How to Turn Your Website into a Lead Generator

With Matt Kulcsar, Interactive Art Designer

 A corporate website needs to be more than just a static, marketing piece. Your website should be a dynamic lead generation tool.   If your website is not powering your growth or reinforcing your brand than its time to consider a website refresh to maximize your online presence.  Keep these simple tips in mind when you look to enhance your website in 2012: 

Be precise.  Pretty much every website has standard analytics built-in but few users are tapping into the data to help take them to the next level.  Make sure you log in regularly to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can take action.  The design of your website should be flexible so you can easily make adjustments based on the insights from your review of the sites stats. Content management systems are usually the most cost-effective platforms that allow for on the fly updating.

Be engaging. Get to know your target audience better by finding out what means the most to them.  Incorporating an interactive survey or problem/solution component into your website will give you valuable insights into your customers needs and also help them find the content they are looking for on your site. Be careful and don’t overwhelm your audience. Engagement doesn’t mean unnecessary bells and whistles with no real purpose. Interactivity is the key to connecting to your audience and drawing them into your site.

Be clear.  You won’t be able to convert a website visitor to a qualified lead if they don’t stay on your site for very long.  You have maybe ten seconds to grab a visitor’s attention and draw them in to your website.  One step towards keeping traffic on your site is to make it easy for them to find what they need.  Navigation needs to be straightforward, intuitive and descriptive.  Using non-traditional navigation through the use of imagery and other techniques can guide users smoothly through your site to a conversion.

Be relevant.  Content is still king as long as it speaks to your target audience and it’s optimized for search engine performance.   Here’s where the analytics come in again.  Study up to see which pages have high traffic and which pages are low performers. Evaluate if the content needs to be enhanced or are you getting a message from your customers about what they are really interested in.

Be analytical.  In real estate the key is “Location! Location! Location!” but the mantra online is “Data! Data! Data!”.  The common thread that runs through all of these topics is analysis of your data. You need to have the right tools in place and the right people who can interpret and implement needed action. Site traffic has to be understood on the granular level in order to understand the finicky patterns of today’s web users.

Utilizing Custom Facebook Pages

With more and more companies incorporating Facebook into their social media mix, businesses need to understand how to make the most out of it to help further increase their visibility among their target audience. CMA interactive art designer, Matthew Kulcsar, recently sat down with us to discuss why businesses should have a Facebook presence and should utilize custom Facebook pages.

Q: Why should businesses create a custom Facebook page?

A: Facebook has built-in analytics to its site to help business owners gauge the results from their efforts, as well as information about their followers. This information includes the total number of likes and comments you receive on specific dates, broken down by day, month and a total aggregation. You can also get demographic information on users including gender, age, language and location. This information allows you to see who you are attracting and determine if there is a market for an expanded product and service offering.

With that said, customization adds a key element to your page that serves several purposes:

• Buzzworthyness - Is this topical and relevant? Is it worth sharing with my colleagues, family and friends? 
• Repeat visits - Will it keep people coming back? Are you offering a weekly special or industry specific information that is timely and actionable?

Q: What are the benefits of using custom Facebook pages?

A: CMA recently developed custom Facebook pages for PIERS’ transportation segment, which provides comprehensive and statistical data to the transportation and logistics industries. CMA included a products and solutions page highlighting features of their key products, a media page where users can view some videos about the company, as well as a page where users can sign up for their newsletter. All the pages have common elements to drive traffic to PIERS’ other social media sites such as LinkedIn and their blog, Data in Motion.

Q: What should a custom Facebook page include?

A: The wonderful thing about custom pages is there are no rules. You really have to understand your audience and deliver elements that will engage that particular demographic.

In the case of PIERS Transportation, we enhanced the pages with a lot of mechanisms to drive traffic and generate activity. More important than the technology that was added, is the support from the client as a host.

Consider Facebook your office and the people that visit your wall your guests. When they post a comment, be sure to acknowledge them in some way. Never forget about the human factor.  Too many companies are putting information up and not thinking about it again. Guess what? Nobody else is thinking about it either. The most successful sites have lively interaction from both visitors and company representatives.

Q: What elements or features should you add to your Facebook page to make it more interactive?

A: Ensuring that you have a representative monitoring and participating is the most essential interactive feature. Almost everyone has a Facebook page.

For example, I was at the supermarket looking at cheese and there was a big sticker, "Find us on Facebook." I did find them on Facebook and sure enough, it was a page about cheese, no fan interaction, no effort. The expectation from the company was that they put a sticker somewhere and they expected the users to do the rest.

People want to interact and have fun, they just need a catalyst. Whether it’s a little trivia game, a poll, a giveaway or just discussing current events in that particular field of interest, there needs to be a spark.

Give us a call! Contact CMA at 609-297-2235 to learn more about our social media capabilities.