Matt Handal of Helpeverybodyeveryday.com has written a useful e-publication, The Ultimate Guide to Converting Website Visitors to Clients.?(You’ll have to subscribe to his eletter to receive the book — part of his lead generation system.)
Handal correctly observes that conversion is really more important than traffic when measuring a website’s effectiveness.? A site that attracts 1,000 visitors a month and converts .1 per cent (1) could quite likely be less effective than one that attracts 100 visitors, and converts 3 per cent (3).
But, as Handal observes, the story can be even more complex. The architectural, engineering and construction business isn’t like Amazon.com. You aren’t going to visit some contractor’s website, and then “click to buy” a $7 million school job.
Rather, your goal in conversion is to acquire basic information about your visitors — ultimately starting the relationship-building process hopefully from individuals who are truly qualified to be interested in your services.
Let’s be frank about this — the numbers here won’t ever be huge. Of course, there can be multiple influencers within a decision-making organization who may legitimately want to have a connection with your business or practice. Yet I expect most of the names you gather, even by the best lead gathering techniques, will be useless.
Still, a few gems within the dross make the process worthwhile.
So, how do you go about developing an effective lead-generation/website conversion strategy.
Handal suggests you need (a) an email system to manage and gather and follow-up on the leads and a “magnet” — an offer of information or resources that will attract readers to give you their vital information.? You can then follow-up by providing the information resource they are seeking, plus include them on your eletter list so you can follow-up with further communications. (This isn’t spam, because the readers requested the information.)
There’s plenty of science in designing lead magnets, and developing list-building tools, and when you implement them, you will find your qualified readers/prospects lists starts to grow. If you are fortunate enough to offer a product/service that can actually be directly sold online (say a seminar/presentation) you may even convert some of those leads into direct cash sales.
(We of course encourage readers to sign on for our weekly regional construction publication eletters — and have set our advertising information page so that potential advertisers can receive the complete media guide immediately by providing their contact information. We don’t publish the media guide openly because we want to be able to follow-up with potential advertisers, and aren’t interested in providing our business information/pricing to snooping competitors.)
Just recognize that any website strategy you devise will only work as part of your larger marketing/communication picture. If you can get someone to purchase a $7 million school job online with a “click to buy” order, please let me know.
See also?https://www.wix.com/blog/2014/08/how-to-turn-your-website-into-a-lead-generating-machine/
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