These Features are Essential for Generating More Leads from Your Website
Your business website is your digital front door. It’s the first thing many potential customers (leads) see when searching for a product or service.
But many businesses and organizations struggle to generate leads. Most don’t collect or “convert” more than 2% of their visitors into actionable contact information for follow-up.
If that’s the case, then what business website features do you need to generate more leads from your website?
You’ll always need to display quality information on your website and offer compelling calls to action and offers. But website visitors also respond well to real-time chats, conversational messaging experiences, and immediate access to information.
You’ll need fast, easy ways to respond and continue nurturing the visitors who start conversations with you from your website. If you don’t then you’re likely to lose those visitors and as they leave to seek out a competitor.
So here’s how to generate more leads from your website features:
- Add a website chatbot
- Include clear calls to action (CTAs)
- Take advantage of click-to-text buttons
- Display business contact information
- Feature website contact forms on high performing pages
- Create a content strategy built around a business blog
- Adhere to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
- Consider user experience and internal and external links
- Take advantage of responsive web design for mobile users
- Develop a strong brand identity
Read on for more.
What’s the Best Way to Build a Website?
Before I launch into what website features generate leads, it’s worth discussing some of the various ways you can build your website.
If you’re just starting out, then the following website builders and web design platforms like these are all worth considering.
Top 10 website builders:
But building your site and setting it live is no small task. This is where web developers and web design agencies like Establish can help.
Establish works with many small and medium-sized businesses (especially service-based businesses). Not only do they help you create your website, but they’ll also offer marketing strategies and services to help you generate more leads.
Working with an agency like Establish puts you in the best position. They can help you implement the following website features and get them installed and optimized on your website.
10 Essential Website Features for Generating More Leads
1. Add a website chatbot
A website chatbot is a simple live chat interface that makes it easy for potential customers to start conversations with you. They’re great for responding in real-time to questions and offering more information to website visitors.
Website chatbots are also a more scalable way to engage with potential customers. Compared to spending hours on the phone taking inbound phone calls, chatbots make it possible to host multiple conversations at once.
A chatbot also gives you the opportunity to add layers of automation. Website chatbots make it possible to embed forms, ask questions, and create multiple conversation pathways that automatically solve problems and answer questions.
{{automation_chatbot="/media"}}
Installing a website chatbot is also relatively easy. To install the MessageDesk chatbot all you have to do is embed a single line of code directly onto your website.
2. Include clear calls to action (CTAs)
Getting visitors to take the desired action on your website starts with a call to action (CTA). CTAs are always simple and direct and they typically start with a verb. Aside from your landing page, providing an engaging CTA can help you generate the most leads.
Clear CTAs look like this:
- Start 14-Day Free Trial
- Schedule appointment
- Learn more
- Text us
- Connect with us
Generating leads typically starts when a website visitor clicks on a CTA located on one of your website pages. That CTA leads the visitor to another landing page. That page often includes a form that collects the visitor's contact information. Once the visitor fills out and submits the form, they are then led to a thank-you page.
3. Take advantage of click-to-text buttons
Click-to-text is a lead generation method that relies on text message marketing. It’s an easy way for website visitors to start text message conversations with your business or organization. Click-to-text buttons are simple CTAs that you can install on any webpage by copying and pasting a single line of javascript.
Click-to-text is similar to chatbots. The only difference between click-to-text and a chatbot is where and how the conversation takes place. Either on your website or in your website visitor’s text message feed on their phone.
Click-to-text and text messaging have clear advantages and some 76% of customers even prefer texting with businesses to calls and email.
This is because texting starts a text message conversation directly on a lead’s phone. It’s convenient and quick which is why it tends to do a better job at generating leads and collecting customer information.
Here’s an example of a website header that advertises click-to-text:
{{click_to_text_example="/media"}}
4. Display business contact information
Displaying contact information is the most common small business website feature. It gives visitors a direct way to get in touch with you and it can also help set expectations. Contact information often lives on a dedicated contact page and includes:
- A contact form
- Business name
- Business hours
- Business location
- Phone number
- Email address
- Social media links
Without contact information on your page, your audience can’t contact you directly.
You’ll also want to make contact information easy to find. Many businesses put their contact us page in their upper navigation and footer.
5. Feature website contact forms on high performing pages
Website contact forms make it possible for you to collect website visitor information directly from your website. Typically a website visitor lands on a form on a dedicated web page after clicking on a CTA.
You can use forms in many different ways to generate leads, gather information, and even offer content or promotions. Some examples include:
- Website contact forms - for collecting visitor information
- Promotional offers and discounts - a visitor enters their email or phone number and they get offers via email or text
- Survey and feedback forms - visitors submit feedback in a text box or answer questions
- Quizzes - visitors are guided through an interactive quiz
- Downloadable offers - content offers like ebooks and catalogs
- Appointment and consultation forms - for setting up an appointment or consultation
Here's an example of a customizable MessageDesk website contact form, embedded inside of a chatbot:
{{broadcast_chatbot="/media"}}
Once you have forms installed on your website, you can begin gauging their effectiveness. One of the best ways to do this is by mapping out the funnel that visitors travel through to get to your forms.
If there’s friction in that process, then you’ll generate fewer leads. Other more advanced methods, like split testing, can also help you understand your funnels and how effective you are at creating leads.
6. Create a content strategy built around a business blog
Blogs, or "weblogs" are collections of articles "posts" typically organized chronologically by time or thematically by topic. Business blogs are common website features and a popular form of inbound content marketing for many businesses. The idea is, someone searches on a topic in Google and they land on your blog post that answers their question or provides them value.
Because many business blogs are educational and informational, they're a great way to showcase your expertise and authority alongside your products or services. This helps to build trust and establish your credibility, which can turn your site into a lead-generating machine.
When I write for the MessageDesk blog, I always take time to consider how I can offer the most amount of value to my readers (small business owners and their employees).
This is my content strategy. I match my topics to what people search for and then I write in a way that’s honest, truthful, helpful, and friendly. That’s it.
7. Adhere to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
Writing about a topic and answering questions through your blog isn’t enough though. How can you get your blog content to actually rank in Google and get people to click on it?
The answer is search engine optimization (SEO).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technical process of optimizing web content for search engines like Google. This strategy includes keyword research and targeting specific phrases that use when searching. By optimizing web content for search engines, you may rank higher when someone searches.
Keep in mind, SEO is a massive topic. There are many additional technical considerations to be aware of like:
- Domain authority
- Website page load speed
- Internal links
- External links
- Page structure
- Website structure
Luckily, you can still find free link building tools, content generators, technical SEO specialists, international SEO services, and other resources to get the best out of your campaign.
8. Consider user experience and internal and external links
As you write more blog posts and develop more content for your home page, service pages, about pages, etc. you’ll want to consider where you link website visitors to. This is thinking about their user experiences as they travel through your website.
When you think about this experience, you’ll want to consider both internal and external links.
Internal links
Internal links are links from your web pages to other pages on your own website. These links extend a visitor’s journey. They offer more information and resources at just the right time.
Constructing these pathways for visitors is also critical to how long they spend on your website. Successful websites take advantage of internal links to keep visitors engaged on their websites for longer sessions. Longer sessions typically increase your chances of creating leads.
External links (backlinks)
External links (also referred to as backlinks) are links from your website to another website. Search engines like Google judge these links as contributing to reputation and authority. They also help Google infer what the page being linked to is about.
This means that more backlinks from other websites to your own website can help to build your credibility. This is called domain authority. The cost of building links varies from business to business. But it's worth investing since the greater your domain authority, then the more likely you are to rank in Google for a search phrase and get more website traffic.
9. Take advantage of responsive web design for mobile users
Over 60% of online searches occur on a mobile device. So you need to prioritize mobile-friendly responsive web design.
Responsive web design is an essential feature that allows web pages to scale up and down to support any kind of screen size and adapt to multiple devices.
Many website builders like the ones listed above support responsive web design. But this can get clunky, especially if you want a lot of personalization.
10. Develop a strong brand identity
Strong brand identity and good web design are important features of a business website. You want your audience to easily identify and recognize your brand. Elements of a strong brand identity include visual assets like logos and photos but can also include brand voice and tone.
Consistency amongst all of these elements is critical. This is where a web design agency can help. They’ll help you to develop a unified brand identity by designing all of the assets, (including a logo) that will make up your brand.
A pro tip is to use a website screenshot tool to periodically capture and track changes made to your website. This can be especially useful for ensuring that updates or changes align with your established brand guidelines and maintaining visual consistency across all pages.
Final thoughts and next steps
I’ve covered the top 10 website features you need for your business website. And I’ve shown you how to generate more leads from your website with those features.
If you’re ready to start generating more leads from your website, MessageDesk can help. Take advantage of our website chatbot and customizable web forms. We’re here to help you start more conversations that lead to sales.
Feel free to schedule a demo with a messaging expert to see how it all works.