Tag Archives: lead capture strategy

What’s Up with Pop-ups?

What’s Up with Pop-ups? Popups have been around in several forms throughout the years. Abuse early on in Internet history has given them a bad reputation. However, they have some strategic use when you know how to implement them appropriately they also have some drawbacks. So think carefully before you add them to an advertising campaign.

The Good Side of Popups

Popups give you a way to highlight important information you want to make sure all of your visitors see. For example, if you have a time-sensitive promotion, you can use an interstitial (pop-up) to alert new visitors.

Depending on what country you’re in you may need to show notices for your cookie and privacy policy. A pop-up can act as a way to get notify people visiting your site, rather than hoping they see the agreement button in the header or footer.

Another strategy that works well is using popups as email newsletter subscription forms. When triggered to pop up as people exit the website, these forms are incredibly successful in attracting new subscribers.

The Dark Side of Popups

Google is penalizing websites whose popups negatively impacts user experience, particularly for mobile audiences. Search engine rank is so competitive this move could make it difficult for sites that want to use popups.

There are 3 types of mobile popups that will get you a penalty.

  • Lightbox style popups show up as an overlay but blur out the content underneath.
  • Scrolling popups require moving down the screen to dismiss it.
  • Full-screen popups are no-nos under this algorithm.

Popups have a place in your website marketing campaign, but you have to be aware of their best practices and adhere to them. For example, making it easy to dismiss the popup and targeting specific users, so the popup doesn’t show all the time. Using these 2 techniques will not impede the user experience.

Bottomline

Popups can be an intrusive experience, or they can be a valuable method for driving leads and engagement. Use them carefully and make sure you follow all of Google’s requirements.

How to Optimize your Website for Lead Generation

How to Optimize your Website for Lead Generation
Your site is the most important tool in your toolbox for generating leads. Getting all the traffic in the world or writing engaging content doesn’t matter if traffic isn’t converting to leads. To optimize your website for lead generation, you have to know what elements of your site convert and how much they’re converting. Here are 4 places where your site can be improved to get more conversions.

Boost Lead Capture With Forms

Forms are usually at the front line of capturing leads and optimizing your forms can boost lead conversions. However, forms won’t work if they don’t attract visitors or are cumbersome. Here are 5 ways you can improve your forms to convert.

  • Reduce Fields

    In many cases, having too many unnecessary fields is a deterrent for users who may not have patience.This is especially true for mobile users trying to filling out forms on a small screen.

  • Include a Privacy Policy Link

    Wi yourth spam and scams prevalent on the Internet, visitors are often hesitant to give too much information. Adding a privacy policy, allows them to feel comfortable and presents you as trustworthy.

Optimize Landing Pages

In combination with forms, landing pages drive visitors to convert. On their own, landing pages give visitors more information, presents offers, and can be used in conjunction with other marketing channels (such as social media). Because they are multi-functional and important to lead generation, optimizing landing pages has an impact on overall site optimization.

  • Work on Your Value Proposition

    Highlight the value of your business and convince visitors on why they should leave their information or make a buy. Be upfront with the benefits of your free (emphasis on free) ebook or your white paper.

  • Thank You pages

    When a lead leaves their information on a landing page, they should be sent a “Thank You” page. Thank You pages can display testimonials and links to other pages and offerings, and provide encouragement to explore the site more.  This solidifies their trust in the company, and they’re much likelier to return.

  • SEO

    Much of the time, landing pages are found through search engines. You can optimize a landing page for SEO by:

    • Speeding up page loading times
    • Including keywords
    • Use engaging, short, relevant headlines
    • Make content shareable with social media share buttons

Don’t redesign your entire website to get more leads. By improving the more important lead conversion elements of your website (landing pages and forms), you can optimize your site for lead generation, gain more conversions, and build trust in converts and visitors.

Using Social Proof to Get More Leads

Using Social Proof to Get More Leads There are many strategies for lead generation with digital marketing: blog content extras, social media advertising, lead magnets, etc. One particular strategy that is extremely powerful to get more leads is social proof.

What is social proof?

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.

In layman’s terms, people are more likely to buy something when they see others doing the same. Here are a few examples where you’ve probably seen social proof in action:

  • When you go out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night, it’s likely that you’ll have to wait. Most restaurants tend to have a smaller lobby so that patrons have to wait outside, making it appear that this is a popular restaurant, and therefore a good place to eat.
  • Similarly, if you go out to a nightclub, the most popular clubs always have a line out the door, regardless of whether the club is full. This makes others want to get in line to check the club out as well.
  • Several years ago, Dropbox put out the Mailbox App and required new users to sign up to be put on a waiting list. This made people want to get in on the action because an app with a waiting list must be pretty awesome.

How can you use social proof to generate leads and increase the buzz about your business?

1. Customer testimonials

The most common forms of social proof are your business reviews and customer testimonials. Use these to your advantage by adding a testimonials section to your website or create branded graphics with testimonials to share on your social media profiles.

2. Influencer marketing

Using celebrity endorsements or getting well-known bloggers and social influencers to use and endorse your product is a great form of social proof. This can be an ad or offering of a free product to share with their followers.

3. Follower/social share count

Include your social media follower count or the number of social shares on your blog posts to increase the likelihood that others will share your posts. You can use plugins on your website that show these numbers automatically. Social Warfare is a great plugin for WordPress, and it adds a count to the social share buttons.

4. Mentions in the media

Has your business been written about on influential websites, magazines, or blogs? Create a separate page for all of your media mentions. Share links to the articles about your business so potential customers can read them and decide if they want to work with you.

5. Industry certifications, accreditations, or badges

If your business has certifications or accreditations from your industry, you should share these on your website. Some industries have required certifications, while others have badges that help your business stand out. Regardless if the certification is required or not, it’s a great idea to share your additional education, licensing and credentials with potential customers.

6. Number of customers

McDonald’s has the slogan “Billions and billions served” because it shows that they have a huge customer base. Share how many orders you’ve received, customers you’ve had, or clients you’ve worked with.

Social proof is a highly powerful method for getting new leads and new customers. Start implementing a few of these strategies to start bringing in more business.

How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 2: Engagement

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 2: Engagement

You’ve made enough of an impression on potential leads that they’re aware you exist and have a basic level of trust in your company. Now it’s time to take the next step and engage them. This stage continues building the relationship and moving one step closer to converting a curious person into a lead.

Answer Questions

Social media offers a convenient way a prospective lead can ask you questions. This offers a prime opportunity for you to position yourself as a trusted and valuable resource. Social media management tools make this process easier, as you can get a single tool to handle all of the people contacting you through your profiles.

Invite Feedback

Market research used to be incredibly difficult and costly to get. Now you can invite feedback directly from your target audience. Polls, surveys, and live chats allow you to connect with potential leads and find out exactly what they think about your plans. You can use this information to tailor your solutions to your ideal customer.

Stay Responsive

Don’t ignore engagement, whether it’s on social media, email or another channel. Focus on the timeliness of your responses with the potential lead. Therefore, if you’re quick, they’ll know that you’ll be on the ball if they do business with you.

Acknowledge Engagement

Sometimes engagement doesn’t come in the form of a question. Your audience may share your content or reach out with an observation. Take the time to acknowledge the conversation, so they know you’re paying attention to them.

Be Social

One of the best ways to improve your engagement strategy is to put yourself out there on social networks. Potential leads will find it easier to reach out if you’re already active on social media. Furthermore, share useful content from your audience, and your own resources for trust building and connect with a wide range of people and companies.

Adapt to the unspoken rules and requirements expected for the social media site. For example, on Twitter, you need to master the art of talking in 140 characters or less and provide topical information. Your Instagram strategy will thrive when you have a strong visual strategy, while Facebook works better for more in-depth resources.

Engagement is a crucial step in getting more leads for your company. You go where your audience does and put yourself out there as a valuable and helpful company.

How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 1: Awareness

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 1: Awareness

Are you on the hunt for the elusive lead? The prospect’s journey from your first interaction to the conversion can take place through many channels and goes through 3 stages: awareness, engagement, and capture.

What is the Awareness Stage?

Your potential lead has a problem that they want to solve. However, they don’t know much, if anything, about the solutions available, the relevant brands or how to choose the option that works best for their needs.

During this stage, the prospect is seeking out educational resources. They want to gain a better understanding so they can make an informed decision. You can start the lead capture process with a resource designed to give each visitor the information they need to move forward in the lead conversion process.

Channels to Use for Building Awareness

A mix of channels gives you the greatest opportunity to reach your intended audience with this informative content. When you put together your lead capture strategy, incorporate these channels into your plan.

  • Website
    Your website can act as a content and resource hub for your educational assets. You can put together a resource library featuring guides, ebooks, videos, and tutorials.
  • Blog
    A blog is an easy to set up channel that you can fill with helpful resources, topical information and curated content that’s relevant to a prospect’s needs. While the information may be similar to the resources available in your library, blogs tend to have a more informal approach. Blog posts also frequently have more visual content, so incorporate infographics, charts and other visuals into the content.
  • Social Posting
    Social media sites give you access to a wide audience and help you build awareness. You can target relevant hashtags, participate in Twitter chats and promote your educational content.
  • Email
    Email newsletters and e-courses help you reach prospects on mobile, as many people check their inboxes on their phones. You can deliver the right content to people in the awareness stage so they learn more about the way they can solve their pressing problems.
  • Forums and groups
    Niche specific forums and groups give you a lot of access to your potential audience. By sharing relevant, valuable content in this channel, you improve your visibility, so prospects find you during the awareness stage.

Once you position yourself in the right places to attract potential leads at the beginning of their journey, you move on to the next step: Engagement.  Stay tuned for this in a next post!