Merge

One of the most popular goals of an organization's web objective is to generate leads. Websites can do alot of things--create awareness, educate the market, provide a level of customer service, etc., but at the end of the day, most (but not all) organizations look to their websites to generate leads for their business.

Below are 5 sure-fire ways Merge helps its clients create more effective, lead-generating websites:

1. Be valuable. Users are looking for information not marketing speak. It's great that your the best, the "only," and #1, but at the end of the day what is your website's strategy to add value to the user? They've come to your website to find an answer. Provide the valuable content that answers their questions.
2. Give them a reason. Many websites default to "Contact Us" or "Learn More" as their calls-to-action. If the user doesn't have a compelling reason to contact you (aka "a lead"), then they won't. Provide a reason, which could be: Signing up for a newsletter, subscribing to a blog, downloading a whitepaper, requesting a consultation, etc. They will contact you if you give them a reason to.
3. Speak clearly Concise communication on the web is essential for generating leads. The user wants to understand if you can solve their problem, period. Offer less copy and more visuals so they "get it" quickly.
4. Get the user to say no. The cub scouts have figured this one out. They come to your door and ask if you would like to buy $50 worth of popcorn. You may answer, "No," so they ask if you would like to buy $20 instead. It's tough to say no twice. Salespeople know this lesson as well: every "no" is just one step closer to yes. Don't just provide one offer to the user for them to engage with you. Give them several.
5. Focus on the users you have, first. If we've heard it once, we've heard it a thousand times: Give me more traffic! You probably have as much traffic as you need. What you really want is more leads. More traffic is one way to get there. For instance, if your site only converts .1% of users into a lead, 1,000 more users will yield one more lead. OR...you could improve your conversion rate, say to a reasonable 1% and you will find yourself with 10x more leads. More traffic won't fix an ineffective website. Make your website effective first.

Bottom Line: If your website's main objective is to generate leads, providing valuable content and compelling offers will turn your website into the lead generation website it's supposed to be.