In the industrial market, most websites are focused on lead generation. The ultimate goal for every visitor to your website is for them to send in a Request for quote, a contact form or take some other kind of action on your site. Here are some ways to encourage your visitors to take that action when they come to your site.

Use strong calls to action on every page of your site – Many of your visitors who come from the search engines will not be going to your home page. Therefore it’s important to make it easy for a visitor to find a link to your contact us, your request a quote page, and your phone number no matter where they are on your website. It’s especially important because many of these visitors will come to these deeper pages from the search engines using long tail keywords (keyword phrases that are very specific, usually 3 to 4 words) These long tail searches generate more leads than the broader keywords that tend to bring visitors to your home page.

Provide multiple lead generation options – Every industrial site should have a contact us form, a request for quote form, and a toll free number. Another way to increase leads to your site is by offering a newsletter that talks about new services or equipment, industry news, etc. Offering a white paper is another way to encourage people to take action on your site. Remember to get their name and email address before you allow them to download the whitepaper.

Simplify your forms – It’s easy to get frustrated or feel overwhelmed by a form that has too many fields, especially required fields. If you need to gather need lots of information in order to provide an accurate quote, make sure your contact us form is short and simple. This will give your visitor the option to contact you if they have a question or need information that is not a quote. The only information you should require on your contact us form is their name, email address, and possibly a phone number.

Provide an informative ‘thank you’ response – This one is probably the one that is most ignored. After a visitor sends in a form, a thank you page appears. Most of the time, these pages are afterthought and only say “Thank you!” or “Your form has been sent”. This is a good start, but why not offer more? Encourage them to take another action on your site. Ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Give them your phone number, hours of business, and ask them to call anytime with further questions. This is also a great opportunity to tell them how important their interest in your services is to you, or to tell them a little more about your company and what sets you apart from your competition. You have their attention so be creative and take advantage of that moment.

Follow these four steps and you should see more leads from your site immediately!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under General, Usability & Conversions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.