Does your website produce casual prospects or lucrative business customers? Good lead management can make the difference for business success in a few steps. In this article we show you four tips for getting more leads from your website.
The importance of B2B leads in sales
Do you remember the old days when lead generation meant cold calling with the phone in your hand? Anyone who wants to generate B2B leads today has to approach the topic differently. Interested business customers inform themselves about a company long before the actual purchase. That is why it is so important to convince leads of you during this research phase.
Lead management in B2B covers marketing activities that convert a prospect into a lead through a form and then nurture them with relevant content. Lead nurturing, the care of leads, is particularly valuable here. Done right, it guides the lead through the customer journey, turns them into a new customer and later into a loyal existing customer who is an important pillar of the company's economic foundation.
If you design your website well with calls to action and forms, you can automate lead generation to a large extent.
If you have been unclear so far about which parameters really matter for smooth lead generation, this article is for you. We explain the four most important tips below.
Building your website with a clear aim
How can your website meet the demands of B2B lead generation in concrete terms? These points are central:
- Technical quality and user experience
- Well-developed content
- The right structure
- Forward-looking tracking
Improve functionality and user experience
B2B lead generation does not necessarily mean constant work on new content or building trust. If you want to generate more B2B leads, you do well to get the technical parameters under control first. Today that includes responsive design. For modern users it is a given that they can access a version of the page adapted to their mobile device.
Search engines and real users also reward short loading times. If your website takes just a second too long to load because of graphical gimmicks, potential leads may leave immediately.
Technical functionality also includes an intuitive design. Customers should find their way around easily and find the content they want straight away. Optimised navigation and visually highlighted calls to action are first effective measures.
For a technically good website, pay attention to:
- Responsive design
- Short loading times
- Intuitive design
Convince with high-quality content
A customer's buying process comes with many questions. Your website should offer value along the entire customer journey. The aim is to hold a potential customer's attention without pushing them to buy a product straight away.
E-books, white papers or simple checklists can provide relevant content along the customer journey. The benefit for the customer is correspondingly high, without a premature and overly aggressive request to buy. High-quality content instead aims to help your prospects solve problems and so make them inclined to interact further. Ideas for this are collected in our 20 B2B lead magnet ideas.
If you want to generate more B2B leads, it helps to think of your content strategy as a cycle.
Your prospect comes across a piece of content, is convinced by it and satisfies their need for information further on your website. Ideally, your B2B buyer feels looked after without you having actively contacted them yet. Communication can therefore get straight to the point. An appealing call to action can then crown B2B lead generation and secure the success.
Structuring your website for lead generation
Forms
Suitable forms are essential for generating B2B leads. Through them you gain important contact information that your target group passes on to you voluntarily. Their willingness to share their data signals strong interest and a high probability that you can win them as new customers.
Traditionally, forms are given prominence on the landing page. There you can deliberately do without further navigation elements. That prevents attention being drawn away from the actual goal, submitting the form.
Two considerations play a role in deciding the right length for your form:
1. Do you prefer quality or quantity in your enquiries?
A longer form can increase resistance to filling it in. If a visitor still takes it on, you can assume a well-considered enquiry.
2. What does your visitor get in return?
If filling in the form gives exclusive access to a well-researched white paper, asking for a lot of company-specific data seems legitimate. Without such a return, less demanding forms are the safer choice.
Clear calls to action
Clearly worded prompts, so-called calls to action (CTAs), are decisive for moving the buying process forward and generating B2B leads. CTAs make clear to visitors what to do next and so provide a clear structure.
If CTAs are to drive B2B lead generation, their mere presence is not what counts.
What ultimately matters is aligning them with the customer journey and using them in the right places. What exactly the CTA should look like depends on what a «lead» means for you and your website. Is it
- a newsletter registration,
- interest in a free trial,
- a productive enquiry
- or even buying the product?
An effective call to action works towards this individual goal. Successful B2B companies know this and align their CTAs accordingly.
Gather important data through tracking
How well you generate leads with your website has to be checked again and again. Targeted tracking of user behaviour can show where the customer journey needs further optimisation. Useful here are:
- Web tracking (anonymous) and analysis, so you see how your website visitors behave, what works and what does not, and where you need to optimise.
- Behavioural tracking plus analysis: this lets you later deliver personalised content that matches the persona, the interests and the respective stage of the customer journey.
Optimised tracking can therefore gain important information about initially anonymous visitors and possibly turn them into new leads. At the legally decisive points, the tracking tools are designed to collect as little data as possible so they fully comply with data protection rules.
Get to work!
You have many options for generating more leads with your website. The four categories above are the starting point for finally getting more out of it. From there, implementing small and large improvements is an ongoing process.