A lot has already been said about leads generation in our recent article, we decided to discuss fully on lead generator method because of the importance it has on businesses.

We also discovered that a lot of businesses struggle to generate leads and this is affecting their business. But with the tips and strategies provided, you can succeed.

But what if you want to create a lead generation website, how can you go about it? What is a lead generation website? All these and more will be addressed in this article.

• What is a Lead Generating Website?
• How to Create a Lead Generating Website
• What Features Should you add to Your Lead Generating Website?
• Are Lead Generation Companies Worth it?
• How Many Leads Should I get From my Website?
• How Does Leads Selling Work?

What is a Lead Generating Website?

Lead generation is all about creating leads and ensuring your business benefits from that all-important sales funnel. Remember – your prospects will move through 4 stages during the sales process.

Read Also: How to Create a Lead Magnet That Converts?

As a business owner, your aim is to convert these visitors to leads. A visitor is a web user who may or may not have a genuine interest in what you do. At this point, it’s your job to persuade that person that they should take an interest.

If you’ve got a customer who is watching clips, reading articles and entering their contact details on your website, this qualifies them as a lead.

Once you’ve got a lead, you want to maintain that customer’s interest so that they take the all-important next step and move towards placing an order.

A lead generation website is different to a website that is designed purely to inform the audience.

The purpose of a lead generation site is to turn a customer from a generic web user to a lead and to maximise the chances of securing that person’s custom going forward.

The aim of a lead generation website is to stoke the fire. With a brochure website, it’s likely that the customer is already interested and they may even have reached the point where they are ready to click the buy button.

Consumers react to sites in different ways. If you visit a website, and you’re interested in the information, and you like the look of the business and you think it could benefit you in some way, this may prompt you to pursue that interest and find out more.

Lead generation sites encourage clients to make online enquiries, and they can also initiate contact through signing up for updates or newsletters.

They also facilitate the next step in the sales pipeline, urging the customer to place an order or make that call to book an appointment, order a product or secure a service

How to Create a Lead Generating Website

Now, are you ready to build a lead generation website? Get started with these steps:

Secure your site with HTTPS

No matter your industry, product, or service, you want a secure website. Internet browsers, like Google Chrome, now actively alert users when visiting an unsecured site.

When people see that your website is unsafe, expect them to leave your site rather than become a lead.

Check if you have a secure site by visiting your website and looking at your URL.

If your URL features a padlock, then you have a secure HTTPS site. If your URL says, “Not secure,” then you don’t have a secure HTTPS site. 

Get your website secured by working with your development team to acquire and install a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.

Make your website mobile-friendly

A mobile-friendly website matters to users.

People now spend 70% of their Internet time on mobile, emphasizing the need for businesses to maintain a mobile-friendly site. If you want to generate leads, as well as increase your market share, then you need to develop a website that on-the-go users can access.

For the best results, build a responsive site.

A responsive site can adapt to any device, from a computer to a tablet to a smartphone. Responsive websites are also more cost-effective to build because they save you from the cost and maintenance of a separate mobile site.

Check if you have a mobile-friendly website with Google’s free Mobile-Friendly Test tool. If creating a responsive lead-generating website requires too much of your internal team’s time, you can always partner with a web design company

Accelerate your website’s speed

When building a lead generation website, it’s essential to prioritize site and page speed in your design.

People hate to wait for pages on the Internet to load — just think about your own experiences browsing the web.

That’s why most users (around 83%) expect websites to load in three seconds or less. It’s also why 53% of upsers will leave a page that doesn’t load in that timeframe.

If you create your website without a thought about page speed, then your site will struggle to generate leads. You must make page and site speed a priority throughout your website’s development, maintenance, and updates if you want to attract new leads.

Check the speed of your pages with another free Google tool: PageSpeed Insights.

PageSpeed Insights will provide a page speed score for desktop and mobile devices. It’ll also offer recommendations for improving your page speed.

For example, they may suggest that your developers help improve your page speed by:

• Minifying CSS, HTML, and JavaScript code
• Compressing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files
• Limiting redirects
• Eliminating render-blocking JavaScript code

As you grow your website and lead-generating initiatives, you will need to take a proactive approach to maximize your page speed. New blog posts, for example, should have compressed images to prevent sluggish page speeds.

With a faster website, you can expect significant increases in your lead generation rates.

Studies show that websites that increase their speed by one second increase their conversions by seven percent.

Even better, mobile-friendly sites that load in two seconds or less boast 15% higher conversion rates, so don’t skip on page speed when building a lead generation website.

Amplify your website’s usability

Usability is another critical success factor for lead-generating websites, and it can include:

• Navigation
• Typography
• Layout
• Buttons
• And more

For the best results with your site, you want to maximize your website’s usability.

Intuitive web design can make a dramatic difference in your online lead generation efforts. It can also improve a user’s first impression of your brand and product, which is helpful if your buyer journey includes multiple touchpoints.

For example, if a user discovers your website via Google, reads a blog post, and then leaves, you want them to come back later when they’re further in their purchase journey.

If they didn’t like your site’s design and usability, though, it’s unlikely they’ll return. In fact, they’ll probably avoid your website.

Boost the usability of your website’s design with these tips:

• Limit navigation to seven pages or links — use a mega navigation to include additional links
• Place the navigation bar in the same location across all your pages
• Reduce the number of fonts to three
• Keep font styles to standard and web-safe fonts, like Open Sans
• Use contrasting colors to attract user attention to specific elements
• Cap line length to 30-40 characters for mobile and 40-60 characters for desktop
• Add white space to break up design elements
• Apply the rule of thirds when designing a page layout
• Make text large and legible, as well as brief, on buttons
• Use the first-person for buttons, like “my” instead of “your”

If you’re working with a small internal team, building a lead-generating website with all these features can seem intimidating.

That’s why many businesses opt to hire a web design agency. An agency, for example, can help make designing, building, and launching your site hassle-free.

Optimize your website for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) also serves a vital role in lead generation websites. The best lead generation websites use SEO because SEO helps potential leads find your company.

With SEO, you optimize your site (on the backend and frontend) for users and search engines like Google.

A well-optimized website often gets a top spot in search results, which means it’s easier for users to discover. That also means more traffic and more leads for your business.

Search engines, as well as SEO, matter to lead generation for a few reasons, including:

• 93% of online experiences start with a search engine
• 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of a search engine’s search results
• 40% of revenue comes from organic search traffic

You can use SEO to help your website generate more leads by reviewing the ranking factors that search engines use to rank search results.

For example, most search engines use page speed and mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, which is another reason to make a fast and responsive site.

Additional steps you should take include:

• Creating a Google Search Console and Google Analytics account
• Making an HTML and XML sitemap
• Claiming and updating your Google My Business profile
• Researching keywords (or searches) to target on different site pages
• Incorporating keywords into page content, title tags, and meta descriptions
• Adding descriptive alt text to site images
• Building short, descriptive, and relevant URLs for pages
• Developing a content marketing strategy to expand your SEO strategy

Keep in mind that SEO will take three to six months to start delivering results. Your site won’t become a lead-generating website overnight, but understanding that SEO takes time can help you and your company decision-makers go into SEO informed.

Test your designs, contact forms, and CTAs

A website built for lead generation continues to test its potential and ability to drive more leads. That’s why your site should embrace continuous testing.

From your page designs to your contact forms to your calls to action (CTAs), you can test a range of elements on your website.

Using a free tool like Google Optimize, your business can launch several tests, including:

• A/B
• Multivariate
• Redirect
• Personalization

Take advantage of this free tool and discover new ways to attract more leads.

While you can focus on smaller tests, like changes to a button’s color, bigger tests can drive more immediate results. A new design for a service page or contact form are examples of larger tests that your business can try.

A lead generation website helps site visitors while gathering information about them for your company. It’s more than just a digital brochure; it’s an experience that educates and nurtures prospects. 

Whether you’re developing or redesigning your website in-house or hiring someone else to do it for you, the primary focus should be creating a website your buyer personas can gain value from.

What Features Should you add to Your Lead Generating Website?

Your leads are only as good as the website that produces them. Fortunately, designing a landing page that’s built for leads doesn’t have to be overwhelming or time-consuming.

By looking at examples of some of the best converting lead generation websites, you can learn precisely what works — and most importantly, why it works. 

Below are some features that stands out in a lead generating website that you should implement on your own website.

1. Include a Contact Number

Adding a contact number to your website may seem counterintuitive, especially if you sell a digital product. Doing so however, increases consumer trust and lends credibility to your offer.

Even if your customers don’t actually call, the presence of a phone number does bring them some comfort.

One lead generation site for a Los Angeles dentist actually incorporated its phone number as part of its domain name (4getpain.com) and marketing strategy

2. Post Forms on Every Page

Having easy access to the actual lead generation form is paramount to increasing the number of viable leads through your website.

The less information they ask for, particularly on the first step, the more likely people will be to part with their valuable personal details.

3. Add Photos and Testimonials For Greater Credibility

Testimonials can be a powerful marketing tool, but adding photos or even rich media such as video or audio can take them a step further.

While the rich media versions may be too bandwidth-heavy for lead generation websites, solid testimonials can have a powerful impact and lend support to your offer.

4. Use Trust Seals – But Make Sure They’re More Than Just Eye Candy

All of the major trust seal providers claim that incorporating a trust seal on your website can increase conversion rates, but the actual statistics are hard to come by.

Rather than installing a seal for pure visual security benefits, choose one that is backed up by a guarantee to the consumer,

5. Make Your Videos Speak to the User

Online videos bridge the gap between online and off-line commerce, as well as greatly increasing conversion rates for a wide range of industries — particularly e-commerce websites. The highest performing videos speak to the user rather than at them

6. Use Power Words When Describing Your Offer

Powerful action verbs such as “get”, “feel” and “have” are strong compellers because of their active tone as opposed to “imagine having”, “imagine feeling” and so on.

Using action oriented words in your offer places the customer in a pivotal role as the one receiving the benefits as opposed to simply imagining them.

7. Avoid “Cookie-Cutter” Site Templates

It should go without saying, but when it comes to quality lead generation, you should avoid any cookie cutter “all-the-work-is-done-for-you” website templates.

Instead, invest in the best possible website you can afford, and make sure you make the page’s purpose clear up front so that the designer can tailor it to generating leads rather than looking nice or having all the bells and whistles.

Having a well-designed site also increases trust and customer confidence levels when shopping online.

8. Consider the End-Goal First

When it comes to lead generation, begin with the end in mind. What exactly does a “lead” mean to you?

Defining this will make your testing and analytics goals even clearer, and help you determine exactly what actions you want the user to take as they progress through each stage of your sales funnel. Is a lead considered someone who fills out a form?

Someone who signs up for a newsletter? Requests a callback? Clearly define your starting point and you’ll have a much easier time adjusting your conversion goals accordingly.

9. Make Good Use of Whitespace

Whitespace (also known as negative space) is one of those ‘little things’ in web design that can make a big impact. Rather than striving to fill up every empty area on a page, give your content, photos and call to action buttons some breathing room.

There’s no need to add something just to take up room – it can end up only serving as a distraction to your customers, and lowering your conversion rates as a result.

None of these tips will do you a bit of good unless you test them for yourself and determine what works for your unique situation.

Number and quality of leads is a conversion factor just like any other – one which you’ll want to see increase and improve over time

A lead generation page is also a great way to test crucial design changes before applying them sitewide. By split testing changes from one landing page to the next, you’ll be able to see whether or not your lead gen efforts pay off.

Of course, having the right testing and analytics software in place will help you determine exactly what’s working – with real-time data, historic timelines, trends and conversion funnels that let you segment down to the smallest details.

Testing is the only true way to know exactly what works for your unique needs, but when designing your lead generation pages, keeping these best practices in mind and adding the above mentioned features can help you work less and convert more!

Are Lead Generation Companies Worth it?

Lead generation is a serious task, some businesses might not have the capacity to carry on this huge task, some do not even have a sales team.

This will make it necessary for such businesses to hire a lead generation company.

Choosing a company to spearhead your lead generation efforts is a big decision. The right choice could take your business to new heights, the wrong choice could seriously impact your cashflow (or worse).

Before you even get to that point, you need to consider whether or not you’re even at a point where it makes sense to work with a lead generation company.

You need to research any lead generation company you’re considering going into business with.

Lead generation companies find businesses who are looking for sales leads, then determine what sort of the leads they’re looking for, and sell the businesses leads that match their customer profile.

Lead vendors generate the leads in a number of ways including:

• Existing databases
• Content marketing
• Telemarketing

Appointment setting companies will actually set appointments for you with the leads, lead generation companies just send you the leads and you’re on your own. Some companies, like Software Advice, offer both options.

In other words, every lead generation company is different. To make sure you choose the right one, you need to ask the right questions. Below are five important questions you need to ask.

Do they have experience in your industry?

Generating leads for a software company isn’t the same as generating leads for an ecommerce company. Generating B2B leads requires a different approach than generating B2C leads.

And if you’re in a very niche space, the more familiar the lead generation company is with your niche, the more effective they’ll be.

Fundamental lead generation principles are the same across industries, so this shouldn’t weigh too heavily in your decision, but it’s definitely a factor.

Don’t choose a good lead generation company over a great one just because they have some experience in your niche.

On the other hand, if you’re dealing with two lead generation companies that seem to be about equal, this can be a tiebreaker.

How do they get the leads?

The quality of the leads will tend to vary based on how they get them. For instance, if they have telemarketers calling people randomly to build a list of leads, those leads probably won’t be very good.

If they have built out a comprehensive content marketing strategy that attracts potential customers, those leads are much more promising.

How much do they charge?

Is every lead the same price? Or does the company charge more for leads with more employees (or according to some other criteria)? You’ll need to take this into account when determining whether or not the leads are worth it.

Based on how much they charge, you’ll have to look at how many of the deals you close and how much it costs to close them to see if everything adds up.

If you’re paying an average of $100 a lead and you can only close one out of every ten, you’re paying $1,000 a customer. If a customer is only worth $900, it’s time to find a new lead generation company.

How do they qualify leads?

Do they call them? Or do they just collect contact information through a form and fire the leads off to their clients? More direct contact typically means higher quality. Take a look at their process and try to determine:

1. Will it generate the sort of leads you’re looking for?
2. Will the leads be expecting you to reach out?

You don’t want the leads you buy to be surprised to hear from you.

The best lead generation companies will have a phone conversation with potential leads to make sure they’re a good fit for your business. (They’ll also provide you with notes from this conversation.)

Are the leads exclusive?

Will you be the only one receiving the leads or do they send them to multiple companies? If the leads aren’t exclusive you’ll have to fight for them. Don’t buy leads like that unless you have a sales team in place who can handle the competition.

Lead generation companies that provide exclusive leads charge more, but depending on your ability to follow-up, the bigger price tag might be worth it.

With all that said, you still want to ask yourself, does my business need a lead generation company?

There’s only one way to determine whether outsourcing lead generation is right for your business. Test it.

Research the companies that serve your industry, and find one that looks like a good fit. Give them a trial period, and be very careful about tagging and tracking the leads you get through the lead generation company.

At the end of the trial period, assess the leads you’ve received.

• How many leads did you get?
• How many of the leads became customers?
• How much did you pay in total?
• How much did you profit off of the leads?

If you profited more than you paid, then the lead generation company is probably worth it. If not, it’s time to try something else.

How Many Leads Should I get From my Website?

But how many leads, on average could you expect to generate in a month and what approximate percentage success rate can be applied?

The numbers vary from industry to industry and from company to company. Results will depend on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy, sales strategy, the performance of your website, and the quality targeting of your content.

You should note that the lead volume you specifically should aim for, will be determined by a range of factors. 

For example, if your goal is to achieve a particular number of leads within a set timeframe, make sure your traffic volumes, conversion rates – and sales cycle length through the top of the funnel, can support that end number.

Lead quality is also an important consideration. You want your overarching campaign to generate a good volume of quality leads, likely to convert to MQLs and SQLs, rather than only focusing on initial lead volume. 

• Typically, the industries surveyed experience a similar level of traffic (10,000-50,000 monthly visits)
• Financial Services is the exception; receiving the greatest level of visitors. However ultimately they receive around the same level of leads, MQLs, opportunities, and customers, which may indicate lower conversion rates.
• Travel & Tourism, Software, Information Technology & Services, and Consumer Products companies show the highest numbers of leads and MQLs, but have the same number of site visits as other industries.
• Travel and Tourism companies report the highest number of customers, while reporting similar numbers in other areas, which may suggest higher conversion rates.

How Does Leads Selling Work?

To sell your leads you will need to capture data through a web form. If you work independently, you will need to build a landing page with a form that captures lead data.

If you work with an affiliate network or lead generation company, they may provide you with a white labeled website where you can send visitors to generate leads.

A white labeled website is a simple website or landing page that has been created by networks for lead sellers. The network comes up with the domain name, models the site after other lead generation sites, builds the lead generation form and provides hosting.

You may or may not be able to edit the content on the site depending upon how the site was built and what type of relationship you have with the network.

Different industries purchase leads differently. They also require different lead data. It’s important to understand what the lead buyer is looking for, what they legally require to be disclosed in a web form, and other operational details. These details can prevent issues for the lead buyer down the road.

As a lead seller, you are also responsible for providing consumers with adequate disclosures. You can get disclosure information directly from the buyer or the network you are working with.

It’s important to follow all U.S. rules and regulations regarding the process of obtaining and transferring consumer data. Much of the information you need can be found by reviewing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules.

If you are building your own site, you will need to integrate your website form with the network you are selling to. Most networks will provide technical support, and help you get integrated with their lead buying system, sometimes known as a ping tree.

Ping trees are commonly used by short-term loan lead buyers. A ping tree acts as a live lead auction. The network or lead generation company has partnerships with several buyers.

These buyers provide criteria they require to purchase a lead, also known as lead filters. They can also set lead caps, and minimum and maximum bids.

When you generate a lead through your web form, the data is sent to the ping tree. It then displays a portion of that information to buyers starting at the top of the tree.

At the top of the ping tree are buyers who have agreed to pay more per lead. As the lead moves down the tree it sells for a lower price.

If a buyer has hit their lead buying cap, they will be removed from the ping tree, and not shown any leads. That means your leads are only shown to buyers interested in buying leads.

It might sound like a complicated process, but the lead buying process happens in seconds.

The customer completes the form and is taken to a loading page where they are told that their request is being processed. The typical wait time for a user is less than a couple of minutes. If their data has been purchased by a buyer, they will be sent to a thank you page.

If your lead is purchased, you will be able to see the conversion in your affiliate dashboard. If you are not working directly with a network, you will need to invest in tracking software.

Read Also: How to Get Free Insurance Leads

It’s important to track your earnings to be able to perform campaign optimizations. If your leads are selling at a low price, the quality of your leads may be low.

You may need to make changes to the content you post or the targeting on your campaigns to generate more qualified leads that sell at a higher price.

Lead generation is an amazingly scalable business that you can operate as a solopreneur (on your own). Leads continue to be in high demand by a wide variety of industries, which means you will have a wide range of clientele to choose from.

Finally

Creating a lead Generator site will only prove beneficial to you if it is properly created with the right features as outlined above.

If as a business you do not have the capacity needed to generate these leads in house, you could consider hiring a lead generation company. But you need to make your research before taking on a company.

By all means necessary, make sure you are generating leads for your business as it will keep you in business for long.