Your web site is one of the most effective ways to attract leads to your business. However, just having a web site is not good enough. You must ensure that you BUILD a web site that’s set up for successful lead generation and lead capture. LIndsay Bayuk, with Pure Chat (live chat software), shares her insights on this.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of theoretical marketing and sales advice. Give me some clear, actionable tasks I can implement today. In the past few months I’ve read what seems like every “growth hacking” article on web. I’ve tried some of the ideas from these articles. And you know what? There’s no silver bullet. You just have to do the work. In this post we’ll cover five “hacks” to help you generate more leads and sales from your small business website. These aren’t silver bullets, but they are practical tips you can implement today.
Submit your content to community sites
Share your expertise on Linkedin or Reddit (relevant subreddit’s only), Inbound.org and BizSugar. StartupNation is completely free and started by entrepreneurs. Small Business Bonfire also includes a community full of news and resources. Take 10 minutes to identify the best communities for you and your business. You can go to resources such as Feedly or Alltop to find the best communities for you. Respond to a couple existing questions and share one of your blog posts. It should go without saying that you should give more than you take when joining a community.
Review products you use and love
Crazy about your accounting software? Or your project management tool? Write up a glowing recommendation and send it to their marketing team. Make sure to ask for a link back to your website. Most marketing teams will be grateful for your proactive advocacy and you’ll benefit as well. For one, you and your company will be listed on a prominent website for free. I’m all about win/win marketing! And two, the URL on their site will send “SEO juice” back to your website. Last I checked, everyone can use more backlinks.
Add live chat to your website
Phone and email are old and slow. When visitors on your website want to make a purchase, they are ready to buy now. When they have a question, they want an answer now. Live chat is fast, easy and more comfortable. You can easily add live chat to your website in less than five minutes. Even when you’re not available to instantly message website visitors, live chat software works to collect leads for you. With products like Pure Chat, the chat box converts into an email capture form when you’re offline. Or, you can use mobile apps to chat with website visitors from anywhere.
Live chat also creates better customers. An eMarketer report found that “63% of respondents who chatted said they were more likely to return to the site, and 62% reported being more likely to purchase from the site again.”
Improve your user experience without a designer
Even if your website doesn’t look like it’s from the 90’s, it still may be out of date in today’s world of mobile searching and browsing. When was the last time you checked your own website on your mobile phone? As a small business owner you need to optimize for mobile. In fact, Google announced that mobile traffic exceeded desktop traffic in ten countries in 2015. First impressions matter for new website visitors browsing on web or mobile devices.
It doesn’t have to cost and arm and a leg to have a beautiful web presence. The fastest way to improve your web presence is migrate to a website platform like Weebly, Shopify or Squarespace. Only sell 1-15 products? Consider using Gumroad. Each product offers beautiful templates that are easy to customize and continually update. Use ColorHunt to pick your own set of modern colors. A fresh website will make you and your company look more trustworthy and professional. All of these platforms are already well-designed so you’ll benefit from the improved user experience.
Optimize your site for local search
Build a base of loyal, vocal fans locally. If you haven’t set up a Google My Business account yet, do it today. Creating local community is so important for small business. Even if you have customers nationally or internationally you still likely have local prospects and customers. Setting up your Google profile will get you exposure on Google Maps, Google Search and G+. There’s really no excuse not to list your business. It will help you simultaneously drive web and foot traffic. It won’t take much time if you follow these steps.
