Someone finds your website, reads your content, signs up to your email list and then buys from you.  

And all of this stuff takes place in the background while you run your business. 

You don’t speak to said-person until they send you an email saying, ‘I LOVE YOU! TAKE MY MONEY!’  

Sounds too good to be true, right? 

This couldn’t possibly happen in real life!

Believe it or not, this is exactly how it’s supposed to happen.  

Your website should really do all this hard work for you. It should act as your best salesperson, delivering you search rankings, traffic, leads and sales. 

So how do we get our websites to work hard for us? Well, in this post, I’m going to tell you exactly that.

What does a lead-generating website actually mean? 

A lead-generating website takes a website visitor and transforms them into a ‘lead’. 

This ‘lead’ can come from someone inputting their email address in exchange for a free giveaway. It could be someone booking a call with you. It could be someone filling in your contact form. 

Essentially, a lead generating website captures details from your website visitors. You then use said-details to build a relationship with your lead, and eventually get them to buy. A lot (if not all) of this process can be completed automatically. 

Pretty good, eh? 

What is the difference between a brochure website and a lead-generating website? 

It baffles us that a brochure website is still a ‘thing’. A brochure website is essentially an online billboard. It sits there looking pretty and not really doing much. It’s job is to give your visitor the information they need, and then…well that’s it. 

A lead generating website actively works to deliver you leads i.e. the details of your potential customer. 

One is passive. The other is active. 

Why do you even need leads? 

Why can’t we just get people on our website and then whenever they’re ready to buy they can come back and buy from us? Duh. 

Here’s a fancy graph type thing of ten of our clients from 2019. 70% came from our email list. 30% did not. 

Can you guess which ones were ready to buy straight away (with hardly any information needed from us)?

Can you guess which ones were more excited to buy from us?

Which ones knew everything about us and how we worked?

Which ones were ready to pay right away? 

Which ones, overall, were better-fit clients?

Yep, the ones on our email list. All of them had been on our email list for 6 months+, some of them years. And in that time they’d read a lot of our content (because we’d continuously bring them back to our content through our emails). 

Creating a lead-generating website and building an email list is not just about delivering you more leads and sales. If you do it right, it will deliver you leads from better-fit and even higher-paying clients. 

What’s the Process of Gaining Leads Through Your Website?

Here are the three simple steps to getting more leads from your website.

Step One: Entice Your Reader With a Free Giveaway on Your Website

The reader clicks on the ‘call to action’ for your highly-attractive free giveaway.

Step Two: Creating Landing Pages that Convert 

They get to a landing page that gives them more details about the free giveaway and asks for their details (e.g. email address and name)

Step Three: Creating Thank You Pages That Convert and Get Your Reader to Take Action

They go to a thank you page, and THEY’RE ON YOUR EMAIL LIST – WOOOP. AND, this is a unique opportunity for you to sell too.

What you want to do is optimise this entire process so you get maximum leads and sales. If you get every stage right, your email list will sky-rocket!

The question is, how do you do that?

Well, you’re in for a real treat my friend. Because in this blog post, I’m going to tell you how to optimise each stage, so you can gain maximum results.

Now, this blog post is pretty epic (if I do say so myself), so grab yourself a tea or coffee and have a good read.

Step One: How to entice your user with a free giveaway on your website 

There are usually three ways to entice people to sign up to your email list from your website:

• a newsletter
• lead magnets
• content upgrades
• A quiz

You may not have any of these right now (and that’s okay!) You might have a couple of lead magnets. You may have a newsletter, a few lead magnets and content upgrades!

Whatever stage you’re at, I’m going to go through what each of these things are and how to best to position them on your website, so you get maximum clicks!

1. Newsletters: How to Increase Sign Ups from your website

An email newsletter is a type of email that gives the reader an ‘update’ on certain information – from industry news to exclusive content, stories and opinion pieces.

Where should you display your newsletter on your website? 

If you offer a newsletter, you’ll probably want to encourage people to sign up via your homepage, contact page, about page, start here page (if you have one) and your blog sidebar. Essentially, you need to make sure it’s prominent across your website. 

How to create compelling copy that promotes your newsletter 

First off, don’t use the word newsletter. 

I joke! 

But actually, the word newsletter sounds incredibly boring. And if you simply put the words ‘sign up to my newsletter’ then you’re not going to have much take up. It sounds like I’m going to receive updates about your new office plant or all the awards you’ve won. Yawn. 

To promote your newsletter, try to incorporate the following elements. 

1. Provide social proof – such as ‘join thousands of small business owners’, which builds trust with your readers 
2. Tell the web visitor who it’s for — such as ‘entrepreneurs and small business owners’, which makes it feel exclusive 
3. State how it works – such as ‘our free weekly email’, which gives the reader an understanding of exactly what to expect 
4. Sell the benefits – such as ‘help you get more sales’, so the reader can see why it will benefit them 
5. Use your ‘power words’ – words like ‘free’ ‘instant’ ‘direct’ etc grab people’s attention. These are called power words and can be used to promote your newsletter. 

This is a great example from Andrew and Pete who do this perfectly across their website. 

Branded Newsletters and Why You Need One
A branded newsletter is quite simply a newsletter that reflects your brand. It has a name, uses your tone of voice, colours, imagery and fonts. 

Take this example from Ann Handley. She calls hers, Total ANNARCHY. We call our newsletter the ‘Jam Sandwich’. Andrew and Pete call theirs the Rebelution! 

During a presentation about lead magnets, Kenda Macdonald of Automation Ninjas, likened a newsletter to an event– making it something for your subscribers to get excited about. I loved this analogy. 

A newsletter should be something people look forward to. It’s more than ‘just another email’ So give it a name, brand it up and make sure you shout about it. 

Should You Send a Newsletter Sign Up to a Landing Page?
A landing page is simply a web page that collects your visitors’ details. It typically doesn’t have a menu and its primary focus is to get the reader to fill in your form.

Sometimes, you’ll see websites direct you to a ‘landing page’. Other times, you can fill in the form right on the page you’re on and submit your details. 

So which option is best?
It’s a good idea to have both an option for people to sign up straight away (without leaving the current page they are on) and a specific landing page dedicated to your newsletter.

The reason it’s good to have a specific landing page is that it makes your newsletter share-worthy on social media. You can’t say ‘Sign up to my newsletter! And oh, it’s halfway down my homepage,’ because that sounds a bit silly. It’s better to send people directly to a page. 

Also, some people may not trust you enough to fill in a form right away. They may need a little gentle coaxing, which is why a landing page that builds trust and authority is sometimes needed. 

I love what You Are the Media do, where they give you the option to fill in their form right away (and you should, by the way, it’s a fantastic newsletter!) but they also have a ‘find out more’ link which takes you to a specific landing page. 

2. Lead Magnets: How to Increase Sign-Ups From Your Website 

What is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is usually something you give-away for free in exchange for your web visitors’ contact details. For example, this handy little checklist below 😉 (see what I did there)

What Types of Lead Magnet Are There?

Typically, you’ll find that lead magnets are often helpful and ‘how-to’ – i.e. they show you how to do something. These can be handy checklists/blueprints/mini guides etc. Our homepage blueprint is an example of a helpful lead magnet.

These can be used in any industry. If you’re an accountant, you may give away a checklist on how to prepare your accounts for submission. If you’re a wedding photographer you may have a guide to different wedding venues in your area.

The most common (and effective) lead magnet is helpful, easy to consume, and tackles one specific subject.

But, there’s also another type of lead magnet. An often overlooked one in the lead magnet world! And that is, the sales-focused lead magnet.

What is a Sales-Focused Lead Magnet?

Sales focused lead-magnets are aimed at your web visitors when they’re in a position to buy.

You may have heard of something called the buyer’s journey. Traditionally, the buyer’s journey consists of three key steps – here is a very brief overview.

Awareness – the buyer realises they have a problem and starts researching

Consideration – the buyer has a name for their problem and researches ways of solving it 

Decision – the buyer decides on a solution strategy

Business owners tend to focus on the ‘awareness stage’ of the buyer’s journey, which is why you see a lot of ‘how-to’ content and helpful lead magnets. Now this isn’t a bad thing. This kind of content can get more traffic to your website and grow your email list. 

The problem is, there’s usually very little content and lead magnets aimed at the later stage of the buyer’s journey – the decision stage. But if you aim to get the contact details of those in the ‘decision’ stage of the buying process, then you can communicate with prospects who are ready to invest. Yes, you’ll get less of them, but they’ll be primed to buy from you!  

What kind of lead magnets can you create for the ‘decision stage’ of the buyer’s journey? 

There are so many ways you can get leads at this stage. Things like free demos and trials. 

But one of my favourite lead magnets is the buyer’s guide – this is essentially an unbiased guide which helps people find the right product or service for them and the right company to provide said-product/service. You may run through the different options are best for which people, price points, FAQ, mistakes to avoid etc.  

Where do you put your buyer’s guide (or other sales-focused lead magnets?) 

Add them to a specific service or product page, that way, when your web visitor is learning about that product/service, you can capture their details. 

Also, include it on specific pieces of content related to that service. 

Finally, if you only offer one key service, you can also include it on your homepage. Janine Coombes’ Buyer’s Guide for marketing coaches is amazing, and she features it right on her homepage. 

3. Content Upgrades: How to Increase Sign Ups From Your Website

One of the best ways to get email subscribers is by offering a ‘content upgrade’. This is where you create a specific lead-magnet that is specific to a piece of content. Essentially, it acts as ‘bonus content’.  

To give you an example, we recently published a blog post about ‘how to write a service page’ the content upgrade is a service page checklist.

Do you need a lead magnet for every piece of content?!

I know, I know. It sounds like a lot of work. But the best way to get ROI from your content is by using your content to generate leads. It’s no use creating amazing content, then someone clicking off your website and forgetting who you are. 

I’m not saying you have to create War and Peace here. You don’t have to create something brand-spanking-new for your lead magnet. For example, in our service page checklist, I’ve used the information based that was included within the blog post, but I put it into a handy checklist.

Essentially, you don’t have to create something new, just repurpose it into a different format. You can check out our free guide on how to create a lead-generating website as an example…

What are the Benefits of Creating a Content Upgrade? 

The benefits of getting someone to download a specific content upgrade is that you have a good idea of what your subscriber wants. For example, when people download the service page checklist, we know that they’re looking for help with writing and designing their service pages. 

What to do if you don’t have the time to create a content upgrade. 

I get it. We don’t have time. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer a lead magnet in your blog posts. 

For example, in this blog post, you’ll have noticed that I’ve shown you our Ultimate Website Checklist that you can download. We already had this (I didn’t create it specifically for this post). 

You just have to make sure the lead magnet will be helpful to the audience consuming your content. The Ultimate Website Checklist is likely useful as you’re on a blog post about how to create a lead-generating website. 

4. An Interactive Quiz: How to Increase Sign Ups From Your Website

Another interesting way to get more leads through your website is by using a quiz. It’s a fun, interactive way for your audience to engage with your business, and it delivers a ton of value in the process.

We are using a quiz as our main lead magnet right now, and the results have been fantastic.

What are the benefits of using a quiz as a lead magnet?

The main benefit for us of using a quiz is the conversion rate. Our quiz converts at around 45-50%, which is far better than any other lead magnet we have used in the past. We also collect some key data from anyone who takes the quiz, such as:

• What they’re struggling with
• What’s work working well for them
• What they might need some support with

All of this information helps us to produce better content and deliver more value.

Not only that, you can make a quiz that automatically assesses your audience based on their answers and provides a score.

How to build a lead generation quiz?

We use this quiz software to build our quiz. ScoreApp allows you to build each element of the quiz to a high standard, so it converts more visitors into leads and more leads into customers. They have various features that include:

• Quiz landing pages (including templates)
• Guide questions for various niches
• Conversion-focused quiz results pages

They have pretty much everything you need to build a lead generation quiz fast.

Whichever option you choose, make sure that your content encourages people to give you their contact details. 

If you’re not doing any lead generation through your website, I would start with one of the points above. Either… 

1. Create a regular newsletter 
2. Create a sales-focused lead magnet like a buyer’s guide 
3. Create a lead magnet(s) to capture leads from your content 
4. Create a value-packed free quiz

Phew.

Okay. So you’ve figured out step one. You know how to entice your website visitors with a fabulous freebie. But…now what?

Do you remember the three-step process?

Step One: Entice Your Reader With a Free Giveaway on Your Website

Step Two: Creating Landing Pages that Convert

Step Three: Creating Thank You Pages That Convert and Get Your Reader to Take Action

Now. We’re going to come onto step two: creating high converting landing pages!

Step Two: How to Create a High Converting Landing Page

Once your lovely reader has spotted your freebie on your website and clicked on it, they should (usually) go to something called a ‘landing page’.

What’s the difference between a web page and a landing page?

First things first, why do we recommend you place your lead magnet on a landing page rather than a web page? What’s the difference?

The main difference between a standard web page and a landing page are the goals of the page. You will want your reader to take one specific action on your landing page. And that’s usually to fill in their contact details.

On a web page, you have lots of links and options. You have the navigation bar at the top. Links throughout the content. A footer with further links to different places. The reader is given more freedom.

A landing page is like a tiny jail for your reader, and the only way out is for them to fill out their contact details – mwahahaha. We joke, obviously. But we do give the reader less option as to where they can go.

The landing page is also specific in the content. You should only talk about one thing. Whereas a web page might cover your services, company details, about you etc. A landing page strips everything back and includes only the relevant information about your lead-magnet.

Essentially, a landing page is designed for conversion. A web page (and website) is designed for exploration, education and also conversion.

A landing page is also perfect if you’re sharing your lead magnet on social media. People don’t have to wade through your website to find it.

How to get more conversions through your landing page

Now you understand what a landing page is and how it’s different to your standard web page, let’s talk about how you can get more leads (i.e. contact details) through your landing page.

You may think, well I’m giving something away for free, so of course people give me their details!

Nope.

Even when you’re offering something for free you still have to sell it.

Because even though it’s free in terms of money, you’re still asking someone to spend their time on it. And if you’re asking someone to spend time with you (even if it’s just ten minutes) then you’re going to have to sell the benefits.

How to create a high converting landing page for your lead magnet…

1. Create a simple snappy headline

You need a short and sweet headline to capture someone’s attention and more importantly, explain exactly what your lead magnet/newsletter is all about.
You don’t want someone to have to work to figure it out. So be specific.

Take this example from Kyle Van Deusan who is a web designer based in Texas. He’s created a free guide called ‘5 Reasons a Slow Website is Costing You Sales and How to Fix It’.

That’s a PERFECT title. It’s specific, straight-forward, and your brain doesn’t have to think too much to understand what it is.

2. Tell them how long it will take

Time is precious, yes? And people want to know how long something is going to take them. If your lead magnet takes only 10 minutes to consume, then use that as a selling point!

We did this with our content marketing planner, and really highlighted that it took under 30 minutes to have an entire year’s worth of content.

3. Sell the benefits of your lead magnet

You will want to really sell the benefits of your lead magnet or newsletter. Highlight exactly what your user will get out of it. Gavin Bell has a great example of this with his free Facebook Advertising Blueprint. He really sells the benefit here – giving you the ‘exact strategy’ he used to generate over $750,000 for a company through Facebook advertising (we’d all want a piece of that, right?).

In his subtitle, he sells it further with the nice use of the phrase ‘Putting Your Local Business Marketing on Autopilot.’ He’s selling the potential monetary benefit and the time it will save (as you don’t have to spend that on marketing).

4. Use your power words & pique interest

Power words like ‘free,’ ‘instant’ and ‘easy’ grab people’s attention (they don’t call them power words for nothing!) It’s good to include these within the copy selling your lead magnet.

Teresa Heath Wareing does a great job of promoting her lead magnet.

Her main headline is: ‘5 easy ways to build your email list that most people miss.’ The phrase ‘that most people miss’ is intriguing, as you know you’re going to get something you probably haven’t come across before. It would definitely get people to take action. She also uses those power words! Like ‘easy’ and ‘free’.

5. Visualise your lead capture

Lead captures aren’t usually a physical thing. Your users’ can’t hold them in their hands. BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t show what your lead capture looks like. If it’s a PDF make it look like a little booklet. If it’s a video, use an image of a laptop with the video on the screen. The brain understands images much quicker than words. So if you visualise your lead magnet, you’ll give your users a quick understanding of what it is.

6. Make your CTAs stand out

You want your Call to Action buttons (the buttons that get people to take action) to stand out on the page. Do not have them blend in looking all pretty. Make them stand out. You don’t want your audience to miss them.

Denise Cowle does a great job with her call to action buttons. Not only do they stand out, but she uses the phrase, ‘send me my guide’ – which is far better than ‘submit’. It acts as a reminder of what you’re getting – a really nice touch.

7. Make it speedy!

Slow-loading pages are a big no-no. If your landing page takes too long to load your user may hit that backspace button. Run your landing page through GT Metrix to check your load speed, and if it’s too slow it will give you recommendations as to what actions you can take. (You may need to send this to your web developer).

8. Make it mobile-friendly

50.88% of internet traffic can be attributed to mobile phone. So if you want to see success from your landing page, you’re going to have to make it mobile-friendly! That means a mobile user can easily use the page (without pinching the sides or getting stuck on a pesky pop-up). If you’re not sure if your page is mobile-friendly you can check here.

9. Include a video

If you can include a video as well as text explaining what your lead-magnet/newsletter is all about then all the better. Some people love video (like Martin) and some people prefer reading (like Lyndsay!) If you can cater to more people’s preferences then your lead magnet will perform better.

Bonus points if you add captions to your video too!

10. Include social proof

You might think ‘well, it’s only free, I don’t really have to build that much trust do I?’ But even if you’re only asking for a name and email address, people still want to see that you’re legitimate and not someone who is going to spam them to death. A good way of building trust and credibility is through social proof. You could include logos of the companies/news.

There you have it: A high-converting landing page: DONE! 

So, once you’ve created your landing page, that’s it right!? Erm…no. You now need to create your thank you page. I know, I know, there’s a lot to take in here. But I didn’t call it the ‘Ultimate Guide’ for nothing!

Step Three: Creating Your Thank You Page

So, once you’ve enticed your end-user with a fabulous freebie, got them to a landing page and got them to fill out their details…that’s it, right? All is done. You’ve got them on your email list.

Not quite.

There’s one more crucial step in the process that a lot of people forget about: the thank you page.

What is a ‘Thank You’ Page?

When someone signs up to your free download (or even other things like a webinar or booking time in your calendar) it’s a good idea to send that person to a thank you page afterwards. The thank-you page confirms that you have received their request and gives the end-user instructions on what to do next.

Why You Can’t Just Give Someone Your Freebie as Soon As They Sign Up

Now, you might just think to yourself – why don’t I just give the end-user my freebie as soon as they enter their contact details. Easy peasy – just direct them to a link to your freebie.

In theory, this makes sense. But, actually, it’s not the best idea.

The main aim of collecting your user’s email address is so you can email them on a regular basis – providing helpful content, and of course, selling to them.

If you give your freebie out straight away to your end-user (without getting them to open an email to get it) then there’s no reason for them to open any subsequent emails.

If you get your end-user to open your email once, you’re training them to do it again and again in the future.

Plus, if it’s in their spam folder, they’ll go and hunt out your email to get the freebie – which tells their email provider you are a trusted source.

So as nice as it is to provide your user with something straight away, make them do a little work first.

What Should You Include On Your Thank You Page 

Your thank you page should get inspire your end-user to take action. They’ve already given you their contact details, which means you’ve built a little bit of trust with them. And a thank you page is the perfect opportunity to build more trust and loyalty…and even sell!

So what should you include on your thank you page?

1. Give instructions on what to do next

   Be a little bossy, it’s okay. Tell your user to check their inbox as their freebie will be on its way. And also tell them to check their spam and mark you as ‘safe’  or a  ‘friend.’ Give them an incentive to do this in the email too by reminding them that you’ll send helpful emails full of juicy content so be sure to mark you as safe!

2. An option to follow you elsewhere

   Do you have a Facebook group you’d like to grow? Or maybe focus your energy on LinkedIn? Now is the perfect opportunity to get someone to follow/connect with you elsewhere.

3. A sales pitch

   Yes, you can actually use your thank you page to sell something. Make an offer on one of your products or services – this may be a low-ticket item to get them started with you. But don’t be afraid to sell at this point.

4. An image or a video of you

   This is especially important for those who have signed up to your freebie without yet seeing wh0 you are. This is your opportunity to build a connection with the user. Let them see who you are and your personality.

An Example of a Great Thank You Page

We’re pretty big fans of the Membership Guys. And the way they generate leads through their website and content is AMAZING. They offer a free workshop on whether you should start a membership.

Once signed up, you get to their thank you page, which does a great job of providing the end-user with instructions, giving them another avenue to follow the Membership Guys (through their Facebook group) and selling their Membership Academy.

What Are Your Next Steps?

It can feel like a mountain to climb when you think about all the work that needs to go into collecting leads on your website. BUT, I will say this, do it once and you could generate leads for years and years. Our homepage blueprint does this for us. Yes, it’s a little work up front, but it will pay dividends if you do it right.

And remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you’re not using your website to collect leads, start with one thing first like a lead magnet. Don’t feel the need to try to do EVERYTHING!

And, of course, don’t forget to download the 10-minute lead-gen guide below – as a helpful reminder of all the key points when collecting leads.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post The Ultimate Guide to Generating More Leads From Your Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

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Website copy is one of the key elements that will make your website a success. That’s why, in this episode, we’ll give you four easy ways you can instantly improve your writing.

You’ll learn…

• How to make your copy more engaging
• How to identify passive voice
• How to make your copy less clunky
• How to use rhythm in your writing

Resources

54 Ways To Increase Your Website Sales

Facebook Group

4 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Writing: Transcript

Welcome to Episode 44 of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast. Today I’m going to give you 4 instant easy-peasy ways you can improve your writing.

But before we get into that, this show is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Community, this is our signature membership community where we help small business owners build and grow a successful website.

So let’s get on with the show.

Now firstly, who am I to tell you how to improve your writing? I own a web design company after all. Well, your website’s content is one of the key elements to its success. So, no, we don’t write your website copy, but we really do care when it’s a load of crap. Because that means your website won’t be as successful as you want it to be, you’ll be sad, we’ll be sad. There are just crappy feelings all around.

So I actually spend a lot of time learning about how to write business copy, so I can pass this knowledge onto our clients and our members too.

So, my first tip…

1. Cut the fat

We use a lot of excess, unnecessary words in our writing, especially if we write how we talk. So it helps to cast a glance over our writing to try and spot words or phrases that are redundant i.e. we don’t need them. Why bother doing this? Well, the more the brain has to read, the harder it has to work. Brevity is beautiful, so it’s a good idea to cut as much as we can without losing the meaning of the sentence.

My favourite redundant phrase is 100% true. I use it all the time. I even know when I’m writing it that I have to go back and edit it, and often I forget. Of course, there’s no percentage when it comes to truth. Something is either true or not true (unless you’re a politician in which case there seems to be some sort of different scale of truth where things can be kinda true.) But for most of us, it’s either one or the other. So in this instance the ‘100%’ is redundant. You just need to say something is true.

Some other common redundant words or phrases are – I absolutely guarantee. It’s just I guarantee. Or the end result. It’s just, the result. The basic fundamentals – I see that one all the time. It’s just the fundamentals. Let’s collaborate together, that’s a good one. Obviously it’s let’s collaborate. Actual experience – as opposed to…what? That fake experience that seems to be going around these days. Actually, my CV when I was 20 had a lot of fake experience so maybe that one does make sense. But you get the picture.

You won’t pick up on all of these but if you have an awareness of it you should be able to catch a few of them in your writing.

2. Use active voice

So this may sound like I’m sending you back to school, but that’s not what I’m trying to do here. There’s a huge difference between active and passive voice and they can have a remarkable effect on the reader.

Passive voice is when the noun becomes the object of a sentence. Whereas active voice is where the noun is the subject of a sentence. But let’s give some examples.

The letter was posted by me, that’s a passive sentence.
It makes the letter (or the object) the subject of the sentence. It essentially makes ‘the letter’ the most important thing in that sentence, and the ‘by me’ is like an afterthought.
Whereas if I say ‘I posted the letter.’ That’s active. ‘I’ is the noun which is made the subject of the sentence. And you can see the difference ‘the letter was posted by me.’ ‘I posted the letter.’
So you could have ‘the training programme must be attended by all staff.’ But it would be better to say ‘All staff must attend the training programme.’ It’s stronger, isn’t it? It puts the noun, in this case, ‘the staff’ at the forefront.
And this is a common problem in writing. I think this happens when we’re trying to tiptoe around things, like the training programme must be attended by all staff. It sounds less bossy than all staff must attend the training programme.
But what happens when we use passive voice is that we don’t sound as engaging. And we end up using more words too, words like was, were, been, be – the training programme must be attended by all staff. It just makes the sentence clunky and doesn’t inspire action. Particularly on sales pages, this is really important because you want sharp, focused copy. Not a rambly mess.
Although saying that, Martin often moans at my bluntness on WhatsApp or Facebook messenger because once you start doing it, it does become a habit, so perhaps just be wary of it in emails. Or just add a smiley face emoji. That’s what I do when I think I’m being blunt, I’ll just throw in a smiley face emoji and hope for the best. You see, you’re getting the best writing tips ever in this podcast episode.
Now, I said in the beginning that I’ve always struggled with grammar and spelling and spotting active/passive voice is no exception. So I use a handy tip from a school teacher called Rebecca Johnson who tweeted about this. Rebecca said, if you can add the phrase ‘by zombies’ after the verb in a sentence then you have passive voice. The letter was posted…posted being the verb. The letter was posted by zombies. The training programme must be attended by zombies. Our business is recommended by zombies.
And every time a politician says ‘mistakes were made’ I swear you’ll say ‘by zombies’ in your head.

I don’t know what’s with me and politicians today, they seem to have annoyed me. Who knows.

3. Sentence rhythm

Okay, so I realise you’re not a poet or musician. Well, you might be, in which case this will be a doddle.
So essentially when our sentences don’t have rhythm, the reader will get bored. And quickly.
Now rhythm is a tricky subject but I’m going to go through one tip that helps me with my sentence rhythm and I’m going to do it by first showing you a bad example.
Sometimes I get emails. And they’re usually from men actually. I have no idea why. But it goes like this. And by the way every sentence I’m going to read is on its own individual line.
Lyndsay.
Your Business is Dead.
You don’t have sales.
You don’t have leads.
You don’t have hope.
I have the solution.
Yes, that’s right.
I have the solution.
Ready to hear it?
I bet you are.
No, not really mate. Because I’m bored with this incessant style of writing style. Short, sharp sentences are really useful, but only when peppered amongst longer sentences. To create that rhythm we need peaks and troths. If you use too many short sentences, they lose their power. If you use too many long sentences it can become boring and tiring. So mix it up.
There’s a brilliant quote from Gary Provost who is an American Writer about this. I’ll pop it in the show notes because it’s a great one but it goes:

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

And I think that pretty much sums it up.

4. Stop with the stuffy

I used to be a copywriter and if I ever did receive negative feedback it was always the same thing: People used to say, ‘I don’t feel like the copy is professional enough.’
The thing is, before I would write anything I’d phone the client and say, pretend I am a prospective customer and tell me about this service or that product. But what I was listening too wasn’t just fact and figures, it was their tone of voice. The way they spoke, phrases they used, how formal or informal they were, where I could hear the excitement, how they got to the real benefits of what they sold.
So when I received the feedback that the copy sounded unprofessional. I would ask them if it sounded like them, sounded like a conversation they’d have with a client. ‘They would say yes…but it’s different for a website.’ I would explain, that really, it wasn’t. What you want your website to do is to connect with the reader, make them understand who you are and how you help. And they’d say ‘Yes, but my competitors’ doesn’t sound like this.’
And that’s the crux of the problem. We want to look good in front of our peers so we say things like established in 1982, suchabody financial services, offers a complete solution to your financial needs (I had to do that in that voice by the way.)
And I get it, being different is scary. Just think about school. Many of us wanted to fit in, right? But there was always that one kid that was different, who owned being different and didn’t care what others thought. And you know what, she or he actually got respect for it. That’s what your business needs to do. It needs to be that kid. Don’t worry about what your competitors do, however you speak to your clients is the way that you should write your business copy. Of course, it should be well structured and without all the ums and arrhs. But it doesn’t have to be super formal.

So I hope you found that episode.

And if you’re wanting regular feedback on your website copy or content, then check out our membership community, Make Your Mark Online. We host a 90-day challenge where our members produce one piece of content every week which we then give feedback on. If that sounds good head to makeyourmarkonline.net to find out more.

So that’s it for today’s episode, we’ll see you next time on the Make your make online podcast

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 44- 4 Easy Ways To Instantly Improve Your Website Copy appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

Stitcher| iTunes | Radio Republic | Soundcloud

In this episode, we’re going to go through some of the changes that have happened with Google and SEO. How these changes could have an impact on your business and finally what you can do to keep (or even increase) your search traffic.

In this episode, you learn…

• The issues with Google that could lead to less organic traffic to your website
• How you can still maintain and even get more traffic from Google even with these changes

Resources

54 Ways To Increase Your Website Sales

Less than Half of Google Searches Now Result in a Click

How Much of Google’s Search Traffic is Left for Anyone But Themselves?

Facebook Group

Is Google Dead: Transcript

Welcome to Episode 43 of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about whether Google is dead. So that’s nice. I’m going to go through some of the changes we’ve seen in Google, what impact they’ll have on you and essentially, what you should do about it.

But before we get into that, this show is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Community, this is our signature membership community where we help small business owners build and grow a successful website.

So let’s get on with the show.

Okay so firstly, what’s happening Google?

What have we done to deserve this?

Now you may have noticed that Google’s got a little frosty with those of us who use it (or for the many of us who rely on it) for organic traffic. And there have been a few changes that have sounded pretty scary for us business owners.

Rand Fishkin, the CEO of Moz – and if you know anything about SEO, Moz is pretty much the frontier in providing SEO knowledge. But Rand Fishkin wrote an article in 2019 that stated that less than 50% of Google searches result in a click to a website. For mobile, that’s even scarier, at less than 27%. I’ll link to this article in the show notes so you can go look at some scary graphs and cry into your bowl of cereal.

But maybe before you do that, you could just listen to the rest of this podcast and hopefully, it will put your mind at ease.

Why Are Is Our CTR (Click Through Rate) Decreasing?

Well, there are many different factors. Firstly, you may have noticed something called featured snippets in search results. So when I type into Google ‘How much does it cost for a website’ – Google provides me with an answer without me having to click on the website that provided me with the answer.

So, it takes the information off the website that answered that question and delivers that as an answer on its own platform. And in this case, it’s a gives a reasonable ish answer, it says it costs between $100-$500 to build your own website and up to $30,000 to get a custom-built site. And it’s quite difficult to see the name of the company that wrote the article and provided the answer.

Which is why some people argue that a featured snippet is resulting in a decrease in people clicking on your links in Google search. The data certainly seems to show that.

So, that’s pretty scary, isn’t it?

And the answer to that is yes and no.

The problem with this data is that it doesn’t factor in what people are searching for. So I don’t know if you do this, but when Martin and I watch a film, we’re like, is that Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon? I’m like, it’s Matt Damon, definitely. And Martin’s like, no it’s not, it’s Mark Wahlberg. No, you’re completely wrong. Okay, Google it. And then you Google the name of the film and you get your answer straight away without having to click on a website. So it’s not taking into account all the millions of people who are also performing these kinds of searches.

So, when we talk about there being fewer clicks from Google, it doesn’t necessarily categorise what people are and are not clicking on. Essentially, yes, overall click-through rates from Google are down, but that’s not necessarily true of educational content.

Take the search query I mentioned before – How Much Does It Cost For a Website. Google gave the answer between just between $100-$500 or up to $30,000 dollars for a custom site. Now the likelihood is, someone will need more information than that. Between $100 – $30,000 isn’t particularly helpful. So there’s that to consider.

And there was actually a study by Hubspot that stated that these featured snippets get more clicks than organic search results, so that’s good news here.

So it conclusion, yes it’s a worry and I’m going to talk about how to combat all this later. But it’s probably not all doom and gloom as you might think.

So let’s move on to some other obstacles Google is throwing at us.

The second is how Google is changing the way it displays ads.

In fact, this is changing regularly. I used to instinctively know which results in Google were ads, and I’d just click on the results that I knew weren’t ads.

Now it’s trickier. The way ads are displayed is changing so much that we don’t really have time to get used to how they look and well…avoid them.

And it’s often more difficult to get to the organic traffic too. We’re on the first page for ‘top web design agencies manchester’ and yet you have to scroll down to halfway down the page to find that search result. And that’s because there’s a lot of ads and a big map in the way. So, thanks for that Google.

So what do we do?

Do we just not bother anymore? Forget content marketing and forget having a website and just focus on social media?

Well, no. Good God no.

In fact, this is an opportunity to invest more in educational content. If someone types into Google, web designers in Manchester they’re just going to see ads and a map and maybe click on a company in the organic results, maybe not.

If someone is typing into Google a question like ‘how much does it cost for a website?’ then they need education. Educational content is the best kind of content to use in order to get traffic from Google. We’ve certainly found this too, the majority of our traffic has come from our educational content, even now. And in a lot of cases, our educational content gets more traffic than our homepage.

In summary, if someone needs educating, they’re generally going to need more information than what’s included in a 40-50 word featured snippet. Not always, but mostly.

But more importantly, this highlights something bigger.

You cannot rely on one single platform in your business.

Now it’s scary when we see people building businesses using just Facebook, and we’re like, ‘oh my God, get a website!’

But equally, perhaps we web designers haven’t been very clear about how we shouldn’t rely solely on Google either.

We cannot control Google. They are there to make money, not be our friends. And they don’t owe us anything.

This is why it’s frustrating when we see websites rank purely for search engines. If you look at some of the websites that are on the first page of Google for ‘How much does a website cost?’ yes the articles are helpful but some of them are…well just kinda boring. They aren’t memorable. The businesses have no personality. No brand. Nothing. I’d read their article and then I would forget their names.

What we need to do instead is elevate ourselves, build our brand, be clear on who we are and have that come across in our content. We need to provide helpful content but also have personality too. We need people to find us and remember us.

And we also want more and more people searching for our business name. If there’s one thing Google can’t do, it provides other answers to our business name. When I want to know something about SEO, I don’t type that question into Google, I search for Moz and then I use their internal search to find what I’m looking for. Essentially, you want your own website to become the Google of your industry. So we all end up with a bunch of tiny Googles!

To do that we need to, as I said merge both personality and content marketing. To make sure we’re found and also remembered.

We can still optimise our content for Google, of course. But we can’t put our eggs in one basket. We need to use social media too. We need to join communities and make connections. We cannot sit back anymore. To get traffic to your website you need a constant proactive approach.

In short, don’t rely on anyone but yourselves.

So I hope you found that episode useful and not too scary!

And if you’re wanting to learn more about how to grow your website so it acts as the best salesperson for your business, then check out our membership community, Make Your Mark Online. We do talk a lot about SEO in our membership especially how it relates to content marketing. If that sounds good head to makeyourmarkonline.net to find out more.

So that’s it for today’s episode, we’ll see you next time on the Make your make online podcast.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 43- Is Google Dead? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

In this super practical podcast episode, we’re going to tell you exactly how to produce over 50 pieces of content in just 30 minutes.

You’ll probably want to grab a pen and paper for this episode, or better yet, download our content planner which will help you.

In this episode, you learn…

• How to relate your content to the products or services that you offer
• The type of content that delivers more leads and sales
• The six key topics you need to cover in your content
• How to get in front of people searching on Google
• Why you need to view your content as a customer service tool
• How to create over 50 pieces of content in just 30 minutes by following along to this episode

Stitcher| iTunes | Radio Republic | Soundcloud

Everyone wants their website to look great. And I get it. When our websites look good, we look good. And we feel confident driving traffic to it.

But often we get too caught up in how a website looks and we neglect everything else.

Your website is not a piece of art to be looked at and admired, it’s a tool that should be used to drive action – usually by delivering leads and sales.

So although strange of us as web designers to say, we need to stop obsessing over how our websites look and start thinking about how they’ll drive leads.

There are actually 6 elements that make a great website, and all these need to be carefully balanced. In this episode, we’ll go through exactly what those 6 elements are, and how you can apply them to your website.

In this episode, you learn…

• The 6 key elements that lead to website success
• How to balance these elements across your website
• Quick wins to make your website that bit better – and get more sales!

Resources

54 Ways To Increase Your Website Sales

Content Planner

Big, Bold Statment 

Facebook Group

Website Buyer’s Guide

Homepage Blueprint

The 6 Key Elements that Make a Successful Website: Transcript

Welcome to Episode 42 of the Make Your Mark Online Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about the 6 elements that make the perfect website.

But before we get into that, this show is sponsored by the Make Your Mark Online Community, this is our signature membership community where we help small business owners build and grow a successful website.

So on with the show!

Everyone wants their website to look great. And I get it. When our websites look good, we look good. And we feel confident driving traffic to it.

But often we get too caught up in how a website looks and we neglect everything else.

Your website is not a piece of art to be looked at and admired, it’s a tool that should be used to drive action – usually by delivering leads and sales.

So although strange of us as web designers to say, we need to stop obsessing over how our websites look and start thinking about how they’ll drive leads.

There are actually 6 elements that make a great website, and all these need to be carefully balanced.

1. User Experience

User experience is the biggie. Above all else, this should be your main focus when building your website.

We want our user’s to know exactly where they need to go on your website to get what they are looking for.

One of the key places to do this is your homepage. We like to think of your homepage as the reception area of your website. A reception area of a busy building gets lots of questions, where are the lifts (or elevators as you may call them), where are the loos, I need to speak to sucha body. That’s what your users need from your homepage – where’s your blog, I want to contact you, I want to find more about sucha service.

And like any good reception area, your homepage needs to efficiently direct people to the right place on your website. And quickly.

You do not want people congregating around your reception area, trying to understand where to go. Because they will just leave.And that’s just one example of something you have to consider when it comes to user-experience. There are so many things to think about – do your call to action buttons (so your ‘find out more’ or ‘contact me’) buttons stand out, do you have images that reflect what the text says, is there plenty of white space on the page, can the user flow through your website with ease?

As web designers this sort of becomes automatic. But when you’re DIYing your website, you have to constantly question yourself – is this easy for the end-user to understand and use?

The reason a lot of people get this wrong – and that includes big, fancy agencies – is because they focus too much on how the website looks. If you go on many high-fashion websites you’ll find this is the case, it’s all just too pretentious to actually be user-friendly.

2. Website copy

Yes, you can have a beautiful website but if the words on the page don’t connect with your reader then no amount of beauty will make up for it. Like when you discover that really hot person you’ve liked for ages actually doesn’t have any personality. That’s the same thing, it’s all very disappointing.

People most often get their website copy wrong just because, they don’t really think about it. They just start typing without consciously thinking about the reader, what their problems are and why they’re on your website.

A lot of people also copy off their competition, and often the competition doesn’t know how to write website copy either. So everyone just ends up with…crap website copy.

I think the problem is people tend to overcomplicate website copy. But it really shouldn’t be difficult. As business owners, we speak to people about our products or services every day. We’re able to articulate what we do and what the benefits of our products or services are verbally. All you need to do is to write it down.

Some major things to get right with website copy is making sure people know exactly what you do as soon as they land on your homepage. And you can do this by coming up with what we call a big, bold statement, which essentially summarises what you do. We have recorded a podcast about this and written a blog post about it and we’ll pop this in the shownotes.

Another thing is making having a page for each service you offer and making sure you include everything about that service so your reader can make an informed decision about whether to work with you – so the benefits of the service, the cost, FAQ, the process and previous testimonials.

Finally, it’s about not overthinking the writing. You constantly have to balance copy with user-experience and SEO. This is why calling things like ‘My Journey’ instead of about page is a bad idea because it’s just confusing for your user.

And calling your service a funny name that Google won’t understand will not help you rank on Google. For example, calling an editing service ‘the wondrous wizard package’ just doesn’t make sense. You have to kind of balance creativity with, well, what your readers and search engines will understand.

3. Content Marketing

There’s zero point having a beautiful, user-friendly website without getting traffic to it. It’s like the perfect shop stuck in the middle of the dessert. Sorry, I’m all about the bad metaphors today, you’re just going to have to bear with that.

The problem is, people try content marketing but they produce what we call ‘fluff’ content. So that’s ‘look at this client we’ve just landed’ or ‘look at this award we’ve won’ or even very basic ‘7 ways to blah, blah, blah’ posts. Now these aren’t always bad but sometimes they’re just very basic overviews of a topic that have less than 500 words. They don’t really give the reader any value.

But content marketing isn’t just about driving traffic to your site, it’s about building trust and authority. It’s about answering those questions that none of your competition will answer. It’s about being the go-to person for your particular topic.

If it’s done correctly, content can deliver more leads and sales but it can also deliver better customers, the ones who are the right fit for you.

Some of the major mistakes people make when it comes to content marketing is not answering a question. They skim the surface of a topic but don’t delve in and try to give the best, most informed, most researched answer.

But even when people do, do this what they then fail to promote their content. You need to spend a lot of time getting eyeballs on your content.

Finally, people don’t produce content for every step of the sales process. They focus on ‘awareness content’ – basically making people aware that they exist and that they are knowledgable. But people rarely produce content about their products or services. And this is a huge error. That’s why we produce so many blog posts about our products or services. In fact, we’ve just had one out this week called, Why we charge large companies more for a website redesign.

4. Lead Generation

By lead generation, I mean collecting email addresses or getting people to get in contact with you or book a call.

Now there are usually two camps when it comes to lead gen…

Those who make zero effort to capture leads
Those who harras you so much for your email address on your website that if they were an actual person you’d probably call the police

If you haven’t yet guessed, what we’re after is somewhere between the two.

The reason you can’t harass someone is that it’s just not good user-experience. And good relationships aren’t built by stalking people unless your that weird bloke off 50 shades of grey.

Equally, saying nothing won’t get you anywhere either.

Now, there are ways of capturing email address or getting people to get in contact with you without being annoying and I actually talk about that in my last podcast episode. But offering things like content upgrades to your blog posts such as helpful checklists or planners to go alongside the topic you’re talking about is a great way of doing this.

Using a sticky hello bar at the top of the page if you’ve got a webinar coming up or something new and exacting is another.

Including a contact form on every single service page is also one.

So you see, you don’t have to be Christian Grey to get leads. You can do it respectfully.

5. Appearance

Okay, so I harped on about how appearance is not all that. But it is something. No, your website doesn’t have to be a victoria secret model but it does help if it’s ya know, showered and put on clean underwear. Your website has to be presentable, easy to use, and yes, have good images and easy to read text as a minimum.

The biggest mistakes we see websites make when it comes to appearance is one, it looks like the 90s has thrown up on the page. Or 2. They copy everyone else.

You see it all the time. Look at the IT industry. Every website looks exactly the same. They use a lot of blues, oranges and whites. And they have a lot of stock photos of people wearing headsets.

The problem is, people won’t remember you.
With your appearance, you generally have to use good images and this is exactly why we recommend people invest in a photographer before they get a website.

You have to make sure you use plenty of white space, so give your text and images room to breath don’t squash things in so close together.

You also have to break things up into sections, particularly on your homepage where everything can feel a bit crowded. So dedicate one section of the page to just about you with an image, dedicate the next section to just your content. Don’t try to cram in testimonials next to your about you text with several images, it just looks and feels messy.

6. SEO

The next thing is SEO. Now the basics of SEO is just good user-experience mixed with website admin. For most of us, this is pretty much all we need to know.

One huge mistake business owners make is worrying too much about SEO and going way to deep with it all that they actually forget about their actual business.

Another thing to remember is that producing content on your website i.e. blogging is also a great way to rank for the questions that people ask you.

So don’t overcomplicate it for now.

But there are some rules you want to follow, such as using your H tags correctly. H tags are essentially your headings on the page. You H1 tag tells Google what the entire page is about, H2 tells Google what the following paragraph is about, and if that paragraph is broken down further you’ll use H3 and so on. This is actually just good user-experience to break up the text and tell the user what the next section is about. It’s just you’re telling Google at the same time.

And you may want to do some keyword research too, and drop these keywords naturally – the key word here is naturally- throughout your copy and your headings too.

In your blog posts, you’ll want to link to other relevant content. And you’ll want to make sure you give all your images appropriate names.

You want to keep your URLs short.

Now, if you’re furiously typing don’t worry you can stop I do have a checklist for this that I’ll put in the show-notes or you can also check out our blog post on how to make the perfect website.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the 6 key things that will make your website a success – user-experience, website copy, content marketing, lead generation, seo and appearance.

Now, remember this can seem overwhelming but you’ll get this right over time. No website is perfect. Ours isn’t perfect. I could visit our website right now and pick at things. But if you have an awareness of these 6 things, and consciously implement them when you work on your website, I guarantee it will be that bit more successful.

So I hope you found this episode useful.

And if you’re wanting to learn more about how to grow your website so it acts as the best salesperson for your business, then check out our membership community, Make Your Mark Online. We actually create one-click-install website pages for our members such as the homepage, about page or even things like lead capture pages and sales pages. These are built with our knowledge and experience so a lot of what’s been talked about in this podcast episode such as user-experience or appearance has already been covered.

If that sounds good head to makeyourmarkonline.net to find out more.

So that’s it for today’s episode, we’ll see you next time on the Make your make online podcast.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 42- The 6 Elements That Make a Successful Website appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

In this super practical podcast episode, we’re going to tell you exactly how to produce over 50 pieces of content in just 30 minutes.

You’ll probably want to grab a pen and paper for this episode, or better yet, download our content planner which will help you.

In this episode, you learn…

• How to relate your content to the products or services that you offer
• The type of content that delivers more leads and sales
• The six key topics you need to cover in your content
• How to get in front of people searching on Google
• Why you need to view your content as a customer service tool
• How to create over 50 pieces of content in just 30 minutes by following along to this episode

Stitcher| iTunes | Radio Republic | Soundcloud

In this super practical podcast episode, we’re going to tell you exactly how to collect email addresses on your website.

In this episode, you learn…

• What I class as pushy or annoying ways to capture leads
• The best way to capture email addresses from your blog
• How to get people to get in touch with you when they’re on your service page
• What information you should ask for when capturing people’s data
• How you can capture leads from your homepage

Resources

54 Ways To Increase Your Website Sales

Content Planner

Facebook Group

Website Buyer’s Guide

Hellobar – sticky bar at the top of the page

Homepage Blueprint

Transcript/Notes

This all started with a question from one of our members, Helen – who asked how she could capture leads on her website without being pushy or irritating. And I think that’s a pretty good question because we all want to grow our email list but we don’t want to do it by being annoying.  

So that’s what this episode is about. We’re going to go through how to collect email addresses without being annoying and also look at what are annoying and spammy tactics.

And just to clarify, when I say lead I mean someone enquiring about your products or services or someone giving you their contact details such as their email address. 

Now, in all honesty, collecting email addresses is something we really struggled with in the past. We didn’t prioritise it for years. I think this was just to do with plain old apathy. We’d built our web design agency through content marketing – essentially giving away everything and being open and honest about the way we worked. And this definitely worked well for us. 

Until one day, we said, do you know what, we’d also like to launch a membership and we were there with an email list that consisted of my mum and dad. We had this idea for something exciting and new, but we had no one to sell it too. So we had to kind of shift our way of thinking a little. 

And in that short time, we’ve learnt a lot about building an email list, but more specifically how to build an email list without being pushy. So that means we don’t use things like annoying website popups – because they’re crap for user experience. Or gating our content, such as only letting people know our prices in exchange for an email address. 

So, here are the ways you can capture leads, without being annoying…

1. Content ‘upgrade’ 

Patt Flynn describes content upgrades as, ‘Smaller, unique, bite-sized lead magnets that directly relate to what people are already consuming.’ and that was a way better description than what I came up with so let’s steal that. 

To give you an example, we recently released a blog post about how to create a perfect website. We then created a lead magnet, which was a free website checklist that directly related to that blog post so people could see where they needed to improve. The content in the blog post and in the checklist was exactly the same, it just came in different formats.

This works really well for many reasons, we didn’t have to write new content, and we didn’t have to hide any content and get that icky ‘I’m only going to tell you this if you give me your email address’ feeling. 

And just another thing, we add information about the content upgrades within the body of our blog posts and at the end. The reason we do both is that often people don’t read all the way to the end, so this is a way of capturing their attention. Like this 😉 

2. Pop a contact form on every service page 

A lot of our leads, funnily enough, don’t come throughout the contact page, they come through lots of different pages on our website. 

So if someone is finding out more about your services, they may have questions as they’re scanning through. Imagine just a little box to the side or at the end of the page that said, ‘Got questions about x service?’ pop in your details below. That’s a great way to capture a lead because they probably do have questions, and you’re making it super easy for them. 

3. If you’re an E-commerce business, offer a discount

A really nice feature, which is great for eCommerce businesses, is to offer a discount as a way of capturing leads. So you could say something like ‘get 10% your first order’. Lots of companies use this. 

You can display this on a sticky bar at the top of the page, which is essentially just a bar that stays their permanently. 

It’s not like a pop-up, so it doesn’t disrupt the user at any time, but it is on display permanently, and with the right copy it will capture their attention. 

The only caveat to this is, obviously, you will have a section for a discount code on your checkout and if someone doesn’t have a discount code, maybe they’re a repeat customer that may mean they feel a bit down about it. Or if you’re like me, you go off in search of a discount code and before you know it you’ve forgotten what you’re buying anyway. So just be aware of that.

4. Don’t ask them for war and peace

When capturing leads, you don’t want to ask for anything you don’t need. I always see forms that ask for your address, and telephone number and blood type. Stop it. Most of us, unless we’re an eCommerce business, will just need a name and email. 

And of course, this is good for GDPR too. We don’t want boatloads of people’s personal data. 

5. Don’t make them identify traffic signs 

Talk about annoying. I get it, we all hate spam but asking people to identify traffic signs is incredibly irritating. I don’t even know what a traffic sign is on these things, I’m always squinting, like is that a stop sign or just some other kind of sign. Is it a lollypop lady? Or something else? Who knows. 

6. How to capture leads on your homepage 

You can create a bar that sits within the first third of your homepage that offers your freebie. This is a great way of capturing people when they first land on your website but without being intrusive. 

On our website homepage, we offer our homepage blueprint which runs through how to create a great homepage. That’s done really well too. 

7. Sell the benefits 

We go on about this a lot. But join my newsletter is not a compelling enough reason to get people to give you their contact details. Give them the benefits and tell them what’s in it for them. Weekly tips on such a thing, or discounts and exclusive offers. 

Also, tell them that by joining your email list they’re joining hundreds or thousands of their peers, give them that social proof that they’re in the right place and with others just like them. 

8. Tell them what will happen next 

Once someone fills in your contact form, then what happens? Don’t just have something that pops up and says, ‘thanks’ 

Equally, if someone wants to download one of your lead magnets, take them to a thank you page. Tell them what happens next.

So I hope that’s been useful to you. I think when considering this, think of yourself as a shop owner. If a customer comes in, would you jump out and shout ‘Sign up to my newsletter!’ Sorry, I seriously hope you weren’t driving then. 

But no you wouldn’t. Then obviously a popup as soon as someone lands on your site probably isn’t the best. 

The worst one by far is giving people these ridiculous options. So you may have seen this where you click the x on the pop up because you don’t want to hand over your details and they say, okay, could you just confirm that you don’t want your life to change and you don’t want to be super-wealthy? And then you have to click ‘Nah I don’t want to be super wealthy, thanks’ 

I can’t actually say what I really think when I see those because Martin wants the entire podcast to be marked as non-explicit but you can guess.

So I hope you found this episode useful.

And if you’re wanting to learn more about how to grow your website so it acts as the best salesperson for your business, then check out our membership community, Make Your Mark Online. This community helps people build and grow a successful website, and do it without being annoying. 

So that’s it for today’s episode, we’ll see you next time on the Make your make online podcast

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post Ep 41- How to Capture Leads On Your Website Without Being Annoying appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.