Designing a Website That Masters the Art of Lead Generation

Having a professional looking, well-functioning website is priority one for many businesses – as it should be because it’s one of the most important tools a business has for becoming and staying visible in the digital world. It’s safe to say that a strong website should be the cornerstone of your successful marketing strategy.
When you think about it, practically ever digital marketing move you make is done with the end goal of increasing the amount of traffic to your website. The idea is that more visitors equals more revenue, and to a degree this is true. There’s only one caveat. Once all that traffic lands at your digital door, your website needs to be capable of generating the type of high quality leads that eventually convert.
Is your web design positioned to accomplish this for your business? A lot of businesses will answer with a firm yes without really understanding how complex lead generation can be. Real results require more than having a form pop up and hoping for the best. If you want to see the type of lead generation capabilities that can actually impact your bottom line, then you need a dedicated strategy for developing a website that performs.

The Right Incentive at the Right Time

The fact that you need to capture your lead’s information is a no-brainer, but too many times we see businesses who have designed their sites with no real strategy for doing so. Sure, there’s a lead caption form or a link here and there, but none of it really provides enough incentive for visitors to act. This is almost always due to the lead capture element being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For a website that masters the art of lead generation, you need to be purposeful in how you go about capturing your lead’s information. Consider a form that pops up as soon as a visitor enters your site. Some might argue that this puts the offer out there right in front, before the visitor has the chance to change their minds. In certain situations, this might even be effective.
However, the average visitor to your site doesn’t want to be bombarded the very second they land. Instead, they’re more likely to fill out a form or click a link when it makes sense to them. For example, having a form on each of your individual service pages provides the visitor with the opportunity to learn just enough to decide they’d like to know more.
It’s also important that your offers match the page the visitor is on. If you’re a landscaping company and someone needs a tree removed due to a mid-summer thunderstorm, the last place they want to land when they click on your ad is your page for snow removal services. The takeaway here is to skip the generic approach and develop lead capture opportunities that make sense to each visitor’s point in their journey.

Attracting the Mobile Consumer

It’s estimated that at least 57% of all online traffic in the United States comes from people using their mobile devices – this number includes both smartphones and tablets. For the average business, this means that more of your customers are reaching you through their mobile devices, which is a trend we can expect to keep growing.
The past few years there’s been a heavy push towards mobile friendly and responsive design. At this point, we’re beyond the friendly nudge and have moved on to the point where businesses that don’t have responsive websites might as well personally hand their leads over to the competitor.
We can also look at the recent updates in Google’s algorithm as proof that responsive design is a must. With Google’s mobile first indexing, sites that aren’t mobile optimized stand the chance of being left in the dust – something that’s just about as counterproductive to lead generation as possible.

Where’s Your Traffic?

There are plenty of theories out there about where to place your lead generation forms and offers. While these theories are based on a combination of case studies, personal experience and analytics, we need to remember that a one size fits all approach to lead generation is a mythical unicorn – it just doesn’t exist.  
Just for a minute, throw aside what you think you know about lead generation and take a look at your own metrics. Where is the majority of your traffic coming from? It might not hurt to have a lead capture form on your homepage, but if you’ve neglected adding them to  your higher traffic landing pages then you’re missing a prime opportunity to connect.
The first step is to identify your high traffic pages and the second step is to optimize them. By optimize, we don’t mean just planting a lead capture form there and calling it a day. You need to assume that not every person that lands on these pages is ready to commit, so they need to be optimized to nourish the consumer along their journey. High quality leads are the ones that have built up a genuine interest in your lead incentive rather than just going along to get it out of the way.

Starting with the Perfect Canvas

At the end of the day, almost every element that goes into your website design influences your ability to attract and capture leads. The most guaranteed path to success is working with a professional web designer that can create a site for your business that’s both beautiful and functional. When you need a web designer that’s experienced in the art of lead generation, we’re the team that you can count on.
Our web design and interactive services will help your business earn the attention of highly qualified leads – this is the essential canvas that successful businesses use to paint their future on. Contact JLB today and discover how our web design services can bring high quality leads to your door.