Adding extra prompts to convert referral traffic from social media and search engines into leads has become a common practice. Nowadays when I visit most websites, I'm bombarded with popup forms, sliders, content upgrades and various kinds of other opt-in tools that ask me to sign up in exchange for a lead magnet.
This has made lead generation highly competitive. If you’re solely relying on the classic method of converting traffic using eBooks and white papers, it won’t suffice - you need to supplement it with more advanced techniques that'll not only generate more leads, but also convert them into clients.
As such, In this post, I'm going to show you four ways you can stand out, and generate more leads and clients.
1. Run a live online event
As noted, lead magnets such as eBooks and white papers have become extremely common - they can still work well for converting traffic to subscribers, but if you want to stand out and generate even more leads, you should run a live event, like a webinar or a series of webinars.
Webinars have a high conversion rate, and can help you gain both subscribers and clients. If you set up a well-optimized landing page, you can convert up to 80% of your traffic into leads, and then to customers, during a live webinar.
Webinars work well because unlike other lead magnets they're live. People get to listen to experts and ask them questions, and get real-time, bespoke responses.
Consider running a live webinar every week, or run a series of webinars every few weeks. This can help you generate a lot of subscribers.
A great example of a series of live webinars is the Agency & Freelancers Growth Online Summit. This is a two-day live online event which people can sign up to for free and watch 14 webinars presented by different experts.
While organizing such events, the main point is to make sure the experts you partner with are credible to speak on the topics, and can share their own insights and experience with the audience.
For example, the team from the above event gathered experts from both big famous agencies (Ogilvy) and mid-sized successful agencies.
Those who sign-up can also watch the recordings for free, while they, additionally, get a chance to win an annual subscription to PromoRepublic, an extra incentive.
This sort of event is a great way to convert traffic to subscribers, while you can use all the recordings later as lead magnets. They might not be as effective as a live event, but they will still boost your lists.
2. Provide access to free tools
Another way to stand out and generate more subscribers is by giving people access to free tools. The problem with eBooks and most other lead magnets is that they're very general - they might contain useful information, but they aren’t specific to one person.
You can eliminate that problem by giving people access to a free tool, or a piece of software. Here, you should let them submit their personal details on the tool’s landing page - the tool can then analyze the information and provide advice on how to take the right steps to get the exact results they are looking for.
More people are interested in customized options like this - just ensure that you get people to sign up when they give you their details.
An example of this type of tool is Hubspot’s Website Grader.
People can submit their website URL, along with their email address, using the tool’s submission form, and it will analyze the website and provide details on how it can be improved.
This helps Hubspot generate a lot of leads.
3. Integrate social media into your lead generation process
Another way to generate leads is by integrating social media into your lead generation process - you can start by doing something simple, like adding a social sign up to your lead generation forms. This is where you give people the option to sign up to your content using their social media login, enabling them to easily sign-up without having to enter all their personal details.
This can help boost your conversion rate - Long Radius conducted a split test between two pages, one with a regular opt-in form to sign-up, and another other with a social sign-up option, along with the regular form.
As expected, adding the social sign-up option increased their conversion rate by 52%. This bump in conversions happens because signing-up with a simple click is easier and faster. People don’t need to type in their email address every time.
Another way to integrate social media into your lead generation process is by using a Facebook chatbot - platforms like Mobile Monkey can provide support and assistance on this.
4. Have a well-planned nurturing email sequence
Even though a lot of blogs and businesses make significant efforts to convert traffic to leads, they're often lagging at running a well-planned nurturing email sequence.
Usually, after I sign-up to a site, they'll send me an email with a basic lead magnet, then stop. Some of them make an effort to nurture, but they still fail either because their email copy isn’t good enough or because they send too few emails.
If you want to get the most out of the leads you generate, you need to write excellent email copy, and send at least five emails for five days straight.
Your first four emails should continue where the lead magnet left off, and educate readers further, while in the fifth email you can pitch your services, seeking to convert subscribers to clients.
For the emails to work well, they shouldn’t just read well individually, but also cohesively, so make sure they fit well together. A good way to do this is to write them all at once, then divide them into five separate emails.
If you want to make an even bigger effort, you can write a longer email sequence that goes on for weeks and months. You can continue sending the emails every day after the five days is up, or once a week at least.
Nurturing email sequences that go on for days and weeks can definitely have a stronger effect - Chris Davis of Leadpages found that 50% of his customers converted from a website visitor to a customer in the first four weeks.
Staying in touch with subscribers by sending an email every day, or every few days, will give you an advantage over your competitors.
Summing Up
These are four key tips to help convert more of your website traffic into leads, and then into clients. Most businesses don't follow them as they take a lot of work, therefore if you make the effort, you'll likely stand out, and generate more leads and clients.