On-site lead generation is the whole reason you have a website.
If you aren’t using your site to build your list of potential customers, you’re likely not doing anything with it.
That’s what you call a wasted investment.
But, as a small business owner, you can’t afford to waste your investment.
Instead, you need to correct your website to make sure it’s earning leads.
Because on-site lead generation is one of the easiest ways to add pre-qualified buyers to your lead list.
When it comes to the value of your website, this is the area it shines brightest.
And, with the right strategies, you’ll grow your business fast through your website.
Contents
On-Site Lead Generation Can’t Happen If Your Site Isn’t Conversion Optimized
Before we dig into anything, you need to think about your site’s optimization.
No, not your SEO.
I’m talking about whether your site is optimized for on-site lead generation.
Your website needs to be ready to convert leads once they arrive.
That means a few things should be taken care of before you jump to these strategies.
The strategies I’m about to share do, after all, hinge on some of these components already being in place.
Your site has to be optimized to convert leads before you can expect to earn any. That means all the right moving pieces need to be in place and your site has to have a friendly UX. Share on XThey’re the basics of optimizing for website leads.
To get on-site leads, you need your website to be professionally developed, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
It must be a representation of your brand’s knowledge and reputation.
And, above all else, it has to be easy to get in touch with you.
As you get on-site leads, you should also know where on-site they came from.
So, you’ll need a good CRM.
With all that in place, you can start putting on-site lead gathering strategies to work to grow your brand.
Improve Your On-Site Lead Generation
Even if you’re doing fine earning leads from your site, there’s always room to improve.
And, when it comes to on-site lead generation, there’s never a reason not to.
Unless, of course, you have a reason you don’t want more leads for your brand.
Since that’s not true, there are concrete strategies that you can use now.
They’re all proven to work and work well.
Depending on your target audience, some will work better for you than others.
However, they’re all great at increasing your on-site lead generation.
Every small business needs more leads. Even when they’re doing well. There’s nothing more important than having enough clients to keep growing. Share on XSo, learn about them, then choose the ones that make sense for you.
Eventually, if you choose, you can add them all to your strategy.
Plus, there’s no mystery to how or why they work.
These strategies expand your on-site lead gathering by adding reasons for your audience to contact you.
It’s also a great way to add ways to contact you that your audience might prefer.
Ways you’re not using yet.
Let’s dig into some on-site lead gathering tactics that will help you grow your lead list.
Ditch Your Generic Contact Forms
For far too many websites, the only way to generate leads is through the contact form.
I don’t know if you realize that you’ve seen most contact forms, but I promise that most of them look identical.
They’re kind of boring.
Contact forms are usually composed of the basics, like name, email, and phone number.
And they lack any incentive to fill out.
When your contact forms are that generic, people can see you’re just trying to collect their information.
That wouldn’t be a problem, except that you haven’t yet earned the right to market to them.
You’ve provided no value.
If that’s their experience, your on-site lead generation suffers.
So, let’s ditch that generic form and offer your audience a better reason to get in touch with you.
Alternative Contact Form Options
If you plan to ditch the generic forms, you need something to put in their place.
But, because you’re not used to seeing anything else, you may not know what to do.
Hell, I even searched for alternatives to the contact form and I didn’t find anything.
Alternative options exist, though.
Especially alternatives to the boring, generic contact forms you’re used to.
So, I put together a list of alternate on-site lead gathering forms to consider.
The cool part is that none of them interfere with the others, so you can use them all if you choose.
Look at the options I’ve got for you and decide for yourself what makes sense.
Multipage Interactive Forms
More information about the lead is better.
That’s universally true.
When your salesperson contacts your lead, the more the salesperson knows, the better.
However, longer contact forms tend to perform worse than shorter ones.
Granted, it’s something you have to test for yourself to see if it’s true for you, but on average it’s the case.
But if you want the benefits of a short contact form and the information from a long one, there’s a way to put them together.
Use a multi-page form for on-site lead generation.
Spreading information across pages on your form helps make it feel smaller.
Every step unlocks new information for the potential lead.
Continue to stick to only the information you need but spread it over pages.
With only a few questions per page, you can ask for more information than they might want to give if they saw it at once.
Plus, when they’ve invested time, they’re more likely to see it through.
Because a multi-page form breaks up the work, it makes it seem like less.
Laziness doesn’t get in the way when it doesn’t feel like the work is too much.
And getting more information is a great way to turn a lead into a client.
Chat Windows
Live chat has become an extremely popular option on websites lately.
People prefer instant feedback to their questions, and live chat provides that.
Even when a person can’t be on the other end, automation can help your live chat solve many common issues for your audience.
And it has massive benefits for your business.
However, you might not see live chat as a form of on-site lead generation.
But think about it for a second.
Using live chat, people are used to receiving chat logs in their email.
In most cases, they’re used to giving a name to the person on the other end as well.
If you’re doing the math, that’s a good reason to collect their name and email address.
Depending on how you’re using the chat (for pre-sales questions, as an example) other information might be justified.
Which means you have a ton of lead data you can gather.
When someone from your team is available for a chat, they can ask any questions that make sense, gathering even more data.
Options like that make live chat a powerful on-site lead generation tool.
Text Messages
Millennials prefer text messaging.
At this point, if that’s a surprise, you haven’t been paying attention.
Here’s what you might not realize, however.
That same generation is between their mid-20s and their late 30s.
Yes, Millennials are approaching 40.
As such, they are the prime demographic for most businesses.
Which means you need to be ready to communicate with them in the ways they prefer.
By adding a text messaging solution to your website, you’re prepared to communicate with the largest purchasing demographic in the US.
But how does text messaging become an on-site lead generation tool?
If you’re asking this question, you don’t understand that you need a phone number to text people.
This lead generation format has the power to earn the most valuable piece of contact information you can ask for.
A direct line with permission to text.
Think about how many people you know – perhaps even yourself – that get text message anxiety.
Whenever a text comes through, they can’t help but check.
I’m even guilty to a degree.
Every time one of your site visitors clicks that “text us” button, you’re earning a valuable lead.
Stop Using Button-Only Calls-To-Action
When you’re looking for on-site lead generation you want to eliminate as many chances to change their mind as possible.
The fewer steps to becoming your lead the better your odds of converting a site visitor.
But most sites use a single-button call-to-action that takes the visitor to a landing page.
In that process, they get a chance to change their mind and leave.
Adding too many steps to earn a lead on your site can lower your chances significantly. Eliminate steps you don’t need. Share on XRather than add steps to the process, try to eliminate as many unnecessary steps as possible.
Keep it simple and quick if you want them to convert better.
Remember, when you add steps you get additional chances to lose the lead.
Less is more when it comes to on-site lead generation.
Other Ways To Grab Their Attention
On-site lead generation can happen in lots of ways.
You don’t need a button that points to a landing page when there are good options to earn leads on the same page.
If you can make the process as simple as possible by using other tried and true methods, you’ll earn more leads.
These are ideas you’re probably familiar with.
They’re so common that you’ve probably seen them today.
So let’s take a look at the most effective alternatives to a single-button call-to-action.
Embedded Forms
Instead of a button on your CTA, why not a form?
Think about it.
Your CTA button is designed to catch attention and send people to another page to fill out a form.
It makes much more sense to skip the step and put the form on the same page.
An embedded form is more effective than a CTA button because your audience doesn’t have to break their experience to sign up. Share on XImagine this: you’re reading a blog and come across a form in the middle of it.
Because you’ve already made it this far, you know the content you’re reading is valuable.
Now, by filling out a form, you’re offered information on another subject you want.
And the form is only a question or two long.
Would you fill it out?
Most people would.
That’s even more true if the form is at the end of the content.
So, why would you take your audience to another page when you can convert them right there?
Use embedded forms in your CTA to reduce the steps in conversion the easy way.
Exit-Intent Popups
Ever been on a site and had a form show up over what you were reading, right when you were about to leave?
That’s an exit-intent popup, and they work well at on-site lead generation.
Popups like these are a marketer’s favorite tool because they force attention on the call-to-action right when the visitor is about to leave.
They’re like catching someone at the door by shouting, “One more thing before you go!”
Because of that, they work well at keeping people from leaving before they’ve become a lead.
Keep more of your site visitors from leaving your site with an exit-intent popup form. They work for that last-second conversion. Share on XRemember, about 97% of your site visitors are going to leave without converting.
Exit-intent popups give you a shot at retaining more of them.
Triggered-popups like these behave just like your other calls-to-action and forms by offering an incentive to trade lead information.
Attach a great lead magnet to them to assure your site visitors have a good reason to let you contact them.
As they’re about to leave, you get one more chance to earn the lead.
Often, that chance is all you need.
Slide-Ins
Like a popup form, these less-intrusive on-site lead generation tools show up after the site visitor has read a bit.
However, they’re much less irritating to readers.
These small forms move in from one of the four edges, offering the same lead magnet and form that any other CTA would.
But they also stay out of the way when your readers are trying to enjoy your content.
It creates a good balance of drawing attention without annoying people.
Slide-ins are the least irritating kind of “pop-up” CTA you can use because they usually occupy less space on the page and don’t break the reader’s experience. Share on XYou need to know, however, that these forms often can’t be multi-page or ask for a lot of information.
When you use those options, you make the form too big to be as effective.
The point of a slide-in is to make sure your on-site lead generation doesn’t annoy your audience.
Keep your slide-ins simple with a short form.
In exchange, you can feel free to offer a less-valuable incentive to sign up.
People expect to exchange appropriate information for the lead magnet.
Asking for less means you can offer less, leaving better incentives for future visits.
Ditch Basic Gated Content
Ok, for most brands, gated content is super basic.
Usually relegated to a newsletter or a simple downloadable whitepaper, gated content is simple.
It’s also much more difficult to keep gated content like that from leaking into Google.
PDFs often get indexed from your site even when they’re supposed to be unavailable without a special link or access. You can fight this by offering something less basic. Share on XAnd when your lead magnets leak into search, you lose the chance to earn the leads from them.
That’s because they become open access.
So, instead of basic gated content, provide something different entirely.
Offer your visitors something more to get your on-site lead generation to work better.
Give Them Extra Access
What if, instead of the basics, you opened more of your content?
Offering your audience access to more advanced, in-depth information is often a great incentive.
That’s why downloads have been a staple of most small business’ on-site lead generation forever.
However, I’m suggesting something beyond that.
Content that your audience can get more out of than any reasonable download can offer.
These possibilities for in-depth content might be the change that explodes your on-site lead generation.
Webinars
If you’ve ever given a public talk about your business or industry, you’re already prepared for a webinar.
These are courses and keynotes given from your website via video content.
Webinars offer far more information to your audience that they’re more likely to take in.
That’s because people love to consume video content.
Something to the tune of 85% of internet users consume video content regularly.
Video content is massive, and using it to create a webinar for your audience is a smart way to expand your brand. Share on XSo, behind your lead form, offer a webinar to your audience.
It’s a great way to boost on-site lead generation without adding too much extra time to your day.
You have the option to prerecord your webinars and offer them to your audience as they sign up.
Coupling this form of a lead magnet with a little marketing automation allows you to earn plenty of lead information.
Plus, because it’s a class, you can ask for an expanded set of information using your multi-page forms.
When your audience decides your regular content is great, your webinars are sure to earn you leads.
Interactive Tools
One of the greatest ways to get your audience invested in the lead magnet is to interest them in what it does.
An interactive tool on your site works well for that.
If it makes sense, build a tool that allows your audience to get a feel for the answers they have about your product.
Perhaps it’s a way to measure how much of your product they need or an interactive app that lets them see your product in their house.
Maybe it’s something simpler, like a quote-builder for a custom piece of furniture or service.
People always want to try out interactive tools. Using them as an incentive to exchange contact information is effective, provided the tool offers value. Share on XRegardless, something that your audience can spend a lot of time to get an answer becomes enticing when they need to exchange contact details to finish.
Offer to email them the answer to their inquiry or suggest they create a login so they can save their customizations.
Provided you’re offering them the information they want, your on-site lead generation will benefit.
Content Libraries
Let’s assume you’re ready to put together webinars and interactive tools to start drawing more leads.
But you’ve already got a bunch of digital downloads available.
You can use these downloads to create a digital content library.
Imagine how these downloads, which are probably already helping your on-site lead generation, could benefit you as a full library.
If your audience is already receiving value in your content, you can offer them a chance to get everything at once.
Creating a library of exclusive content is a great way to move past basic lead magnets without adding a ton of extra work for your team. Share on XAssemble your existing downloads as a collection geared towards your general market.
Tell them they have a chance to get all the extra content you have.
Access to an exclusive library – or anything exclusive for that matter – is a major draw for most people.
Especially if it’s something that helps them improve their life.
An open content library is a great way to expand your on-site lead generation.
Improve Your On-Site Lead Generation With Better On-Site Tools
With a series of changes like these, you’re sure to increase your on-site lead generation.
That’s going to help you grow your brand even while you’re not actively working.
The only way to build something bigger than you is to make sure it’s doing more than you could do yourself.
When you optimize it to work when you’re away, your business can grow beyond what you believed possible.
