it. You have to have traffic in your store.

There are two basic ways to drive traffic:

One: buy ads on Google & Facebook. When you buy ads on Google & Facebook you will often be going up against competitors with more money and expertise than you have. You start at a disadvantage before you even get started.

Two: a more direct and effective is Direct Mail. What makes direct mail so effective is you can buy a mailing list of exactly who you want to reach and put a message they can hold in their hands. We also have a program that combines Direct Mail with Google and Social Media that is effective and affordable.