Driving new traffic to your website will increase the number of people visiting your site, but may not be engaged in working with you yet, are typically at the start of their online research or are only just becoming aware they have a problem that needs fixing.
This is where you turn them into leads, or prospects most likely to become a client. The best leads (often referred to as qualified leads) are those who are in the market for your services right now, willing to make a decision immediately and will recommend your business to others in their network.
Here’s how you can convert more website ‘visitors’ into ‘leads’.
It’s unlikely a first time lead will sign up immediately, as there’s usually a series of events website visitors go through before they decide to become your client. This can include looking at your firm’s social media channel, checking out your LinkedIn profile, reviewing customer testimonials, and downloading or reading the content you have available to demonstrate your expertise. Do some research and talk to your existing clients to find out what process they went through and what helped them make the decision to work with you.
This information will guide you in setting up a more efficient and effective lead conversion system.
Lead magnets are content given out in exchange for people sharing their contact information with you. This includes documents and tools like ebooks, free downloads, samples, demo videos and financial calculators. Anything that encourages a website visitor to give you their email address in exchange for what you’re offering is a lead magnet.
These documents should be relevant to your ideal clients and contain valuable information that encourages them to sign up to access.
Once you have their email address, you can follow up with email blasts, newsletters and other marketing materials.
Creating lead magnets is a great first step, and automating them makes your life even easier. Ideally, you’ll have multiple people moving through the buyer’s journey at the same time, each at various stages. Automating the process means you don’t have to keep track of them or manually nurture them individually.
Automation doesn’t always require a lot of effort to set up. For example, you can schedule a series of emails to be sent at preset intervals, each giving information that builds on the last. You could also set up an automated response when a potential lead completes a form on your website letting them know when they can expect to hear from you.
Automated reminder emails let your clients and potential clients know about important upcoming deadlines or filing dates.
A lead trigger is a sign that someone is potentially ready to buy. Signs that they are moving along the process include when they:
Each of these triggers can be part of a lead magnet schedule. For example when someone downloads your ebook or white paper, you could automate a process of three emails being sent out every three days with additional information, links to case studies, or a welcome offer.
Or when someone registers for an event or webinar, they could automatically receive an email with a thank you and a link to a special offer on your website.
There are automation tools out there to help you convert visitors into leads and leads into buyers. These include LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Pipedrive and HubSpot.
Leads come in varying levels. Some are interested in what you do but not yet ready to become a client. Others are ready to work with you, now. There are things you can do to encourage more highly qualified leads to reach out.
Your website is one of the tools you use to convert visitors into leads, so you need content that’s engaging and relevant to your audience. Your website should also be designed to encourage people to engage further with your firm.
Ensure that your website is
Consider having multiple landing pages for different visitors who come to your website. For example, you might have one landing page for people who find you through an industry directory and another landing page for people who found you through social media. If you run a paid ad campaign, have a specific landing page for people who find you through that avenue.
Certain software can also track when a person returns to your website, allowing you to set up custom messages, pop ups and pages based on what they’ve clicked on before.
Use the 7 steps to an effective business plan guide as a lead magnet on your website. You can edit it to suit your firm, your clients and your writing style too.
Once you’ve got people to visit your website, convert them into leads using the mix of tactics that fit your accounting firm best, so they can ultimately become your clients. By engaging with website visitors and developing your lead generation process, you’ll start to convert more ‘visitors’ into quantifiable ‘leads’ and then customers.