Finding new customers is essential to any business, large or small. But today, the digital world has opened the door for new, highly effective ways to generate sales leads.\u00a0
To navigate the waters and maximize success, follow these five tips for generating leads online.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. Rethink your \u201cContact Us\u201d page for Leads<\/h2>\n
Swap your phone number and email on\u00a0your website\u2019s \u201cContact Us\u201d page<\/a>\u00a0for a far more effective form. Include fields where visitors can submit information in response to questions you select, for example, a consumer\u2019s education level or a business\u2019 industry. \u201cA form is trackable and can be recorded into a database for follow-up and analysis,\u201d says Mike Volpe, vice president of marketing for marketing software provider HubSpot in Cambridge, Mass.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you\u2019re engaged in a pay-per-click ad campaign or simply want to encourage more visitors to fill out your online contact form, you can improve results by offering something of value\u2014for free. \u201cMany Web visitors don\u2019t want to engage in a personal conversation, but they are willing to give you their contact information in exchange for some valuable content,\u201d Volpe says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Freebies from your business might include a whitepaper with the latest industry research, a Webinar or podcast hosted by you or one of your employees, a coupon or discount for your products or services, or a free consultation. \u201cTry to figure out what might be appealing to your prospects and then test a few different offers to find the one that works best,\u201d Volpe says.<\/p>\n By personalizing communication as much as possible, you can significantly improve response rates. When sending email communications, Volpe suggests segregating email lists into two or three groups based on common interests, geographies, ages or some other criteria. Then customize messages for each group to yield a higher click-through rate. At the very least, remember to use a potential customer\u2019s name in all forms of communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re engaged in a pay-per-click ad campaign, send traffic from each keyword to a different\u00a0landing page<\/a>\u00a0specific to the keyword searched on. \u201cFor example, someone who searches on \u2018accounting consultant\u2019 should go to a different page than someone who searches on \u2018temporary CFO\u2019 even if your company provides accounting and financial consulting services for businesses,\u201d Volpe says.\u00a0\u201cSpecializing your landing pages generates a higher conversion rate, and you’ll get more leads at a lower cost.\u201d<\/p>\n Volpe says the most effective method for attracting potential customers is inbound marketing\u2014attracting customers from other websites and online tools. This includes building and updating blogs, optimizing websites for search engines and promoting content via online social networks. \u201c[By engaging in inbound marketing], you might be surprised how many more leads find your website and fill out your forms,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/p>\n Online inbound marketing tactics are more cost-effective than their offline outbound counterparts (think: telemarketing, direct mail and traditional advertising). According to HubSpot\u2019s 2009 \u201cState of Inbound Marketing,\u201d inbound marketing-dominated companies experience a 61% lower cost per lead than outbound marketing-dominated organizations. ?<\/p>\n The beauty of online lead generation is the ability to constantly test, revise and improve. A print ad or your presence at a tradeshow can\u2019t be adapted as easily. Online efforts, on the other hand, can be changed and updated in real time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Volpe suggests running websites through\u00a0Website Grader<\/a>, which offers\u00a0tips<\/a>\u00a0for increasing traffic, optimizing websites for the search engines and enhancing a site\u2019s popularity in social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article republished from the\u00a0National Federation of Independant Business Finding new customers is essential to any business, large or small. But today, the digital world has opened the door for new, highly effective ways to generate sales leads.\u00a0To navigate the waters and maximize success, follow these five tips for generating leads online.\u00a0 1. Rethink your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameravant.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
To maximize the number of Web visitors who complete your contact form, keep forms as short and simple as possible, asking only for the information needed for your business to follow up successfully.<\/p>\n2. Give something for free.<\/h2>\n
![\"Offer](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/siteninja\/multitenant\/images\/17445\/images\/medium\/call-to-action_1_.jpg?1363874648\" "\\"Offer")
<\/a><\/div>\n3. Make it personal to Generate Leads.\u00a0<\/h2>\n
![\"Pay](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/siteninja\/multitenant\/images\/17453\/images\/medium\/Pay-Per-Click-Lead-Generation.gif?1363883826\" "\\"Pay")
<\/a><\/div>\n4. Bring leads to you.\u00a0<\/h2>\n
5. Test, test and test some more.\u00a0<\/h2>\n