What is the Point of a Website if not for Lead Generation?

Why Lead Capture should be the Primary Purpose of a Website

What is lead capture? Simply put, lead capture is the mechanism by which the website creates a direct touch between the users and your business. The ability for the user to ask a question, get in touch or by whichever means are available to them, to communicate a want or desire to the business.
Your lead management system should consist of targeted traffic generation, a call to action and a method for your audience to make contact with you and for you to get their details too. There should also be an automated follow up sequence…as in an email of thanks and introduction.

These are the basics right? So why are there so many sites out there featuring the bare minimum of lead generation opportunities?  The answer is often budgeting…people are reluctant to spend too much on the building of their site but why? Today, people simply don’t just walk around town looking for the type of business or service they need…they don’t look in the Yellow Pages…they go online and Google it. They might hit social media looking for local options or they may ask friends on social media for recommendations; these are the reasons your website needs to be optimized for lead capture.

You simply must make it simple for people to contact you, to ask questions and to access your services. If a visitor does not immediately see the point of contact on that first hit, it takes a second of thought before they hit the back button and go to the next website. Your website is there to impart information and importantly to generate lead capture.

So what do people want to see? Firstly they want a clear and clean page with no “bumf”; next they want an instruction: “Contact us” “Sign up for our free gift!” “Claim your free trial”. Whatever it is they want to be told what to do…that’s your call to action and people like being told what to do on a website; what they don’t like is a fuzzy looking page with no real information on it.

At SO Marketing we take this one step further and on a lot of brochure style websites or primarily informational websites, we recommend some form of lead capture on every page as this has been proven to work by offering the ability to communicate at the point of desire and need.

In the old days it was simple…you went to a shop or an office, opened the door and walked in. Your landing page or lead capture page is your door…your automated follow up sequence is the bell which lets you know there’s a customer in the shop and you need both in order to get people in and to ensure that you know they’re there.

Remember that not everyone wants to put their email address down on the table right away…while some people are happy to do so, others might want more information or more time…so allow your visitors the option of bypassing that initial request and getting to the main pages where your marketing and branding are at their best and clearest…and have another call to action there!

Your website is your shop…it’s there to sell your goods or your services and that’s that.  Make sure it is completely ready to fulfil its duties by offering plenty of ways to capture the users details for instant follow up!