Your website is one of your most valuable assets as a service-based business. Not only does your website provide a centralized place for your business to reside on the web, but it tells your customers all about what you do. Your service-based business thrives on leads, and your website is your online storefront to convert visitors into paying customers.
As an intel-driven, ROI-focused marketing firm, our team at Simplex360 knows not just how to build eye-catching websites but also how to optimize your website to generate leads and boost your search engine ranking. Let’s dive in with the top five tips you need to know to drive conversions for your business.
1. Understanding Your Ideal Customer
Before you can generate leads, you have to understand your ideal customer. Your ideal customer is the type of person who is most likely to want and purchase your product. To build a website that speaks to your target demographic’s needs, follow these steps:
- Learn where your ideal customer spends the most time online
- Learn what their interests are
- Uncover their pain points and motivations
2. Creating Professional Content
By creating a website filled with the type of content your potential customers relate to, you can be that much closer to optimizing your lead-generation process. As you learn how to optimize your website to generate leads, be aware of the role that professional content plays.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: content is king. The content on your website introduces your potential customer to your brand and how you can solve their problems and make their lives easier. The impression they form about your business comes from how well they relate to the content on your website, including:
- Service pages that highlight your offerings
- Blog posts that establish your domain authority
- Photos that show what your business does
- Videos introducing your company and how it can address visitors’ needs
- Testimonials from other happy customers you’ve served
- Buttons that entice visitors to schedule service with you
Your website’s content does more than just describe your services. It also tells a story, connects you to your target customer, and builds your entire brand’s image. Professional content that addresses your customer’s needs and compels them to take action is a powerful tool in your lead generation toolbox.
3. Using Relevant and Effective Traffic Sources
The traffic sources you use to find leads for your business can impact the quality of the leads you receive. It’s always best to source traffic from reliable and relevant sources that will bring in potential customers who will become lifelong customers.
Traffic from Facebook is one of the most popular types of traffic. However, if the potential lead is coming from a knitting group and your service-based business is in the pet industry, the lead won’t convert. It’s better to source your leads from a dog lover group or pet care group on Facebook to ensure the relevance of the leads you are gathering.
If you’re in an industry where people don’t think about you until they need you (think mold removal, law firms, water damage, plumbers, etc), that customer is unlikely to be scrolling Facebook when they’re in need. Instead, they’re going to go straight to Google and type in “Emergency plumbing service near me”. In that case, you need a strong Google search presence to capture those customers in their time of need.
Your conversion rates will be higher when you source leads from relevant traffic sources.
4. Creating a Cohesive Conversion Strategy
Qualified leads are worth their weight in gold to a service-based business. Having a steady stream of potential customers can make the difference between a thriving business and one that is struggling. However, many business owners fall short when it comes to finding and maintaining a consistent flow of targeted leads.
One of the solutions to this is to create a cohesive conversion strategy that turns cold leads into loyal customers. Follow these top tips to build your conversion strategy:
Identify Your Traffic Sources
The first step in creating a cohesive conversion strategy is to figure out where your leads will come from. Identifying your most effective traffic sources is the best starting place for your sales funnel and conversion strategy, whether it’s Facebook, search engines, Google Maps, or another source.
Provide Value
Value to an existing customer means great service, but what does value mean to a potential lead? How do you provide value before they have ever purchased anything from your business? One way to do this is by offering great content on your website.
Content that is informative and helpful will leave your potential customer with a good feeling about your company. You can also provide value in the form of a free resource or giveaway.
Nurture Your Leads
Once you’ve found your ideal traffic source for qualified leads, you will then need to nurture these leads so that they can turn into lifelong customers. The most effective way to nurture leads is through email marketing. Make sure to have a form on your website to capture the email address of your potential customer so you can continue the conversation.
Email marketing allows you to communicate regularly with potential customers and existing customers so that they keep your business front of mind the next time they need your service.
Create a Strong CTA
Without a strong call to action, your customers won’t know exactly what action it is that you want them to take. At the end of every blog post, email, or article, present your customer with a strong call to action that allows them to take the next step. Use contrasting colors, simple copy, and a clear instruction.
A clear, concise, and appealing call to action will improve your conversion strategy and close the sale.
5. Enacting SEO Best Practices
When you are learning how to optimize your website to generate leads, optimizing your content for search engines is important. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Firefox are just some of the search engines that your potential customers will be using to search for companies similar to yours. To help your website rank near the top of the search results, you need to enact SEO best practices.
Using SEO in today’s modern world isn’t optional. If you stuff too many keywords into your content or build a complex website structure that doesn’t perform on mobile devices, Google will penalize your website and rank it lower in search results—costing you valuable leads.
Depending on the industry your business is in, it can be helpful to become familiar with the following SEO tips:
- Use responsive, mobile-friendly website design
- Incorporate relevant links into your content
- Learn about Google core web vitals
- Add SSL certificates for better ranking
- Use foundational SEO components
- Don’t purchase irrelevant links to your site
- Use organic methods to obtain backlinks
By following these SEO best practices, you can improve your website’s ranking in search engines. With an SEO-optimized website, your business will generate more hot leads, which will turn into long-term sales and profit.
Create a Lead Generation Website That Brings in Consistent Leads
Taking the time to find quality traffic sources, develop meaningful content, and adhere to SEO best practices goes a long way to generate hot leads for your business.
If you want to replace trial-and-error marketing efforts with proven, results-driven tactics from an experienced marketing team, contact our team at Simplex360.
Simplex360 is committed to helping you dominate your market, and we know how to optimize your website to generate leads. Schedule a call with one of our growth strategists to find out how we can help you generate a consistent flow of high-quality leads for your service-based business.
