3 Ways to Generate More Leads from Your Website

This post is inspired by a guest presentation on “Ask the Tech-perts.“

SSL Certificate

As more people order online and use contact forms, more and more sensitive data is transmitted online and through websites, thus making data security increasingly important. An SSL Certificate provides privacy, critical security, and data integrity for both your website and your visitor.  Without getting too technical, the purpose of an SSL Certificate is to encrypt information sent through the website so that only you, the intended recipient, can access it. Don’t scare away visitors before they reach your website with an unsecure warning. Secure your website with an SSL and let your visitors know it is safe their data is secured.

Cookie Notice & Privacy Policy

Privacy is a growing concern and more regulations are going into effect. The European Union passed the Global Data Protection Regulations into effect in 2018 and California passed their own in early 2020. You need to clearly communicate what data is captured, when it is captured, what it is used for, and the process for requesting and removing your personal information. Don’t use website visitor’s information without their consent and/or knowledge. Be transparent with visitors and use a cookie notice & privacy policy to explain how their personal information may be used.

Contact Information

Display your contact information prominently and make it easy for website visitors to contact you. It is a great idea to display the basics on every page, either at the top in the header or at the bottom of the page in the footer. Also, you will want to include a contact form as an easy way to get in touch.

With so many scams out there, a physical address on your website will help promote your legitimacy as an actual business. Even if you are a service business and operate out of your home, you can verify your address and service area with Google. Google will send you a post card and you verify accordingly. Google knows your address is legitimate, but keeps it private from the general public by simply showing your service area.  For example, check out Kreative Solution’s Delafield GoogleMyBusiness listing.

Do not make website visitors dig for your contact information or question if you are really a real business. Make sure your website clearly illustrates your business is legitimate with contact information as well as channels to get in touch.

Social Accounts

Include links to all your social accounts & make sure the links work & go to the right place. Social media is a great way to build an audience, engage with your customers, build trust, and get reviews. If a company has positive reviews and interactions with customers, that helps build the trustworthiness.

Don’t use a template without checking all the links, especially social media links! Often times, the WordPress theme or website builder will automatically link to their channels. If you have a Wix website, you don’t want a visitor clicking on your Facebook icon and being rerouted to Wix’s Facebook page instead of your own Facebook company page.

Testimonials & Reviews

When a friend or family member raves about their experience with a company, that is much more believable than the claims on the company’s website. Don’t just display your own exaggerated claims on why your product/service is the best. Rather, display testimonials or third-party reviews to build trust. Testimonials and reviews are a great way to show why your customers choose you.

Trust Checklist

• Secure your domain with an SSL Certificate
• Be transparent with a Cookie Notice and Privacy Policy,
• Set expectations with Terms & Conditions
• Prominently display your contact information
• Use a contact form as an easy way to get in touch
• Include your address to promote legitimacy as an actual business
• Link your social media accounts to your website
• Incorporate testimonials and third-party reviews

#2 Deliver a Great User Experience

Slow websites, poorly designed websites, text-heavy pages, and poorly structured websites are no longer acceptable. If you have one if these websites, prospects are likely clicking on your website, getting frustrated, and moving on to the next search result (which is likely your competitor). Consumers are getting more tech savvy and you have to align your website with the demands of consumers.

User experience design revolves around the website visitor and aims to enhance customer satisfaction by providing a positive, pleasurable interaction with your website. Improving the website speed, incorporating a visual design, creating user generated content, ensuring navigation is intuitive, and making your website accessible are few great ways to improve your user experience.

Speed

Do you have a slow website due to heavy content, outdated technology, etc.? Speed up your website. Aim for 3 seconds or less, but you can always settle with 5 seconds.

Consumers have grown more and more impatient. We are now accustomed to having everything at our fingertips. It is essential that your website loads quickly. You can use the free online test, Google PageSpeed Insights, to figure out how to speed up your website.

Visual Design & Content

Most visitors will scan, not read your website. Visuals and colors are great way to promote engagement. Don’t overwhelm your website visitors with too much text. Instead, make it easy for website visitors to digest and engage with your content. Don’t let your website be text-heavy! Use images and icons to substitute for text. Use motion and animation strategically to guide the eye. Use bullets or lists instead of paragraphs when you can

Be consistent with your use of color and visuals. We all have our own logo, color scheme, and preferred fonts. Make sure you use colors, fonts, and imagery that aligns with your logo and overall brand identity. Repetition is key for consistency and consistency is a prerequisite for brand recognition. If you want your customers to recognize your brand, be consistent!

Intuitive Navigation

Visitors should easily navigate through your menu to  find what they are looking for. To start, limit your primary menu to no more than 7 items. You may also consider adding buttons for key actions to the top of your website. Don’t overload your menu with every possible page and post. To be user-friendly, your website should be intuitive to use.

Accessibility

Accessibility is all about making sure your website is accessible to all regardless of disability. There is free software that can help you make your website more accessible, such as Userway. Userway allows a blind individual to have the text read to them or someone who is color blind can increase the contrast. The World Wide Consortium provides guidance on how to make your website accessible. If you are a non-profit, it is definitely time to get your website compliant.

User Experience Checklist

• Website loads in 5 seconds or less
• Implement a visual design with images, videos, icons, etc.
• Limit your primary menu to 7 items or less
• Make sure your website is accessible to all
• Focus on user-driven content

#3 Encourage Action

Lastly, make sure your website encourages action. Adding call to actions, being transparent, and answering FAQs are a few great ways to encourage action. The word “conversion” is just a fancy word for a desired action. Conversion optimization is all about increasing the number of website visitors who take a desired action, from buying a product to submitting a contact form.

Add a Primary Call to action

First, you need to define what you want the user to do and then you can define your call-to-action. A call-to-action asks the visitor to take a specific action – contact, buy, or subscribe are a few examples. If you don’t tell your website visitors how to get started or what the next steps are, they won’t know. Make it easy to start the conversation and tell them what’s the first step to take.

You can think of your primary call-to-action as your ultimate goal. Identify your goal and tell your visitors to take that action (i.e. contact or buy). Make it easy to make that action in one click or simple form.

Add a Secondary Call to Action

Even though you may want a customer to buy a product or request a consultation, not all visitors will be ready to purchase. These prospects may need a little more nurturing along their customer journey.

This is where your secondary call-to-action comes in. To help nudge these visitors closer to purchase, you can define secondary call-to-actions such as subscribe to your newsletter or follow us on social media. Both are a great way to engage the website visitor and prevent them from leaving your website without any action.

Be Transparent

Be as transparent as you can and help consumers progress along their customer journey. Detailing your return policy, warranty policy, or terms of services are great links to include in the footer of your website page. These policies tell customers exactly what to expect when working with your company.

FAQs

FAQS and blog posts that answer customer’s frequently asked questions are a great way to be transparent with customers in order to encourage action and build trust. Think of those questions you answer all the time and help customers find their answers on their own and view you as a resource.

Action Checklist 

• Identify a primary & secondary call to action
• Make it easy to take that action with a button and/or form
• Provide incentive to take action
• Alleviate customer worries and provide FAQs
• Be a resource and provide value for free

Summary

Make your website trustworthy, deliver a great user experience, and encourage action to get more leads from your website. Your website should be an invaluable marketing tool for your business that brings in new leads every month!