4 Tools That Convert Visitors To Leads

Great Content…but is it working?

Content Marketing is widely acknowledged as the best online strategy for attracting prospective new customers.   It’s proven that killer content, great information and valuable resources will drive traffic to a website.  But how do you identify solid leads amidst the crowd?

Are you using content to your best advantage?  You’ve gotta kick-the-can and find out for sure.  The good news is, you can take a back-door look at who’s engaging your content, qualify them, and then tailor a targeted strategy that’s going to lead them to a sale.

Relevance

With the glut of crap on the Internet, quality content is more important than ever to stay relevant online.  And social media has further increased the demand for quality content.  Start providing your target audience with information they really need, promote it on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and you’ll see a tangible bump in the number of visitors to your website.  

Making Contact

Increasing your traffic is the first step, the next is to convert those visitors into leads by collecting their contact information—their email address, at the very least, to start.  Contact info is the coin of the realm to the online marketer, and in order for your visitors to give that up willingly, you’ve got to provide them with something of value in return.  Those value items come in the form of content that can be downloaded from your site.   White Papers, Case Studies, Research Reports and eBooks are among those resources.

While it’s these secondary, more advanced forms of content that will secure you the contact information you need, it’s the primary content found on your site, such as blog posts, embedded videos and such that will give your visitors an indication of your business authority.  And it’s the perceived potential value you provide them that will warrant their taking that extra step to sign-up and download further materials.  So make the content that’s visible on the site count.    

Capturing Leads

These are some of the most effective tools in converting visitors to leads:

• Calls-to-Action are prompts (buttons or links) on your website that encourage visitors to take action, like “Download a Research Report” or “Attend a Webinar.”   You have on your website, and the more interesting you make them sound, the more qualified leads you will generate.
• Landing Pages.  When a visitor to your website makes a call-to-action, they should be directed to a landing page—a simple, single page on the Web where the prospect submits their information and is then enabled to download the content they are requesting.  The call-to-action has been fulfilled, and you’ve secured contact info for a potential lead. 
• Forms.  Keep the information capture forms on your Landing Pages or on your website simple and easy to fill out.  Don’t request more information than you really need—a few basic questions and contact info is all you need at this stage of the conversion process.  If the person signing up proves to be a viable lead, you’ll have further opportunities to glean more info from them.
• Contacts.  Collect info on the leads you capture in an efficient database.  Maintain data on not only the contact info, but make notes as to the dates and nature of every interaction (phone, email, correspondence) you have with a prospect.  Consigning things to memory or pages on a scratch pad will not serve you as well, especially as business gets busier. 

Tracking Leads

Capturing new leads is essential, of course, but there is additional value to be mined from understanding what you did to land them.  In other words, which of your content marketing initiatives are most effective. 

Tools like Google Analytics and HubSpot can not only identify your traffic and its points of origin, they can track your leads on the paths they take –and time spent- throughout your website, leaving discernible footprints along the content stops they find most relevant.

It may seem like complex science, and a majority of companies do seek professional help to manage these lead generation mechanisms.  But in many ways, doing business –efficiently- has never been easier or more effective.