Does your business
need more prospects and customers? All
of us would welcome having our sales funnel filled with solid prospects. If your business depends on identifying sales
leads on a regular basis, a couple simple actions on your website and the use
of a landing page can greatly accelerate and focus your process of lead
collection.
Get An Early Start
If you have a
strong sales conversion rate once you start a conversation with a prospect,
your goal is to identify more of the right people to engage in sales
discussions. The earlier you can
identify a prospect, the earlier you can close a sale.
For businesses
with a lower sales close rate, focusing prospects on your key value proposition
early in their research / shopping process can help you engage and close more
customers who value what you offer.
Accelerate Your Speed To Leads On Your Website
For many
organizations, marketing campaigns drive prospects to the company website. While this is an effective way to quickly
provide access to all of your company information, prospects may visit your
website several times before they reach out to contact you to start a
conversation – and become a sales lead. I
recommend sending prospects first to a landing page – more on that thought
below.
Whether you send
prospects directly to your webpage or they land there after starting on your
landing page, keep relationship building a top priority on your website.
The easier it is for
a prospect to find what they need and to give you their contact information while
on your website, the earlier you can start a conversation to gain their
business. Here are some key steps you
can take on your website to accelerate this process:
- Incorporate the image and message from your marketing campaign on your homepage. Let them know they have gone to the right place – and align your benefit communication across all consumer touchpoints. This reduces your bounce rate and engages web visitors in your content.
- Place an easy to find “Request More Information” link on the upper navigation on your website. This should be in addition to contact information. You will get more leads by providing links for both “Request Information” and “Contact Us”.
- Keep your web navigation simple and feature the most commonly sought out information as choices in your navigation bar.
- Include a video that explains your core value proposition that ends with a call to action to request more information or to contact you directly.
Identify Leads Even Sooner With A Landing Page
Through the use of
a marketing landing page, you can engage prospects earlier in your marketing
campaign – and boost the conversion rate of prospects to leads and then to
customers. According to Omniture, online
advertising campaigns that use landing pages typically see a conversion rate
improvement of at least 25%.
You speed up your
lead capture as your marketing sends prospects directly to your landing page
where you collect their contact information right away. This can shorten the time from advertising through
information collection from weeks or months to a single day.
Prospects see your
ad, click through to your landing page, provide their information in exchange
for more information and then can click through to your website. You are now collecting lead contact data at
the start of their search process rather than once they have visited your site
several times. Because landing pages
have become a more common tool, consumers are used to giving away some basic
contact information in exchange for something from you.
Optimize Your Landing Page To Boost Sales
Here are a few proven
best practices you can use on a landing page to boost your impact and
effectiveness. These include:
- Engaging visual and simple benefit communication that ties to marketing campaign – connect the dots to minimize friction. The goal of the landing page is drive the action of starting a conversation. Optimize your landing page to remove anything that causes prospects to leave before giving you their contact information.
- Offer of value for value – collect contact information in exchange for: brochure, white paper, free trial, discount, etc.
- Use a simple, short form to capture key contact information. Collect only the information you need to start the conversation. Start with name, email, a question/comment box and perhaps a city and state if needed. Including too many information capture fields will cause prospects to avoid filling out your form. You can collect additional information in your future touch points with new leads.
- Offer a simple thank you page that delivers the promised value once you collect their contact information. Also include a link to your website on the thank you page.
- Make your landing page mobile friendly. This is a must today. According to Media Behavior Institute’s 2013 “USA Touchpoints” study, over 40% of US adults (age 18- 64) use a mobile phone to access the Internet weekly. Expect that to grow to over 50% in 2014. For most businesses, this includes your prospects. If you build your landing page using responsive technology, your prospects can and will likely engage with you across all mobile formats.
- If you are using Google AdWords in your campaign, make sure you use your search keywords in your landing page copy and headlines. The more closely you are aligned, the more likely you are to win your ad bids and deliver valuable prospects to your landing page.
- Use A/B testing to optimize your efforts. Test variations of your landing page to optimize your results. Ongoing testing of different single variables such as your headline, image, benefit description, information capture form and call to action can help you identify the optimal combination of landing page elements to boost your conversation rate.
- Also use your landing page to optimize your digital marketing. By placing ad pixels on your landing page, you can track your not only your traffic by marketing source, but also your conversion by marketing source.
- Optimizing your landing page can take some time, but your actions will yield solid results in boosting your conversion of prospects to leads. Then your sales team just needs to close the sale!
As you plan your
2014 marketing and sales efforts, consider adding a landing page to your
marketing mix if you do not already have one.
If you have a landing page in place, take steps to test and optimize
your efforts and effectiveness. Also
take time to review your website home page and navigation. Make it easy for visitors to find what they
need and to request more information.
These simple changes will help you get off to a more productive start in
the New Year.
This blog was originally posted by GrowthSpring
Group on the MENG
Blend website.
GrowthSpring Group
is a unique strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that helps clients
accelerate sales and profit growth. We help you identify and implement new
business insights, opportunities, winning strategies and plans. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com
