26 Sure-Fire Ways to Generate More Leads From Your Website

March 18, 2020

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After they build a business website, some entrepreneurs feel their tasks here are done and their pages will just keep on bringing in leads.

But if you want to stay relevant and keep improving your conversions, you need to keep monitoring your clickthroughs and tweaking your landing pages and website elements.

Below we’ve outlined 26 tips you can use to turn your business website into a well-oiled lead generation machine.

26 Lead Generation Strategies You Can Use on Your Website

1# Include Forms in Your High-Traffic Pages

Identify the platforms and posts that bring in the highest traffic. If people are finding your site through your social media channels such as your Facebook page, include links to helpful resources which visitors can access after providing their email addresses.

For your top-performing blog posts, display a sign-up form. You can also prepare long-form content on the most popular topics on your blog, which you can send to readers’ emails after they fill out a contact form.

You can even generate leads from among your current subscribers. For example, in your emails, include sign-up forms for your upcoming course, event, or book launch. Alternatively, you can add forms in the blog posts where you’re directing your email subscribers.

2# Use Micro Landing Pages

Micro landing pages are pop-up forms that invite your visitor to take a specific action, such as subscribing to your newsletter or leaving their email address to get a coupon code. According to Optimonk, this strategy, compared to solo landing pages, can boost your conversion by at least 15%.

Micro-landing pages are triggered by your site visitor’s behavior such as entering or closing your page, moving their mouse over the contact button, or abandoning their cart.

These pop ups can show up immediately, i.e., as soon as they enter your site or be delayed, showing up only when visitors stay on your page for several seconds.

Especially if you are using micro-landing pages as exit intent, you need to make your pop-ups more effective since it’s your last chance to convert your visitor. You can increase your chances of converting visitors into leads by:

Providing an enticing offer, such as a discount or free course.
Promoting free trials of your product while giving leads guarantees like being able to cancel or unsubscribe anytime. See how Red Stag Fulfillment emphasizes “risk-free” in its sign-up form.
Offering content related to those they’ve shown interest in, such as a full report or an ebook on the same topic. You can also reduce your bounce rate by showing them a list of similar posts.
Enumerating other benefits, such as learning about promotions and receiving free tips.

3# Leverage Live Chat

When it comes to customer support, many visitors still want to interact with a real person and get answers fast. You can deliver both through live messaging and video call options, as well as chatbots.

Here are a few reasons to leverage live chat features:

By providing immediate answers to visitors’ questions, you are improving your potential customers’ experience of your brand.
By addressing potential clients’ questions, you increase the chances of converting them.
It is a low-cost marketing and lead generation strategy that can generate high returns.
You can give visitors multiple options to get in touch with your sales team, based on their preferred mode of communication such as live chat messaging, email, or even a phone call.
You can use chatbots to augment your marketing team. Outside office hours, these chatbots can guide visitors or ask them to leave their contact information so your sales team can get in touch with them.
You can use chatbots to anticipate objections and provide answers to these.
You can leverage chatbots to qualify visitors as well, such as the example below.

4# Improve Your Forms

If you want to reduce your visitors’ resistance to filling out your forms, you need to find ways to optimize these. Here are a few tips:

Keeping it short. Include only the fields you need.
Enumerate the benefits or what they’re getting when they fill out your form.
Assure visitors that their contact information are safe with you and you won’t spam them.
Make sure mobile users can easily fill out these forms.

5# Monitor Your Lead Generators’ Conversion Rates

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” This applies to improving your lead generation tools and processes too. Look at your landing pages’ performance and conversion rates.

Try to identify what’s working with your highest-converting pages. Apply these on your least converting pages, and run A/B tests to monitor the results.

If you have heatmaps, use these to determine the parts of the page that get the most views or clicks. Try to move your CTA near these frequently viewed sections, and run tests to see if this new version generates higher conversions.

6# Display Your Address Or Location

Studies commissioned by Google on consumers’ local search behavior found that 80% of consumers turn to search engines to find information on local businesses, such as store addresses, business hours, and directions.

What’s more impressive is that most of these local searchers actually take action: 50% of those who searched via their smartphones and 34% of those who used their computers or tablets went to the local store within a day. To top it off, 18% of local smartphone searchers actually bought a product within a day.

So make it easy for your potential customers to find you. Include your contact details, address, and store hours. Link to a map and provide directions to help car owners and commuters find your business.

7# Prepare Giveaways Or Freebies

Another quick way to collect email addresses is through giveaways or freebies. To entice visitors to fill out your form, think of something valuable to offer for free, such as a:

Ebooks
Free courses
White papers
Templates
Discounts on their next order
A chance to get a free autographed book
Free product trials

8# Include Images To Your Testimonials Or Reviews

Testimonials provide the social proof many consumers look for before sinking their money in your products or services.

Boost the credibility of these testimonials by adding photos of your satisfied clients, their names, position, and company or business.

9# Place A Basic CTA On Your Homepage

When potential clients look up your business, the first page they most likely see is your homepage. Be sure to include a basic CTA on your homepage, such as an invitation to:

Subscribe to your newsletter.
Try your service for free for a limited time.
Take a quiz.
Listen to your podcast.
Sign up for your training.

10# Make Your Past Webinars Available On Demand

Webinars can attract a lot of potential clients into your space. These are also perfect tools to show off your skills and competence to people who have never heard of your company prior to this. Done well, webinars can turn casual visitors into buyers or even fans.

Increase the leads you generate–and also the number of people you help with your webinars–by posting these as gated content on your site.

Create a short clip with some of the key points to entice people to sign up and access the full version. You can place a link to these on-demand webinars on your high-traffic blog posts or on articles related to the webinar’s topic.

11# Leverage Trust Seals

Visitors’ trust on your brand and your site sway their decision to buy from you or subscribe to your emails. In Baymard Institute’s 2016 Checkout Usability study, 18% of users abandoned the checkout page in the past three months because they don’t want to entrust their credit card details to the site.

In 2019, Baymard Institute also ran a study to find out which badges users trust when making online payments. Topping the list was the SSL seal Norton (showing technical security), followed by trust seals showing business authenticity like Google Trusted Store, BBB Accredited Business, and TRUSTe.

If you want visitors to feel safe when they subscribe to your blog or shop online, include these seals on your website. Aside from the seals above, you can also include other SSL seals like Thawte, Trustwave, Geotrust, or Comodo as well as trust seals like PayPal Verified, GoDaddy Verified & SEcured, and Shopify Secure.

12# Tap “Forward To a Friend” Features

Many look to their trusted friends, family, and colleagues when they need recommendations on a product or service.

You can also use the same word-of-mouth marketing to generate new leads. One advantage of referral marketing is that a level of credibility is somehow immediately established when the recommendations come from people your potential clients already trust.

You can insert Forward to Friend CTAs on your web articles or pages and social media posts. You can include Share via Email options in your product pages.

For your email campaigns, check out your email marketing provider for instructions on how to add Forward to Friend links to your messages.

To increase the chances that people will share your content, create materials they would want to forward to their personal network.

These include inspiring or insightful articles, images of your products, or invitations to charitable events such as this email by Barneys New York to support the Children’s Research Fund.

13# Show ebook Download Offers On Relevant Posts & Pages

Another lead generation tactic is to publish a group of blog posts around your selected keywords, then invite your readers to check out an ebook where you discuss the topic in greater depth.

Aside from putting CTAs in related blog posts, you can also list the ebook on your website’s Resources page or promote it through micro landing pages or pop-ups.

Everyone who wants to read your ebook or comprehensive guide will then be asked to provide their email addresses.

14# Create Explainer Videos

Explainer videos are short (30-90 seconds), succinct videos that help viewers understand a product, know more about a company, or break down complex ideas into simple, easy-to-digest pieces.

Use these explainer videos to help visitors understand your offers, guide new users how to maximize product features, or help promote brand awareness among your viewers.

Include a CTA in your videos (such as an invitation to subscribe to your newsletter or try your products) or pair it with a PDF guide they can download.

To minimize your bounce rates, include related content or suggested videos underneath or beside your explainer video.

15# Improve Your Copy

To be able to craft effective, high-converting landing pages, blog posts, ebooks, or effective scripts for your explainer videos, you need to hone your copywriting skills.

Learn how to write actional headlines and pieces that are more concise, straightforward, and conversational. Get creative and experiment with your CTA text until you find one that appeals more to your audience and converts more visitors.

Check out this catchy CTA on HostGator’s micro landing page.

16# Make Your Site & Content Mobile Friendly

Today, many prefer to use their smartphones to do searches and shopping, making it a must for businesses to have mobile-friendly sites. To ensure your sites and materials are mobile friendly, these must have the following features:

Fast loading
Responsive design
Easy to navigate with taps and screen touches
Minimal data entry
Readable fonts
Optimized graphics and videos

17# Personalize Your CTAs

HubSpot found that personalized call to actions or smart CTAs convert 202% better than basic or default CTAs. Look at your CTAs and see how you can personalize these. Below are a few examples:

Use dynamic content to show different texts to first-time visitors and your subscribers.
Leverage dynamic content to show images, text, and offers relevant to the articles they’ve read on your site, past orders, location, and browser language.
You can also vary CTA text and offers based on where the visitors are on their buyer journey. In the example below, visitors are offered to download an apartment guide, while leads receive a free consultation.

18# Optimize Published Content

Publishing new blog posts is not the only way to continuously generate more leads for your website. Consider including historical optimization in your blogging strategy.

Historical optimization involves updating your published posts with fresh content or tweaking these to convert better and generate more traffic. There are several ways to go about it, and here are a few:

Optimize high-converting articles that do not generate as much traffic.
Find ways to generate more leads from posts with high traffic but low conversions.
Improve posts that get high impressions but have poor click-through rates.
Tweak blog posts that have high click-through rates but are not showing up on the first page of search results.

19# Leverage Whitespace in Your Designs

Whitespace refers to the empty or unused space in your website, landing pages, and content.

Far from being a waste of precious space, it actually gives your page’s elements room to breathe and increases your site’s readability.

With less elements and options competing for your visitors’ attention, readers are more likely to notice and click on your CTAs.

20# Create Assessment Tools & Interactive Content

Assessment tools like quizzes and other interactive content add value both to your visitors and your business. In the example below, SEO Reseller, a company that offers SEO for small businesses, utilizes an audit tool to capture lead emails.

By providing visitors with helpful insights, you are able to start building trust and demonstrating your business’s value to potential clients.

These interactive contents allow you to gather not just your leads’ email addresses, but other details that allow you to score your leads or move them further through the buyer’s journey.

21# Market Your Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs are another way for you to generate leads and enable fans or clients who enjoy your products or services to earn through referrals as well.

Dedicate a page on your site to explain how the affiliate program works. You can also promote your affiliate program in your other marketing materials like your email campaigns.

22# Incorporate Your Social Media Accounts

There are multiple ways to integrate your social media accounts with your website to generate leads. You can:

Add social media icons on your website to give visitors an option to follow you on these platforms if they don’t want to be an email subscriber.
Let users sign up using their social media accounts, allowing you to collect their names and email addresses.
Provide Share buttons on every article, so readers can easily post these on their social media accounts
Integrate your blog and social accounts so links to your content are automatically shared once you publish new articles.
Incorporate a newsletter signup form on your Facebook page.

23# Have A Lead Nurturing Process

To turn leads into customers, you need to put a nurturing process in place. Here are a few examples

Once they sign up for a free trial or subscribe to your newsletter, send them follow-up emails which may include tips, related content, updates on your product features, or offers or discounts.
Be sure to publish quality content, so you can position yourself as an expert in your field and a company your leads can trust.
Provide helpful links to other parts of your website. For instance, if you’re selling marketing software, on your product page, include links to tutorials, webinars, and blog posts featuring marketing strategies. Then explain how your product’s features are helping your clients implement these plans and generate excellent results.
Incorporate your products in your blog posts. Even if your blog posts are focusing on helpful tips for readers, seize opportunities to mention your business too. For example, if you’re selling home fixtures and your blog post is on energy-efficient windows, include a link or an image of one of your products.

24# Have A “Members-Only” Or “Subscribers-Only” Section

Another way to generate more leads is to have subscribers-only sections with high-quality content, aside from your usual posts or videos that don’t require visitors to sign up.

Blogging Wizard, for instance, has a blog but they make sure their Free VIP Access CTAs can grab visitors’ attention.

Aside from using green CTA buttons against white and yellow backgrounds, the CTAs also appear on several parts of their page: the header, main text above the fold, and right before the page footer.

A micro-landing page also pops up, inviting visitors to sign up to unlock the vault of resources.

25# Be Smart About Pop-ups, Sliders, Overlays, Modals, & Interstitials

While pop-ups, sliders, overlays, modals, and interstitials can help increase your leads, their timing, content, and impact on visitor interaction can also turn off your readers or affect your SERP.

Aside from sticking to Google’s guidelines when it comes to interstitials, here are a few more tips when using these:

Do not show pop-ups as soon as visitors land on your site. Instead, create exit-intent pop-ups or show them only if visitors stay on your site for several seconds or scrolled further down the page.
Modals must be easy to close.
Don’t show interstitials that cover the entire screen, especially on mobile.

26# Test, Test, Test

Use heatmaps and scroll maps to find out how visitors are interacting with your pages. To improve user experience, review web accessibility resources and use these to make your site easier to use for people with different abilities.

Based on these data, tweak your website elements. You don’t always need major revamps on your pages. Sometimes, even simple changes can significantly improve your conversion rates.

Experiment with small tweaks like using a different CTA color or wording, changing your CTA’s placement, placing a different product image, adding a video, incorporating more whitespace, or using smart CTAs.

Final words

When it comes to improving your website’s conversion rates, the possibilities and opportunities are limitless. Test any or all of these strategies, and see which ones work best for you.

Are there other strategies or website tweaks you used to increase your conversions? Feel free to share them below.

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Author bio: Vincent Sevilla is a professional graphic desiger and inbound strategist for Grit PH. His goal? To innovate ideas, create good art, and to travel all the best places in the Philippines.