The Wall Street Journal tells us that 81% of new product or service searches start online. They don’t use the phonebook, they don’t even use the online phonebook. Most simply turn on their Computers, open their favorite search engine and type what they want.
Additionally, most local searches are done by city…. i.e. “managed services Orlando, fl”
All these things considered we come to the fact that most companies that have a website have never generated a single lead from it. So they reach a conclusion….unfortunately its the wrong conclusion, that the Internet doesn’t work. We know from the numbers and our own successes that this is absolutely not true.
What is true, is that 90% of small and medium businesses corporate websites are NOT effective lead generators. All these companies were well meaning when they embarked on their website. They had images of marketing to the world.
The bottom-line is most websites were not created to be lead generators. They simply have too much going on…Mission statements, service descriptions, background about the company, FAQ’s, portfolios, pictures, and lots of place to click around and actually become “disinterested” and leave.
There is more then one solution to this problem but my first recommendation is usually the landing page. A landing page is a single page site that has one purpose and that is to take in “targeted traffic” and deliver a compelling message to that traffic and convert it into a “I must find out more about this” type of lead.
A successful landing page must have three elements:
1 – Must not veer of course with the topic your visitor is expecting. If your a carpet cleaning company and you’ve brought a visitor to a page they found while searching for carpet cleaning, you had better not talk to them about tile and grout cleaning.
2 – Deliver a compelling message. You must give them a reason to take action. It is not enough to simple list the features and benefits. Chances are your competitor did that. The three main motivators are, FREE, time or money. Offer to give something for free with their business, do something “instantly” for them or save them $X or %…be specific with this one.
Always think about your prospect having just come from two competitors sites and you need to offer something different and more enticing.
3 – Make sure it is obvious what they need to do. Have you ever been to a website when you just wanted to buy something and you couldn’t find the pay link…frustrating. If I showed you 5 landing pages, you should be able to tell me in 5 seconds or less–THIS is where the creator of this site wants me to go. Use ARROWS or whatever it takes to make this obvious.
Truly one of the secrets of Lead Generation Marketing is the Landing Page. Nothing could be worse then driving tons of traffic to a site that a visitor leaves in seconds. Develop your Landing Page strategy and follow the three rules above and you will be way ahead of the competition.
