3 Reasons Your Website Isn’t Fetching You Enough Leads

Every week, every day, potential new customers come sniffing around your site, looking for the scent that gets their tail wagging. If you’d like your site to fetch you more new business, and let’s face it, who wouldn’t? Then here are the 3 things that might be getting in the way of potential leads following their nose to you.

A lot of sites do these 3 simple things wrong, so don’t hit yourself with a rolled-up newspaper if yours is one of them. Just so you don’t leave with your tail between your legs, also included are what you can do to fix the problems…

3 Things Stopping Visitors Becoming Customers

1) They don’t understand the value they get in return for giving you their details
 
2) They can’t find enough information, have information overload or can’t find relevant information

3) They aren’t comfortable enough with your company and don’t know what to expect

Fixing the Problems

Each problem affects the other. If, like a lot of sites, you’ve got all 3 wrong; it’s no surprise you’re unhappy with the amount of leads your site is generating.

Give Value to Receive Value

What do your visitors get from you in exchange for giving you their information? Once you’ve decided what you’re going to give them, it’s important to communicate the value of your offering. 

You know the value of a customer’s information, and these days, your visitors know how valuable their details are too.  Make your offering appealing so they feel that they receive equal or more value for filling out your form.

What you tell them depends on what you’re offering, for example:

• Let visitors know how your offering will help them.
• Give examples of what they can do with what you’re going to give them.
• List the topics or table of contents if they are getting something written, such as a White Paper, include text excerpts.
• Include a photo or image to make the offering more tangible.
• Tell them all important details, such as when a free trial runs out or what system requirements they need.

Keep in mind, although you will get more leads, you will also get an increase in ‘junk leads’ who just want the giveaway. In most cases this trade-off is worth it.

The Hunt is On

Getting the balance right when it comes to the amount and type of information on your site is a vital part of converting visitors to leads. It’s important to answer all the questions visitors may have as each will have different goals in mind when they come to your site.

One way to check  how well your site answers visitors questions, is to look into how long visitors spend sniffing around each page. An indication you’re lacking the right information in the right places is if your FAQ page attracts a lot of visitor time. If it’s a frequently asked question then it should be answered in the main site content!

Information Overload

As Historian William Pollard said “Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organised, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”

Too much information can be as much of a problem as too little. Although it’s important to answer your visitor’s questions, it’s time to take a cold hard look at whether you’ve gone too far and entered ‘information overload’ zone. Visitors shouldn’t have to wade through too much irrelevant information or you risk them giving up altogether.

Don’t forget, the person doing the research using your site may not be the decision maker. They may simply be the information gatherer with the task of comparing your offering with your competitors. How easy is it for them to find what they need - and print it out? Try printing a popular page yourself and see what happens.

Trust Me!

Without trust you’ll lose good leads, and attract more bad leads. Most visitors who don’t trust you won’t follow through by contacting you. Even if a visitor thinks you might be the right choice, they may still avoid contacting you for fear of your sales team hounding them.

You are better to instil trust through your site’s copy so visitors are confident you can meet their needs even before they fill out a form or pick up the phone. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘if they want to know they’ll ask’.

5 Ways to Instil Trust

1. Include information about what it’s like to work with you. Assure visitors you won’t pressure them if they get in touch.
2. Check your ‘about us’ page. Do you actually tell visitors about you? Or just repeat information about your products or service? Include your company history, bio’s of key staff and share your company’s values.
3. Add short, friendly lead forms in appropriate locations throughout your site, not just on your ‘contact us’ page. Using analytics, you can measure what pages attract the most leads and what pages aren’t performing.
4. Tell visitors what will happen after they send their info, tell them how soon they’ll hear from you. Give them the power – ask how they prefer to be contacted (then follow up in the way they ask).
5. Don’t stop people picking up the phone. Have your contact number near every form.

Is your site a dog that scares away visitors? Or a friendly one that makes them feel welcome? Maybe it’s time to call in the trainer and fix that anti-social behaviour so visitors are greeted with a site, and company, that they want to interact with.

By the way (for those who don’t already know me and my dog Biscuit, pictured above) can you guess what mix of two breeds she is? Add a comment below with your best guess.