Unless you’re just having fun blogging, you likely want your website traffic to convert in some way.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to make more sales or just build your email list, it is possible to turn your website into a lead generating machine. You don’t even have to do any additional marketing.

Your website should work for you. Let it naturally guide visitors to respond to your calls-to-action.

Provide A Special Offer Form

You’ve probably signed up for many of these yourself as you’ve visited different websites. You were happy to provide your email address in exchange for a free ebook or product discount. Special offer forms are a great way to entice visitors to provide their information. Why does it work? People aren’t usually thrilled to just give away their contact details. If you give them something valuable in return, they feel like it’s a win-win situation.

Include Multiple Contact Methods

It’s hard for your site to be a lead generating machine without contact information. While your default might be to offer a phone number or contact form, it’s best to offer multiple contact methods to appeal to everyone. A few options to include on your site are:

• Phone number
• Email address
• Contact form
• Live Chat – 90% of consumers consider live chat extremely helpful
• Chatbot – for answering common questions when live chat is unavailable

It’s also important to provide response times for each contact method. For instance, if someone wants to call, what time frame should they call to reach a person versus voicemail.

Keep Contact Forms Simple

If you have contact forms on your site, but they’re not converting, it could be because they’re too complicated. Limit how much information you ask for. For instance, if you want to build your email list, all you need to ask for is the email address. Optionally, ask how often or what types of email the subscriber wants. The more text boxes a visitor has to fill in, the more likely they are to abandon the process completely. Keep it as simple as possible to boost conversions on your site.

Place A CTA On Every Page (And Above The Fold)

While experts argue on the best placement for your CTA, they all agree that it should always be easily accessible. Ensure there is a CTA on every page. For instance, many websites place their main CTA on their homepage or landing page and then include it in the footer so it’s always there. No matter what, ensure your main CTA is above the fold. This makes it more noticeable and more likely to turn your site into a lead generating machine.

Make Your CTA Button Stand Out

Your CTA should draw visitors to it. A large, bold, colorful CTA button is instantly noticeable and draws your visitors’ eyes directly to your CTA copy. No matter how great your copy is, no one will notice it if it doesn’t stand out from the rest of your site. Use WordStream’s guide for far more effective CTA buttons.

Create Compelling Content

Why should someone provide their email address or make a purchase? What draws visitors to your website in the first place? It all comes down to compelling content. High quality, informative content boosts your search rank and brings in more organic traffic. Now that visitors are on your site, explain to them why they should convert.

Consider adding video as part of your content strategy. Simply adding video to a landing page increases conversions by as much as 80%.

Offer Proof

Testimonials, videos and reviews all provide proof to your visitors. Humans are social creatures and they want to know that someone else has experienced your product or service already. This is why reviews are so important to product sales on sites like Amazon. Offer some type of proof that makes visitors more comfortable and you’ve created a lead generating machine.

Use Interstitials Sparingly

A popular lead generation technique over the past few years has been interstitials. These are pop-ups and full screen pages that appear to encourage email signups or provide a special offer. While some websites have found them effective, Google could punish sites that use this technique, especially on mobile devices.

Create Your Own Lead Generating Machine

Don’t just let your website sit there. Use it as a lead generating machine to build your email list or boost sales while you sleep. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your analytics data to see how well your conversion techniques are working.

Ready to create a lead generating website? Contact Darren today to see how to get started.

Image: Brooke Cagle

Email marketing might sound like an outdated strategy, but it could be the best way to drive new connections.

Regular visitors are the lifeblood of any website, but how do you keep them coming back? You remind them, of course.

If you’re not already using email marketing as part of your strategy, now is the time to learn how this technique can help boost traffic and loyal visitors. It’s actually easier than you might think.

Does Email Marketing Actually Work

First of all, it’s time to dispel the myth that email marketing no longer works. Despite the rise of texting and messaging apps, email is still king. Take a look at the long list (over 200) of popular email marketing tools, for instance. Marketers keep coming back to email because it’s cost effective and delivers better ROI than other marketing methods.

One study shows that 54% of marketers prefer email because it not only works, but it’s easy to execute. A surprising 89% say email is their best tool for lead generation.

It’s easy to see that email marketing isn’t a dying trend. It’s still one of the best ways to reach your site’s visitors. After all, email is opt-in and if someone is signing up, they’re interested in staying in contact with you.

Using Email Marketing To Your Advantage

Email marketing is a tool that takes little work, but works to your advantage. Imagine being able to send personalised messages to different segments of your email list. You might send a special offer to those who haven’t clicked through on a message in a few months or a special thank you to those who’ve been subscribers for a year.

Some of the benefits that are often overlooked when it comes to email marketing include:

• Learning more about your visitors, such as what devices they use or what types of messages different demographics respond to best
• Interacting quickly with visitors
• Staying in contact to keep visitors coming back
• Offering personalised messages, which consumers love
• Target customers based on interactions with messages and your site

One of the reasons people don’t mind email is because it is something they’ve asked to receive. It’s a simple, yet effective way to keep driving people back to your site.

Driving New Connections

Now the big question – how does email marketing drive new connections? You’ve already discovered the benefits of using this marketing strategy. Email marketing not only keeps your site on visitors’ minds, but emails are something that are easy to share. Offering tips, discounts, or free downloads get your visitors excited and get them sharing your messages with their friends.

If you want to get the most from your emails, check out some of these incredible marketing campaigns and consider the following tips:

• Offer something useful, such as information or a free download
• Use friendly, descriptive headlines
• Keep messages brief
• Use clear calls-to-action
• Personalise as much as possible
• Learn from the competition
• Use images to grab attention

Incorporating Into WordPress

Obviously, you need a way to encourage people to sign up for your emails to before your site benefits. There are three things you need to think about:

• Signup placement
• Signup forms
• Email marketing tool or service

First, you’ll need to choose an email marketing / newsletter service, such as AWeber or MailChimp. These services allow you to create triggers for sending messages, offer tools for managing your email list and help you create newsletters and messages.

Next, you’ll need a plugin to link your WordPress site and your email marketing tool. SearchEngineLand provides a detailed list of plugins to get you started. These usually provide customisable opt-in forms as well.

The final step is the most crucial – placement. If no one notices your signup form, they won’t subscribe. Use these tips to get more email subscribers:

• Use a noticeable submit button
• Add the form to the sidebar, footer and as a link within blog posts
• Make it easy to enter an email address
• Use a different color and font for your signup form
• Only ask for email addresses and a first name at most
• Offer something special to new subscribers

Test different placement areas to see which yields the most subscribers.

Gain Loyal Visitors

Email marketing is key to gaining loyal visitors. It’s why the majority of websites try to persuade you to sign up for their newsletters. If you’re not already using email on your WordPress site, now is the time to implement it and start driving new connections and creating loyal visitors.

Ready to implement email marketing on your own site? Contact StuartMedia today to add a signup form and plugin to your site.

Image: Dai KE