Is your businesses website a sieve?

How to capture leads from your website

It’s important to have a website in any business.

It’s also important to capture leads in business.

Combining the two seems automatic doesn’t it?

You’d be surprised at how many websites fail to capture leads. The last statement can also apply to a physical store front.

If someone visits your website or store you have to do everything to get their contact details. Ok, not everything but you must try to build a relationship with this person. The only way to do that is by getting their contact details.

This is what I mean by asking is your businesses website a sieve. Is it letting people drop by without trying anything to capture their details?

If 100 people visit your website a month (you have Google analytics setup don’t you?) and you don’t have any way to capture their contact details you’re missing out. The visitor may not be in the market for what you’re selling now but they have come to your site or store so there is something intriguing there.

Get that email!

When you have their contact details – email is usually the most common form given out – you are able to market to that person one on one and for a long period of time. For the record I would be hesitant to ask for a person’s phone number. Most people are more comfortable with email starting out.

Being able to market to a person for a long time is a huge factor to building a loyal community online. That’s assuming you provide meaningful content for that person to engage with.

Combining blog posts with emails is a great way to keep people up to date with your business or industry. You can send out weekly or monthly newsletters, your latest blogs posts or just useful links you’ve come across over the internet.

Using any of the suitable email automation programs allows you to do numerous things with an email list. The most important thing is tracking and analyzing data. Who opens your email and along with what links they click.

Being able to track your progress is pivotal towards success online and off.

What if they don’t give it up?

Cue the dating analogies!

You have to be patient and not go for the email right away. Don’t you get turned off when you visit a website and within five seconds they want you to join their email newsletter? You don’t know anything about them and they’re already pushing.

Talk about coming on to strong! You wouldn’t ask for a second date one minute into the first one would you?

When someone comes to your website and they see you want their contact details but they’re reluctant, what can you do?

You have three options…

1) Write meaningful blog posts

2) Give something away for free

3) Do both 1 and 2

Today it’s all about offering value in exchange for getting someone’s email address.

Back in the late 90’s everybody loved email. Then spammers caught on and now everyone dreads email!

As a side note I’ll be addressing how to write intriguing titles for emails as well as blog posts in my email newsletter. This will help you get more of your emails and content opened and shared. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below so you don’t miss out.

Meaningful blog posts

A blog when done proper can provide all sorts of value. When I mean proper I’m talking about creating meaningful content and links within your posts to other posts so people can stay on your blog longer.

Whether you educate them or entertain them, it’s easier to get their contact details once they begin to trust you more. They want to see you know what you’re talking about, are a real person and that they can trust you.

All those can be done when you are writing with meaning. I’ve talked a little bit about how blogging for business is important and I mentioned how a realtor could write meaningful blog posts already.

You have to put the effort into each blog post you write. Treat it like it’s an article going into a newspaper. A lot of people would be reading that article so you would want to impress them right? Each and every blog post deserves the same attention.

It is after all digital and never going to get recycled so give them your best stuff!

Freebies

I had a chat with a mortgage broker towards the end of November. He was mentioning a broker friend of his who had been getting consulting tips from a successful internet marketer.

One thing they do is offer each visitor some value for giving up their email address. The most common things are:

  • eBook
  • Free report
  • Free consultation

Ebook

Ebooks have been around for close to 10 years now. They’re easy to produce and don’t cost much to make except for effort. An ebook can really set you apart from the competition and show your visitors that you truly care about them.

They don’t have to be the same length as a physical book but they do have to showcase your knowledge of your product or industry. See what others are doing in your industry and find out if they give away an eBook. If they do grab it to see what it takes to produce a great eBook.

If you have the time creating an eBook is the best choice.

Free Report

I’ve seen a few internet marketers during my research who produce free reports. These are good if your product or service offering is really small. Top 10 lists are great for reports and intrigue people to sign up for an email list.

If you’re an insurance broker you could write on on the top 10 reasons why insurance claims fail. A small grocery store could write on a report on the top 10 reasons to buy local.

Free reports offer a great alternative to eBooks as they don’t require much time. Topics can range from a lot of different things but the key is to educate and provide value.

Free Consultation

Lately I’ve come across service providers who offer free consultations. This is a sneaky way to get someone to offer their email address in exchange for free consulting.

A good route to go if you provide a service but be warned that people may not like receiving your emails because you weren’t up front and honest with them.

Tag Team

Now if you have a blog and some sort of free give away, you’ll be well on your way to capturing more leads for your business.

This method does require a lot of effort but the rewards are huge! You’ll gain trust and your credibility will soar. These are two major components to meaningful marketing.

When it comes down to it you have to offer value everywhere you go. This can only help but open the sales funnel and allow you the ability to market to your new lead for a long time.

The baseball glove of your website

Earlier I talked about your website being a sieve. That can all change.

Once you’ve implemented all the steps above you can now play catch! Opt in forms are the method of catching or capturing a leads details.

EZLeadCapture.com is a great way to not only

Aweber is the email automation software I use. Once signing you can create custom opt in forms or choose from pre made template.

These opt in forms capture a leads contact details and stores them back at you Aweber account. Don’t ask me to explain how this magic happens as I’m still mesmerized by the radio and cassette tapes!

Common places to put opt in forms on a website are:

  • along the side of the page where the reader can see it
  • in blog posts like I have done already
  • at the top of the page so people can see it right away

These places are all fine but the key will come down to providing a reason or incentive for someone to subscribe.

Well I’ve covered all I wanted and I really hope you’ve enjoyed this post. My goal is to not only help you market with more meaning but to also make sure you get the most out of your marketing.

Lead capturing is very important and I wanted to talk about ways you can increase your chances of getting peoples contact details.

If you liked this post and what the site is all about, please spread the word around your social networks by sharing it. It would mean an awful lot!

So how would you grade your websites ability to capture leads?

Are there any methods I’m missing for capturing leads online?

Image courtesy Richard Summers