But with so many pages on your site, how do you know which ones to focus on?

This guide will walk you through the main ways to optimise your website, with tips on how to apply these to your homepage, product and service pages, category pages, and more.

You’ll learn research-backed strategies to improve user experience, conversions, and search engine rankings, helping you to scale your current optimisation.

We’ll start by briefly exploring the pages that most businesses prioritise when it comes to optimisation, and then we’ll cover how you can optimise them.

Which Pages on Your Website Should You Optimise?

The pages you should optimise are different for every business.

Some pages should always be optimised, but your website optimisation will look different to your competitors depending on which pages bring you the most traffic and conversions.

The core pages you’ll need to review optimisation for are the homepage, service or product pages, category pages and “thank you” pages.

Homepage

Your homepage needs to send users to the place they want to go.

And they might not know where they want to go.

Yes, it’s important to optimise your homepage for your main keyword, but it’s also important that it’s optimised for user experience and the buyer journey.

Service Pages

Service pages need to bring in traffic, give visitors the information they need and make it easy for them to convert.

All these elements are part of optimising your service pages.

Getting traffic is critical, but converting that traffic once it arrives on your service pages is just as important.

Product Pages

Product pages are similar to service pages but with more attention on how easy it is to add products to the basket and check out.

It’s important to get traffic to product pages, but it’s also important you convert that traffic.

Category Pages

Category pages should make it easy for visitors to find what they need.

It’s easy for category pages to become overly complicated and overwhelming, so reviewing and optimising them is crucial.

Blog Pages

Blog pages are key throughout the buyer funnel and must be optimised. If you haven’t updated the layout of your blog for a while, review current trends and see how you can apply them to your blog.

“Thank You” Pages

Thank you pages are often under-optimised.

No, they don’t bring you traffic from search engines. But they’re a real gold mine for getting extra conversions or getting visitors further into your ecosystem.

If someone has downloaded a guide, the thank you page should point them towards more information or related products.

If it’s a post-purchase thank you page, it should include videos or text about getting the most from your product or preparing for your service.

Other Pages

The above pages aren’t the only pages you’ll want to optimise on your website.

They’re the main ones that impact most businesses, but every business will have other important pages.

These pages could get you lots of traffic or conversions, even though they’re not in the list above.

While reading through our optimisation strategies, don’t only keep the pages we’ve talked about already in mind.

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On-Page Optimisation Strategies

Most of the website optimisation changes you can do take place on your website rather than away from it (things like link building and digital PR, which we’ll explore later).

This makes on-page optimisation the best place to start.

After all, you don’t want to run a hugely successful digital PR campaign that drives traffic to a poorly optimised site.

Analyse User Behaviour

Understanding how your target customers behave is the foundation for all your website optimisation.

It can impact the keywords you target, the layout of your website and more.

Of course, for this to work, you need to be super clear on who your target audience is. Watch this video if you’re not sure of your target audience and buyer personas.

How user behaviour influences keywords

Different people search in different ways. They could be looking for similar things but using different terms to describe them.

For example, someone looking for an accounting software could be:

• The owner of a small business searching for “cheap accounting tools”
• A member of staff at a larger business, searching for “alternatives to Quickbooks.”

As a result, their buyer journey (which we’ll discuss soon) and their search behaviour will be very different.

You can’t optimise your pages for the ideal keywords if you don’t know what they are.

And you definitely won’t know what they are if you don’t analyse buyer behaviour.

• Start by looking at the most common search terms used when people land on specific pages on your website.
• Consider how often people convert after searching for these things or how long they stay on the website afterwards. A low conversion rate could show that your page needs work or that it’s optimised for the wrong keyword.

How user behaviour influences your page design

People’s behaviour when they visit your website might be different from what you expect.

You might think it’s obvious what the next step people should take once they land on your homepage is, but you might find it’s not that straightforward.

One way you can see how people behave on your website is by using heat mapping software.

This software tracks where visitors move their mouse and the places they click, hover over or scroll to on your website.
If most visitors miss your main CTAs, then there’s some optimisation work to be done.

A scroll map and a move map from hotjar

You may want to make the more important parts of your page more eye-catching, move important information higher up the page or reduce the size of some sections. It all depends on how users behave on your website.

Which pages does user behaviour impact?

User behaviour impacts every page of your website. Keep it in mind while optimising each page of your site.

Buyer Funnel

Next, you need to know your buyer funnel inside-out, upside down.

This funnel will influence how you optimise your pages in a big way, from the pages you choose to optimise for certain keywords to the CTAs you use.

How your funnel looks will depend entirely on your goals and business.

Most of the time, it comprises four sections: awareness, interest, desire and action.

Your website needs to handle all the different stages.

Think of your website as your best salesperson. It needs to guide customers through the sales funnel effectively.

Many businesses focus on the awareness and action stages of the funnel, creating top-of-funnel content and solid CTAs to make people buy. But they forget about the parts in the middle.

If you’re in this situation, you’re not alone. Stepping back and thinking about who your customers are and what gets them from the awareness stage to the action stage will help you bridge that gap.

Let’s look at two different types of customers. One is an impulse buyer; the other needs to do a lot of research before they convert. Some of their actions aren’t on your website, but it’s important to understand where they come from before landing on your site.

The Impulse Buyer

At the awareness stage, they:

• See an ad or organic post on social media
• Visit social media accounts
• See an influencer recommendation.

At the interest stage, they:

• Follow social media accounts
• Visit the website — which should be optimised to move them down the funnel quickly
• Look at services or products — which should give them plenty of information and make it easy for them to convert
• Look at reviews — which need to be visible on your website.

At the desire stage, they:

• Are helped along by discount website popups, free shipping over x spend, limited edition or limited time offers — so make sure you include relevant USPs.
• Get retargeted with ads (basket or browser abandonment)
• Use live chat on the website to ask any final questions — so make live chat available and contact details easy to find.

At the action stage, they:

• Sign up to a service
• Make a purchase.

The Research Buyer

At the awareness stage, they:

• Come across your website while searching for a product or service like yours
• See your brand as part of a product comparison blog
• See a search ad while researching a product or service like yours.

At the interest stage, they:

• Visit your website
• Look at reviews — which need to be visible on your website.
• Look for external reviews.
• Watch videos about the product — which should be included throughout your site.
• Compare several products or services — so make it easy for them to compare them on your site.
• Join community groups
• Ask multiple questions — so include FAQs.
• Speak to a sales advisor via live chat, social media, email or phone — so make live chat available and contact details easy to find.

During this stage, there will likely be some back and forth between your company and competitors.

At the desire stage, they look for:

• Money-back guarantees, lifetime customer support and warranty — so make sure you include relevant USPs
• Good customer service.

They may revisit some of the interest stage parts of their journey to get additional reassurance. Let’s say they find out about the money-back guarantee; they may research to see how easy it is to return the product.

At the action stage, they:

• Sign up to a service
• Make a purchase.

Keep in mind these are just two types of buyers. It’s important to research your buyer’s entire journey to optimise your website for each stage.

It will help you to:

1. Narrow down the most important pages on your website
2. Understand what stage of the buyer journey people are at when they visit those pages.

Which pages does the buyer journey impact?

The buyer journey impacts every page of your website and influences how they work together. Keep it in mind while optimising each page of your site.

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A/B Testing

Even if your website has a wonderful design before it goes live, you never know how it will perform out in the wild.

You might have ticked every box on the “how to make the best website ever” checklist, but your audience isn’t biting for some reason.

It could be that your audience needs something a little bit different. Perhaps a different CTA or USP?

Image courtesy of VWO

One of the ways you can figure this out is by A/B testing the pages on your website. A/B testing is one of the best methods for optimising your website and improving conversion rates.

It’s an easy way to figure out what’s holding you back from scaling your results — whether that’s increasing conversions or getting people to stay on your site longer.

This is how to A/B test the pages on your site using a tool like AB Tasty, Optimizely or VWO.

1. Start with a clear goal in mind. Do you want to increase conversions, get more email signups or reduce the time it takes for users to find what they need on your page?
2. Limit the differences between pages A and B. Only test one change at a time, such as different headlines, call-to-action buttons or images. This makes it easier to see what change impacted the metrics.
3. Test on high-traffic pages first. These get the most visitors, so they will provide feedback more quickly. The information you get from these pages will likely help you make changes to smaller pages, too.
4. Let tests run long enough to collect enough data to draw valid conclusions. For high-traffic pages, a few weeks is often enough to see which version of a page is helping you achieve your goals.
5. With that said, monitor and end unsuccessful tests early. Keep an eye on the results, and don’t be afraid to stop tests early if it’s obvious that your changes have had a significant negative impact.

Which pages should you A/B test?

You will most likely run A/B tests on your homepage, service or product pages, and potentially your category pages.

Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) describes any changes you make to your website to increase conversions.

CRO is often a strategy that gets missed in favour of an exciting new campaign, but it’s full of quick wins.

Here are some key ways you can improve the CRO on your site.

Simplify forms

Go through all the forms on your website and minimise the number of fields you use. You want to remove any unnecessary friction in filling out forms.

Ask yourself if you really need the information you’re asking for.

Keep the buyer journey in mind here, too. If someone is right at the start of their journey, they won’t want to give you much information to download a free guide. But if they’re signing up for a software demo, they’re likely to share a bit more with you.

Make it clear why you’re asking for certain information, and pay attention to where people are dropping off in your form.

Improve page load speed

Page load speed impacts SEO and CRO. So, you get two improvements for the price of one by improving it.

• Make sure your website’s images are compressed properly.
• Reduce the amount of useless code on your website (our devs can help with that, by the way)
• Use a CDN to deliver content fast.

Use trust signals

There are a lot of shady businesses out there. Visitors to your site need reassurance that you’re the real deal.

Trust signals can help with this.

They include third-party reviews, testimonials, easy-to-find contact details, certifications and awards.

Accounting software Quickbooks includes reviews from two places, testimonials and a contact number on its home page.

It also highlights that 6.5 million people use the product worldwide, reassuring the visitor that many people use the software, so it must be good.

Clear CTAs

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it many more times in this guide — check your CTAs are clear and the visitor knows what they’ll get once they click that CTA button.

Check that your CTAs are relevant to the page they’re appearing on and the stage of the funnel visitors are at.

Let’s say you’re in the healthcare space, selling CT scanners.

Someone searching for “Top Healthcare Tech 2024” is unlikely to make a purchase there and then. They just want to keep up with trends.

Instead of asking them to buy, you can convert them into a lead by getting them to sign up for a mailing list.

They get to be part of a cool mailing list and aren’t scared off by you asking them to buy when they’re not at that stage yet, and you get to nurture them towards that stage. Everyone wins.

Exit-intent popups

When used well, popups don’t annoy your website visitors.

When used especially well, they can help improve your conversions.

Exit intent popups are especially good for CRO, as they grab the visitor’s attention just as they go to leave the website.

They offer something enticing in exchange for an email address, meaning you can stay in touch with the visitor once they’ve left the site.

This way, you can keep nurturing the customer long after they’ve left your site rather than letting them leave and forget about your business.

These optimisations are simple but effective ways to get more conversions on your website. Combined with your buyer journey, user behaviour analysis and A/B testing, you’ll be well on your way to scaling your conversions.

Which pages should you optimise for conversions?

All the pages on your website can be optimised for conversions. Keep this in mind while optimising your site.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

It wouldn’t be a website optimisation guide without SEO. This section will focus on on-site SEO.

We’re going to talk about it with the future in mind, especially with Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) on the horizon.

Search Generative Experience (SGE)

If you haven’t heard about SGE, it’s an AI chatbot built into Google. People can ask Google questions, and Google will give them a longer, more personalised response.

This response links to a few websites within the answer and next to it in a “carousel”, but doesn’t encourage searchers to click through to the websites.

This is good and bad. The bad is that you’ll see an overall drop in traffic. The good is that you’ll get more qualified traffic to your website as they will have done their research through Google SGE instead.

We have a great SGE guide here and a hugely in-depth video all about how Google’s Search Generative Experience will change search forever.

So, how can you optimise your website for SGE?

Right now, this mostly applies to blog content and product pages.

We’ve found the keys to ranking your website in Google’s SGE are:

• Extremely closely matching the information you publish with the phrase you are trying to rank for.
• Providing simple information with high readability.
• “Getting to the point” and giving the user the information they need very quickly on the page.
• Being a trusted source of information on the topic.
• Already ranking in the “regular” organic search results.

As of writing, SGE hasn’t been released yet, so we’ll still be focusing on more traditional SEO methods to rank in search. This should help you rank in SGE in the future, too.

Keyword optimisation

This seems like an obvious way to optimise your site, but it’s important to revisit your keywords from time to time.

Your user behaviour might have changed, meaning they’re searching for new terms. There might be a gap to create some blog content, or perhaps you’d benefit from optimising a poorly performing page to rank for a new term.

During your buyer journey research, you may have identified some content that needs to be optimised for long-tail keywords or some keywords that you’re not targeting at different stages of the journey.

Here are some steps to conduct advanced keyword research to help you scale your SEO.

1. Use multiple keyword research tools

• Don’t rely on just one tool like Google Keyword Planner. Use a mix of paid tools like Ahrefs, Semrush (which you can try free for 14 days using our link), Moz, etc., to get a more comprehensive list of keywords.

2. Analyse competitor websites

• Study what keywords your competitors are ranking for by looking at their metadata, content and backlinks. Identify keywords you can target.

3. Leverage autocomplete

• Use the autocomplete suggestions that appear when you type keywords into Google/YouTube. This shows what people are searching for.

4. Analyse search intent

• Don’t just look at keyword volumes. Understand if the intent is informational, commercial or navigational, and focus on keywords aligned with your business goals.

5. Search query analysis

• Use Google Search Console or analytics to see what queries people used to find your site and identify new keyword opportunities.

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Page titles and meta descriptions

Double-check that all your page titles and meta descriptions are working as hard as possible.

Even some of the biggest websites in the world still have their homepage page title as “home”, so if you still do, we won’t judge you (too much.)

It’s a simple change that helps signal to search engines what your pages are about and makes navigation easier for your website visitors.

Although your meta descriptions don’t impact SEO directly, they do help searchers understand what your page is about and entice them to click on your site in search results.

It’s important to review them even if, at one point, they were optimised well. Your research may show that people are looking for different USPs than the ones you included or are scanning the results for different keywords.

Which pages should you optimise for SEO?

Each page on your website should be optimised for SEO.

Start by reviewing the most important pages to you, such as your homepage, service or product pages and category pages, before moving on to other high-traffic pages, such as blogs.

User Experience

User experience impacts both SEO and conversion rates.

If your website is slow to load or difficult to use and people leave quickly, then it tells Google your website isn’t worth visiting (in basic terms).

People leaving quickly aren’t converting, either.

So, how can you fix this?

Core Web Vitals

If you haven’t visited your core web vitals for a while, now is the time to head over to PageSpeed Insights.

If you’re unfamiliar with core web vitals, it’s essentially Google’s way of measuring user experience on your pages based on how fast your site loads.

Google recently added a new metric — Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — to go alongside the existing core metrics of Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) and First Input Delay (FID).

Each metric can be brought into the green by taking the following steps. Don’t forget to back up your website before doing any of these.

1. Go to Google’s Page Speed Insights and check your stats
2. Check the suggestions Google makes for how to improve your website
3. Compress your images (manually or using a plugin)
4. Remove plugins or scripts you’re not using
5. Review your website hosting to make sure it’s not slowing your site down
6. Make sure your website is responding quickly when users click.

Which pages should you optimise for user experience?

Every page on your website should be optimised for user experience.

Start by reviewing the pages that are most important to you, such as your homepage, service or product pages and category pages, before moving on to other high-traffic pages, such as blogs.

Off-Page Optimisation Strategies

Although the main focus of this guide is optimising the pages on your website, we must cover how off-page optimisation interacts with the pages on your site.

• When running digital PR campaigns, consider sending traffic through to a custom, well-optimised landing page that relates to the campaign.
• If you secure a backlink through an expert comment in a published article, request a link to a relevant page on your website rather than just your homepage.
• PPC campaigns should link to custom landing pages or relevant site pages instead of your homepage or another generic page.

How to Optimise Each Page of Your Website — Summary

And that wraps up our guide on optimising key pages on your website!

You can transform your results by researching user behaviour, mapping the buyer journey, A/B testing, boosting conversions, honing SEO, and enhancing user experience.

With ongoing testing and tweaking, your website will attract, engage, and convert visitors better.

What to WATCH Next

What to LISTEN to Next

How To Effectively Scale and Grow Your Marketing

How to Get Buy-in For Your Marketing Strategy

What to READ Next

How to Rank in Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE)

The post How to Optimise Each Page of Your Website appeared first on Thinkplus.

Lead isn’t even magnetic.

We’re not on about lead magnets in the literal sense, though.

We’re talking about a smart marketing tool you can use to boost conversions and customer engagement with your business.

Introducing: lead magnets.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to prioritise for your marketing strategy for the next year or more.

You’ll be surprised to know that only 35% of marketers consider lead generation a top marketing priority.

Actually, lead generation is a marketing fundamental. It should be at the top of the list when it comes to marketing goals.

But what do we mean by a “lead”?

Simply, a “lead” is anyone who has the potential to become a future client for your business.

It’s anyone who has interacted with or seems interested in your brand.

So, a lead magnet will attract (not repel!) customers to exchange their contact information for some exclusive content you provide.

Let’s get into it.

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How Do You Get Leads in Marketing?

There are various ways to establish who your leads are in marketing.

Imagine you own a company that sells baby stroller scooter hybrids.

Qualified marketing leads can look a bit like this:

• Melanie rings up, asking if there’s a warranty on the stroller-scooter.
  • Ringing up your business for more information suggests interest and a qualified lead.
• Will, a personal trainer who’s about to become a new father, fills in your contact form at a baby convention.
  • Filling in a contact form at an event for your business is a surefire sign of interest.

Online, this translates to:

• Robyn Scuters, who signed up to your contact form with their email and phone number.
  • Filling in a website contact form confirms the customer wants to hear from you.
• Horace Cope, who signed up for a newsletter on your latest blogs. (Which Baby Stroller Scooter Colour Matches Your Star Sign? was a title of particular interest)
  • Signing up for a newsletter shows this customer wants to hear news from you.
• Iona Mink, who thought your rabbit faux-fur-lined carrycot was sensational on Instagram.
  • Engagement on social media shows this customer is a potential lead.
• Dick Tate spends hours telling your online chatbot how his stroller-scooter workouts have got him stronger calves
  • Interacting with the chatbot on your website suggests Hugh is a potential lead, too.
• Warren Peace, who has just downloaded your e-book: How to Change a Nappy While Stroller-Scootering
  • Downloading your e-book shows this customer is particularly interested.
• Mona Lott signed up for your online webinar on Meditative Stroller-Scootering
  • Those who sign up for webinars can be identified as qualified marketing leads.
• Carrie Dababi, who clicked on an ad she saw online for your product.
  • If they’ve clicked one of your online ads, they’re almost definitely a lead.

All the above are considered MQLs (marketing qualified leads). This is because a potential customer has engaged with your company in response to one of the above marketing techniques.

What Turns Website Visitors into Leads?

We’ve shared a few examples of how you can recognise leads in marketing.

But what turns your average website visitor into a lead in digital marketing?

A full moon? A casting director?

Not quite.

Let’s look at the conversion path that gets your site visitors interested and engaged with your brand.

Don’t be shy to show off your credentials.

Did you know that 74% of consumers will trust a company more if reviews and testimonials are easily visible on the landing page?

Add a dash of credibility to make sure your qualified leads are converting.

Now you’ve got the tools to recognise who your qualified leads are, you can start learning about what lead magnets are, why they’re important and how to create them.

What Is a Lead Magnet?

Loyal, receptive audiences are a gold mine for marketers.

Particularly their email addresses.

A strong email list gives you consistent access to your most valuable customers.

That’s easy-peasy to achieve, right? All you’ve gotta do is slap a button on your site like this:

Yeah… that doesn’t work anymore.

Why?

Well, how many emails do you have in your inbox right now?

It’s probably quite a lot.

In fact, 40% of consumers have at least 50 unread emails in their inboxes.

Not many people care for spam (emails and processed pork) these days. People aren’t too keen on giving away their email addresses to anyone.

A lead magnet is usually a piece of content which provides customers with awareness, information or a reason to engage with your product or service.

We’re thinking of free trial subscriptions, product samples, demos and more.

Offer your customers value, and in return, they will opt-in to receive messages from your brand in the future. Like this:

Image Source

What Makes an Ace Lead Magnet?

So, you know what a lead magnet is.

But what can make your lead magnets really stand out from the crowd?

High-converting lead magnets have a few mutual attributes, which are:

• Relevancy — Even the most mindblowing offers can go nowhere if they don’t resonate with your target audience. At the same time, lots of low-quality leads aren’t worth it. You’ll end up spending more money following up on these leads.

Your lead magnet must have a necessary purpose for a valuable target audience.

• Perceived value — Is your proposed offer enough to entice a customer to give away their email address? Great lead magnets might provide insider knowledge or a unique solution to a real, common problem.

Will your lead magnet save your customer time and/or money?

• True to your word — Your lead magnet fulfils the initial promise or offer you made to secure a valuable customer’s email. No one likes a promise-breaker.

Your lead magnet is a problem solver, so the customer recognises you’re the expert or that your product is the solution they’re looking for.

Why Do Lead Magnets Work?

There’s a reason why you’ll see lead magnets everywhere after you’ve read this article.

That’s because they really do work.

1. Lead magnets give your customers an incentive to subscribe to you. They know exactly what they’re getting in exchange for their email.
2. Lead magnets can be targeted. You’re offering rewards specific to what your visitors are already interested in, based on their site activity.
3. Customers who sign up for your mailing list are intrigued by your product/service. This makes them valuable customers who you can send targeted offers to in the future.

How to Create a Lead Magnet

Lead magnets don’t have to be super complicated.

If you’re new to the world of marketing, keep it simple but valuable.

You don’t need to blow people’s minds with edgy designs or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Who?

To target the right people, you need to know who your user personas are and what would entice them.

You may have several user personas that want different things, so one lead magnet can’t appeal to all.

Wondering how our scooter-stroller business is coming along?

Let’s dive into an example. Here are two potential user personas for scooter-strollers.

Persona #1 doesn’t really get it. She’s a new mother looking for a way to stay fit and look after her new child. She doesn’t have the information to know whether this scooter-stroller is right for her.

Persona #2 is a professional scooter rider. He’s hoping that in the next Olympics, scooter riding will be an event. His life is dedicated to scooters, and he wants to get some extra training after welcoming his new son’s birth.

What would you create as a lead magnet for each of these personas?

Persona #1 — Perhaps this persona would benefit from a knowledge-based lead magnet like an e-book. This will provide her with the information she needs to know whether this product is suitable for her.

Persona #2 — This persona is already an expert. They’ll probably prefer a resource-based lead magnet, like a guide on the best scooter wheel styles for different tricks. (Yes, that really is a thing).

Take a look at what your competitors are doing for lead magnet ideas. Also, check out what kind of content your audience is already responding well to:

• Are you seeing a large number of questions on one topic?
• Are you getting more engagement from blogs or videos?
• Which pages are users visiting most frequently on your website? (You can use Google Analytics to find this information).

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Create

You’ve finalised your offer, and you’re happy with it as a lead magnet idea.

Now it’s designing and creating time.

Either get your in-house designer on it or use a platform like Canva — which offers many customisable templates like newsletters, e-books and worksheets.

Once you’ve designed and written your lead magnet, you need to develop a punchy title that’ll reel ‘em in. We’re thinking:

Persona #1 — The Ultimate Guide to Scooter-Stroller Fitness

Persona #2 — 20 Scooter Stroller Tricks to Impress Your Baby

Conversion Path

We’ve already touched on this earlier when we discussed What Turns Website Visitors into Leads?

You need a landing page, form, thank you page and a class email sequence.

For the form, the bare minimum is a blank field for their name and email.

1. Add your leads to an email sequence, which will push them further down the marketing funnel. This email sequence’s purpose is to nurture the user, drip-feeding additional resources like newsletters or the odd webinar here and there.
2. Track attack! Make sure you set up tracking on your conversion path. A large part of refining your lead magnet strategy is actually seeing how your users behave. From this, you can identify further optimisation opportunities to nail future conversions!

Google Analytics is your best bet. For more info, we’ve even got a guide on how to set up Google Analytics 4.

Lead Magnet Schedule

You might think “Job well done” when you’ve created and instigated your lead magnet.

What else is there left to do?

It’s important not to be complacent.

Depending on the kind of lead magnet you’ve created, you’ll need to update it every few months according to changing data and consumer behaviour.

As an example, say you’ve created a report on the number of scooter accidents in 2022.

At the end of 2023, you’ll need to update the report to reflect new, current data — otherwise, your offering loses value. It’s no longer relevant.

You can even conduct surveys on your lead magnets to better understand how to improve the value of your offer and measure its success.

Lead Magnet Ideas

Hopefully, you’re more clued up on the lead magnet process by now, and you’re primed and ready to go.

To help you on your way, we’ve compiled a few lead magnet ideas for inspiration.

Wise Whitepapers

Expert advice is always sought after.

Especially if it’s FREE!

A whitepaper allows you to share unique data or advice on a topic you’re a specialist in.

In exchange for their email, your whitepaper readers receive expert advice or an innovative solution to a complex issue.

British-based market research and data analytics firm YouGov recently released an informative whitepaper exploring how people prefer to buy their cars.

This piece is gold dust for independent or B2B automotive sellers and car manufacturers.

Companies can uncover more about future marketing strategies built on credible data from this whitepaper.

With only a few fields (business email, industry and location), it seems like a fair trade-off.

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Worldy Webinars

As we’ve said before, expert advice is golden — but so is experience.

Webinars are a smart way to impart your niche knowledge. You’re letting potential leads know that:

1. You’re an expert in this industry with experience
2. The webinar has revealed there’s more to this than they thought, and they need your services/ product.

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In this example, Giada mentions she got her first fashion job at Alexander McQueen without any experience.

Webinars provide your audience with engaging video content and an opportunity for a Q&A session with a specialist. Start offering webinars on demand, and you could gain leads for months and even years into the future.

To “potential leads” who want to get into the highly competitive fashion industry but lack experience, this is a high-value offering.

They can learn, for free, how to get a job in fashion. That’s pretty cool.

It also allows Giada to flex her muscles as a fashion educator. Participants of the webinar will experience her expertise and then realise they might need further instruction.

Boom. Lead secured.

Educating E-books

Similar to whitepapers, e-books are aimed at solving a specific problem.

But, they’re not as data-driven.

E-books centre around readability, they’re more like conversational guides. The writing should be simple, chatty and easy to follow. You want your readers to understand what you’re talking about in clear, concise language.

Here’s one we made earlier.

It’s a pretty good deal if we don’t say so ourselves.

If you’re interested, you get a FREE marketing and website review completed by a real human being, not a tool. On top of that, you get a FREE copy of our bestselling digital marketing e-book: “How To Get To The Top of Google” which has over 500+ 5-star reviews on Amazon.

We’ve made sure the writing in this book is as jargon-less as possible, providing anyone with a plain English guide to search engine optimisation.

If you’re new to the industry or digital marketing leaves you scratching your head — a free website review AND a free e-book are definitely worth an email address exchange.

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Tailored Templates

Imagine you’re pushed for time, and you need to make a quick infographic for a presentation.

The last thing you want to do is to spend ages agonising over colours and fonts. There has to be a quicker way of doing it.

Editable templates are the solution.

Canva is a brilliant example of a free and easy-to-use design site which has lots of templates available — from social media posts to posters, infographics and newsletters.

All they ask in exchange is your email address when you sign up. Simplifying everyday work tasks with convenient templates is a very valuable and convenient offering.

Persuasive Product Samples or Trials

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You wouldn’t buy a car without trying it out first, right?

Unless I guess, you’ve wanted a Ferrari for ages and owning it is all you care about.

If that’s the case, fair enough!

Most people, though, like a bit of a try before you buy.

In our client’s case, Takeaway Packaging, they offer free environmentally friendly product samples. To process a free sample order, they’ll need your email address.

Offering free product samples is one of the most powerful lead magnets out there. Why? Because if a customer likes the product, they’re going to buy it. Plus, they’ll be more receptive to future offers you send them because they’ve got proof that your product is great.

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If you offer a service, free trials are the equivalent of a free product sample. Amazon’s Prime Student offer is a good example.

Those who sign up will get premium delivery options at half the price Prime usually costs, with other added benefits. Students who want to save money will enjoy a taste of speedy, cheap delivery for free and will likely stay subscribed after their 6-month trial is over. Especially since they’ve got to opt out themselves. Smart one, Amazon.

Clever Case Studies

Case studies are compelling lead magnets for several reasons.

Firstly, they provide proof of your company’s abilities:

“We helped a dolls house miniatures creator gain twenty thousand Instagram followers in a month.”

…or something like that.

Secondly, they can be used as lead magnet content, which is “gated” by requiring an email for download. Take it one step further and engage your audience more by positioning your case study as newsworthy content:

“How you can gain twenty thousand Instagram followers in a month as a small business.”

“- learn how we helped a dolls house miniatures creator gain a huge following on social media in a short period.”

Do you see the difference?

In the first instance, you’re letting your prospective lead know that you mean business and boy, are you good at it.

“Look what we did!”

In the second example, you’re telling your lead this content is educational — which will help boost organic traffic, too.

Here’s a good example from Thinkific, a software company which helps people create and sell online courses in their own area of expertise:

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More Lead Magnet Ideas…

We’ve provided you with a few examples, but it’s up to you to work out which lead magnet idea will work best with your target audience and the problem they’re looking to solve.

Understanding your customer’s journey is crucial to working out how you can influence them to exchange their contact information for a valuable offering.

Our examples aren’t the only kinds of lead magnets you can create, you can also try:

• Tools and widgets
• Workbooks
• Courses
• Quizzes and tests
• Secret “insider” insights
• Access to a VIP club with member benefits
• Free consultations or quotes
• Catalogues
• Discounts
• Free shipping.

We could go on.

But technology is a constantly evolving beast.

At the moment, video-based lead magnets are some of the most effective.

A study from GetResponse revealed that 47% of marketers found that video or text-based lead magnets performed the best. The rise of video marketing is set to continue, with 77% of global viewing time dedicated to on-demand content.

So, keep an eye out for marketing trends when you’re creating your lead magnet. Find and tailor an offer to support your business objectives and fulfil your target customer’s needs.

It’s time to get creative.

What to Read Next

• Looking for other ways to generate leads on your site? Check out our blog on How To Increase Your Website’s Leads
• Get comfy, make yourself a cup of tea and listen in to our podcast with 5 Lead Magnet Ideas Anyone Can Profit From
• Acquiring B2B leads can be challenging. Get inspired by 20 B2B Lead Generation Ideas (You’ve Probably Not Tried Yet).

The post What Are Lead Magnets in Marketing? appeared first on Thinkplus.

Some terms are more useful than others, and knowing what a marketing funnel is is essential to understanding how your customers think.

From first hearing about your business to purchasing a product or a service from your site — a marketing funnel outlines your customer’s journey with you.

How Does The Marketing Funnel Work?

A marketing funnel can illustrate customer behaviours like a map, describing the route to conversions. An in-depth analysis of your marketing funnel will highlight areas of what your company needs to do to influence consumers at specific stages.

Marketing funnels work to advertise a product or service, which gives your leads a reason to buy from you. This isn’t to be confused with the sales funnel, which targets the leads generated from the marketing funnel to entice them to make purchases.

Take a bit of time to evaluate your marketing funnel.

Why?

Understanding your market better can drive sales and brand awareness and increase loyalty and familiarity with your brand.

Marketing Funnel Examples

Did you know that 65% of people are visual learners? That’s why seeing visual representations helps it all sink in better.

The marketing funnel visualises the steps a site visitor takes from first hearing about your brand right up to the first conversion they make. Marketing funnels are a crucial marketing fundamental to curating the perfect content for your target audience.

So, what’s with the funnel analogy?

The way customers behave can be easily explained and represented in a funnel shape.

At the beginning of the process, there is a wide target audience of customers, but, by the end, only a proportion become actual customers.

Imagine it like this:

1. You’re a small, independent company specialising in delicious peanut butter and choc chip cookies.
2. You’ll want to target anyone who likes cookies or has a sweet tooth — a wide target audience.
3. But not everyone likes peanuts. Some people are allergic; others don’t like the flavour.
4. At the end of the day, only a small percentage of customers will buy your cookies.

Now you’ve got the basic idea, we’ll go into a little more detail.

The most basic marketing funnel is divided into three types of customers:

• TOFU
• MOFU
• and BOFU.

I know what you’re thinking. Tofu? Isn’t that condensed blocks of soy milk that vegans love so much?

Not in this case.

TOFU, MOFU and BOFU refer to the three types of customers at varying stages of the funnel (top, middle and bottom). These acronyms make each part of the marketing funnel easier to remember.

Top of Funnel (TOFU)

The top of the funnel is where most consumers will be. They might have seen one of your ads on social media, or perhaps a poster at a train station has caught their eye — whatever it is, this is the stage consumers are introduced to your business.

First impressions matter!

Content targeted at these consumers should be geared at raising awareness about your product or service.

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Middle of Funnel (MOFU)

Customers in the middle of the funnel know your business a bit better. They’re likely to have visited your website before and might be comparing you with your competitors.

This is the stage where consumers are assessing their options.

Use this opportunity to guide your target audience into choosing a solution to their problem. Conveniently, it’ll be the one you offer!

Below is an example of a questionnaire from The Ordinary skincare brand on their site that can guide middle-of-the-funnel (MOFU) customers to purchase. Interested customers answer simple questions about their skin to receive personalised, recommended skincare products.

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Bottom of Funnel (BOFU)

At the bottom of the funnel, you’ll find the consumers on the cusp of converting. They’re almost there; they just need a little push!

All the content created at this stage needs to encourage conversions as much as possible. Offering free trials and demos or sharing glowing customer reviews can all help customers make that all-important purchase.

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The above example shows what happens after you complete The Ordinary’s “regimen builder”. It’s incredibly easy to add your personalised selection of skincare products straight to your basket or have it emailed to you to view or purchase later.

For those on the fence at the bottom of the funnel, the convenient option to buy curated moisturiser, serum and cleanser all in one place is an instant winner.

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AIDA Marketing Funnel Templates

The TOFU-MOFU-BOFU model isn’t the only type of marketing funnel template out there.

The AIDA model is a popular way of exploring a customer’s relationship with a business.

American advertising advocate, Elias St. Elmo Lewis, dreamed up the AIDA model at the end of the 19th Century to help marketers understand how customers interacted with their brand.

Instead of just three stages, the AIDA model comprises four different funnel stages:

Attention

At this stage, consumers are new to your brand. You’ve established your target audience, so now you’ve got to communicate clearly and effectively what your offering is. The content you create should educate customers about your services or products or provide a solution to their problems.

Interest

The clue’s in the name. At this point, you’ve secured a curious customer who wants to know more. They need to know if your product is suitable for them, the cost and how it measures up to competitor products or services.

Desire

Consumers at the “desire” stage are ready to convert. They’ve got your products in their basket but haven’t taken the last step and made that purchase.

Action

Finally! This is the stage you’ve been waiting for: the customer makes a purchase. Make your online checkout as easy to complete as possible; you want to secure that conversion.

The basic AIDA model is made up of the above four stages.

At Thinkplus, we like to add another dimension: the retention stage.

It’s not technically included in the AIDA model, but we figure it’s important for keeping existing customers. After all, keeping customers is cheaper than finding new ones.

Automated email campaigns, discounts on recurring subscriptions and marketing in community spaces (e.g. Facebook groups, Slack, Discord) can help you maintain a good relationship with your regular customers.

Think of all the times you’ve seen a product online, thought, “I like that,” and got distracted. That was you in the “desire” stage. You might forget about it and then see an ad or a social media post reminding you of the product again. You’ve returned to the “interest” stage.

The marketing funnel is a useful visualisation tool. But it’s important to remember that some customers will move back and forth through different funnel stages.

Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing Funnels

Your marketing funnel needs to suit the user personas of your target customers. Depending on your customer base, how customers navigate your marketing funnel changes.

• B2C (business-to-consumer) customers either travel through the marketing funnel alone or with loved ones and friends.
• B2B (business-to-business) customers have large buying groups that focus on interacting directly with sales representatives. This is in the lower portion of the marketing funnel.

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The Benefits of Marketing Funnels

The idea of using marketing funnels is to clearly illustrate the customer’s journey from first impressions to eventually (hopefully!) converting.

Other benefits include:

1. Flexibility — A marketing funnel can track a wide range of customer interactions. From online sales to click collecting as an affiliate, marketing funnels bring visibility to every moment of connection with your customer.
2. Measurability — Arguably the biggest benefit, marketing funnels show you where you might be losing customers. Based on this, you can alter your marketing strategy.

Marketing funnels are a simple and easy way for companies to follow how consumers interact with their brand and each step of the purchasing decision process.

Understanding your client base better will help you define exactly what your customers want and how you can provide it.

It just takes a little research to get started!

Looking to learn more about marketing? Check out some of our other informative content below:

• Read this guide on how to optimise your website’s sales funnel.
• Find out how to generate leads for your website and align your marketing funnel strategy.
• Listen to this podcast on how to design the perfect buyer persona.

The post What Is a Marketing Funnel? appeared first on Thinkplus.

With so many other websites vying for your ideal customer’s attention, you need to make sure your sales funnels are as optimised as they can be.

This guide talks you through exactly what a sales funnel is, why your website needs one and how you can optimise it.

This involves your entire marketing strategy, not just your website, and also covers how to keep existing customers coming back.

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It’s referred to as a funnel even though the process is less funnel shaped these days, with more touch points and more flexibility. The phrase was coined by E. St Elmo Lewis back in 1898 and stuck, despite it no longer being the same process it once was.

There are four different levels to this funnel:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Each stage of the funnel requires different content and tactics to ensure you move your customers closer towards conversion.

Infographic showing the 4 stages of the sales funnel / conversion funnel

Why does your website need a sales funnel?

When customers order online you may feel like you have less control over the sales funnel, but we’d like to reassure you that is not the case.

Here at Thinkplus we often tell our clients that their website should be as good as their best sales person.

Think about the type of information your best salesperson shares with customers at the different stages of their journey to purchasing.

Is what they say to the person who is just having a browse different to what they say to the returning customer?

If you don’t have a sales team, or are fully online, try and imagine what this salesperson would be like if you had a physical store.
Now think about your ideal customer.

• What type of questions do they ask?
• How much do they spend on average?
• Is this a one time or infrequent purchase or do they have the potential to become a repeat customer?

Thinking about your ideal sales person and your ideal customer will help you decide what you need to focus on for your website’s sales funnel. It will help you feel more in control of the process, rather than just shooting in the dark and hoping that your website will make sales on its own.

Maybe that exact tactic has been working for you so far, but now you need to scale up your marketing efforts and refine your sales funnel to get the most out of your website.

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The four levels of the conversion funnel

The sales funnel isn’t quite as straightforward as these four stages, but everything is covered broadly under these stages.

The type of marketing strategy and conversion optimisation that you’ll be using at each stage will vary depending on your business. Further down this guide we cover the different types of content that are best for each stage of your sales funnel.

The original theory behind the funnel is that someone needs to go through each stage of the funnel to convert to being a customer, which is likely still true today. They may double back on some elements and repeat some stages, but the general journey is still the same.

Awareness Stage

Awareness is the stage of the sales funnel where someone is just learning about your brand or product.

Interest Stage

The interest stage is where you begin to build more of a relationship with those in the awareness stage, giving them a reason to take more of an interest in your brand.

Desire Stage

Once someone is interested in your product or service, the next goal is to make them desire it, taking them from “That’s cool” to “I need this!”

Action Stage

This is where the customer converts and purchases your product or service.

Bonus Stage: Customer Retention

It’s often cheaper to reconvert existing customers than to find new ones, so this stage is all about keeping customers coming back.

Why you need to optimise your website’s sales funnel

If you set up your website without thinking much about your sales funnel, then you’re going to need to optimise your customer journey.

Stop thinking of your website as a basic store front, and start thinking of it as a store built to guide customers through the various sales funnel stages, even whilst you’re sleeping.

By optimising your website’s sales funnel, you’re improving it based on research and analysis, rather than just what others are doing, or whether or not your website has a cool design.

Both these elements are important when it comes to optimising the sales funnel, but design should never take priority over your customer’s purchasing experience.

Amazon is a great example of a website that won’t win any design awards, but is very successful when it comes to converting visitors into customers.

Screenshot of the Amazon UK homepage

8 ways to optimise your website’s sales funnel

There are eight key ways you can optimise your website’s sales funnel. These steps are tried and tested by us with our own website, and on our client’s websites, so we know that they work.

1. Understand your audience
2. Identify your customer journey
3. Set goals and measure your progress
4. Analyse your existing content
5. Use the right content at each stage of the sales funnel
6. Take a look at competitors
7. Evaluate Your Customer Journey
8. Optimise your website’s sales funnel

Understand your audience

Your optimised sales funnel will look different depending on your target audience.

Understanding your audience means you can tailor your sales funnel to their specific needs and their customer journey.

If you have multiple target customers, you may need multiple sales funnels to match this.

But don’t panic! It’s likely there will be a lot of crossover – it could just be that the initial awareness stage takes place on a different social media platform or requires a different type of blog to get those customers into the main sales funnel on your website.

It’s likely you’ll need to make some adjustments for your existing customers to keep them in your ecosystem. The content you create for them will be aimed at an audience who is more educated about your product.

If you’re still not sure of who your target audience is, we have a handy list of six questions that will help you define your target audience, or learn more about the one you have.

Identify your customer journey

It’s important to understand the journey your customers go on before making a purchase so that you can improve this journey via your website’s sales funnel.

You may have different types of customers, so let’s do two examples here, the impulse buyer and the research buyer, and see how their journeys may differ at different parts of the sales funnel.

The Impulse Buyer

Awareness Stage

• Sees an ad or organic post on social media
• Visits the social media page
• Sees an influencer* recommend it

*It’s easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking that influencers are Instagram models, pro gamers or hyperactive YouTube personalities, but there are influencers in every industry. If an industry expert recommends your SaaS company, that is just as much influencer marketing as a gaming influencer promoting a new pair of headphones.

Interest Stage

• Follows social media accounts
• Visits website
• Looks at products
• Looks at reviews

Desire Stage

• Helped along by discount website popups, free shipping over x spend, limited edition or limited time offers.
• Retargeted with ads (basket or browser abandonment)
• Uses live chat on website to ask any final questions

Action

• Customer makes a purchase

Retention

• Automated follow up emails
• Timed renewal emails (for a product that runs out, or certification with yearly renewal)
• Search and social ads
• Community groups (Facebook, Slack, Discord)

Retention is especially important with impulse buyers, as they might move onto the next big thing. Cultivating a relationship with them after purchase is crucial to keeping them coming back.

The Research Buyer

Awareness

• Comes across your brand while searching for a product or service like yours
• Sees your brand as part of a product comparison blog
• Sees a search ad while researching a product or service like yours

Interest

• Visits website
• Looks at reviews
• Looks for external reviews
• Watches videos about the product
• Compares several products
• Joins community groups
• Asks multiple questions
• Speaks to a sales advisor via live chat, social media, email or phone

During this stage there is likely to be some back and forth between your company and competitors.

Desire

• Helped along by money back guarantees, lifetime customer support, warranty
• Good customer service

They may go and revisit some of the interest stage parts of their journey to get additional reassurance. Let’s say they find out about the money back guarantee, they may do research to see how easy returning the product was.

Action

• Customer makes a purchase

Retention

• Automated follow up emails
• Timed renewal emails (for a product that runs out, or certification with yearly renewal)
• Search and social ads
• Community groups (Facebook, Slack, Discord)

For the research customer, once they’ve found a brand they like and have thoroughly researched, they are likely to stick with this rather than moving onto the next big thing.

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How does the customer journey help the sales funnel?

Now that you’ve identified the journey your customers go on, you can work towards adding elements to your website which help this journey progress.

Let’s use our research buyer’s journey as an example. Further down this guide we will give even more examples of the type of content you can include on your website to create an effective sales funnel.

Awareness Stage

At the awareness stage, this customer is likely researching for a product or service like yours. You can connect with them via SEO optimised blog posts that appear high up in organic search and offer value to the reader.

You can also run PPC ads on search, giving you even more chance to appear higher up as an ad and get a searcher’s attention.
Think about the type of keywords, phrases and questions your customers are asking when they are researching your brand, and create content that answers these questions.

If you’re stuck for keywords or just want a refresher, this guide talks you through keyword research step-by-step.

Interest Stage

At the interest stage, take a look at the discussions happening about your brand outside of your website, and find a way to bring that onto your website.

You could add a live chat feature, an FAQ section, or create a community space where discussion can happen between existing customers and potential customers, such as a Facebook group (like our Thinkplus Dojo group) or Slack community.

Screenshot of the Sneak Facebook Community

Energy drink brand Sneak has a Facebook community where customers and fans can come together and have discussions around the products.
The majority of the posts in this group are from fans and not from the brand, but they will take the time to answer customer questions.

Discussion in the Sneak Community Facebook Group

Set goals and measure your progress

Goal setting is crucial to making any progress in all aspects of your business.

When it comes to goal setting for your website’s sales funnel, it’s important to measure each part of the funnel individually.

This will help you see where the problems are. Otherwise, you may keep changing things at the desire and action stages, whereas the problem is actually at the awareness stage.

Here are examples of some of the measurements you may want to track when setting your goals.

Awareness

• Social media reach and impressions
• Website traffic
• Brand mentions (which can be measured using a tool like Semrush*)

Interest

• Social media follows
• Website traffic
• Website visit duration
• Social media comments
• Number of content downloads (if downloadables are offered)
• Number of email list sign ups
• Website bounce rate
• Content reads
• Form submissions
• Account sign ups

Desire

• Products added to basket
• Cart abandonment rate
• Products browsed
• Most popular pages
• Email opens

Action

• Time to convert since first visit
• Average spend
• Retention
• Number of return customers
• Email opens

All these areas give you an insight into what is working for you, what isn’t, and what might need refining. The results you measure may look different depending on your business type.

When it comes to setting your goals, don’t try and track all the above. Pick what is important to you at each stage of the funnel and focus on that measurement. You may decide in the future that a different measurement serves you better – it’s all about experimenting.

Remember to be specific when setting your goals – “I want to increase email sign ups by 10% by the end of Q2” is a far better goal than “more email sign ups“.

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Analyse your existing content

Analysing your existing content will help you set goals, as well as see if there are any gaps in your funnel.

Start by taking a look at the above list, and seeing where you’re at with your current stats. This will give you a baseline to work from, so you’ll be able to track your progress in the future.

There are some aspects which are harder to measure, which are more about the user’s experience on your website. If you’re not sure of the changes that need to be made, ask someone else to take a look.

(or submit your website for one of our world-famous website and marketing reviews)

Homepage

• Is it obvious what you sell from the above the fold section of the website?
• Is it obvious what you sell in the first 5 seconds of looking at the website?
• Is it obvious which step you want the customer to take next?
• Do you have a compelling CTA above the fold?

Wise do a great job of both guiding their visitors to the next step, and providing CTA’s that suit customers at different stages of the customer journey. We cover why these are so effective in our analysis of the Wise marketing strategy.

Screenshot of the Wise Call to Action

• Could you add a benefits bar covering some of the reasons why people should shop with you over competitors?
• Do you have social proof, such as reviews or testimonials, on your homepage?

The Vegan Kind fits a benefits bar and customer reviews above the fold on their homepage.

Screenshot of the Vegan Kind’s benefits bar

• Have you included a colder CTA for those who are visiting your website for the first time?
  • This could be a downloadable or an email list sign up
• Are there multiple CTAs as you scroll further down the homepage?

Category Pages

• Is the layout of your category pages easy to navigate?
• Are CTAs included?
• Is there relevant text copy that helps users rather than overwhelming them? (this helps with SEO too)
• Are product thumbnails clear?

Product Pages

• Are product images clear?
• Do you have photos of the product from different angles?
• Are the benefits of the product explained above the fold?
• Are there product reviews above the fold?
• Is the purchase button clear, obvious and above the fold?
• Could you add a product demonstration video?

Checkout

• Is the checkout process straightforward?
• Are there multiple payment options?

Blog

• Are your blogs optimised for search?
• Are you just sharing company news or are you writing about topics that your customers will be searching for?
• Do your blogs include a mix of text, images, and possibly video?
• Do your blogs include calls to action?

Social Media

• Are you posting on social media regularly?
• Is your content interesting to your audience? (as opposed to just product photos)
• Are you focusing on the social media channels where your target customer is spending their time?

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Use the right content at each stage of the sales funnel

Certain types of content work better for certain parts of the sales funnel.

Some content may work for several stages, for example, blog content can be great for attracting new customers, but also for educating existing customers.

There’s a mix of offsite content (for example social media) and onsite content (for example blogs) in this list.

Awareness

• Social media posts
• PPC awareness campaigns
• Blog content
• Video content (for example, YouTube)

Interest

• Blog content
• Downloadable content
• Automated email campaigns
• Social media posts
• Video content (for example, YouTube)
• Targeted PPC (for example, browse abandonment)
• On site quiz or tool
• Well optimised category pages
• Reviews and testimonials

Desire

• Downloadable content
• Bespoke landing pages
• Optimised product pages
• Reviews and testimonials
• Automated email campaigns
• Basket abandonment
• Discount codes
• Automated chat bot
• Giveaways and competitions
• Video content (for example, YouTube)
• Targeted PPC (for example, basket abandonment)

Action

• Streamlined checkout
• Suggest related products
• Discount on recurring subscriptions

Customer Retention

• Automated email campaigns
• Discount on recurring subscriptions
• Community spaces (for example Slack, Facebook Groups, Discord)

Take a look at competitors

Looking at the way your competitors handle their own sales funnel can be critical when it comes to optimising your own conversion funnel.

If you have an idea for what you think is a ground-breaking new checkout system, but all your competitors are using simple, easy to use checkout pages, then you might want to rethink your idea.

You don’t have to do everything your competitors do, and you should give yourself the chance to experiment with different ideas and elements of your sales funnel that you think will work well for your customers. But, if your competitors are thriving, then it’s worth looking at what they are doing to achieve that success.

Evaluate your customer journey

Once you’ve added some new elements to your website’s conversion funnel, you should re-evaluate how the customer journey looks.

This is important, as it shows you where your customers may be getting held up and what might be turning them away, as well as identifying what is working well for you.
You may use the AIDA method, or, after tracking your customer’s behaviour in this new sales funnel, you may decide to measure their behaviour slightly differently.

This infographic from the Nielsen Norman Group shows a different customer journey, starting with the consideration phase, then moving through exploration, comparison and testing before arriving at negotiation.

Nielsen Norman Group customer journey infographic

If you’re not sure what this journey looks like for your customers, ask them. You can hire secret shoppers, or connect with your customers directly and ask them for their view in return for payment or a gift card.

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Optimise your website’s sales funnel

“Optimise your website’s sales funnel?” we hear you ask. “Isn’t that what all the other sections were about?”

The truth is, this isn’t a one and done type of process.

As your business grows you’re going to need to review your website’s conversion funnel regularly to see if there have been any changes in what works. This could be down to changes in customer behaviours, new competitors coming on the scene, or even seasonal changes in buying habits.

It’s important to check in and re-optimise your conversion funnel from time to time, as well as updating your website. You don’t want to get left behind just because your funnel “used to work“.

Keep innovating, keep growing, and keep your customers coming back.

Recap

That was a lot of information. Great information, nonetheless, but a lot of it. So let’s recap everything we’ve learnt today.

What is a sales funnel?

Your sales funnel is made up of several different stages, awareness, interest, desire, action, and sometimes retention. These help guide your customer towards purchase.

Why does your website need a sales funnel?

Treat your website like your best salesperson, one who works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You want your website to do some heavy lifting for you, and a sales funnel helps you do just that.

The four levels of the conversion funnel

The stages of the sales funnel are:

• Awareness – someone learns about your business
• Interest – someone wants to learn more about your business
• Desire – someone wants to buy from you
• Action – someone buys from you
• Retention – someone keeps buying from you

Why you need to optimise your website’s sales funnel

The sales funnel on your website isn’t a “one and done” job. You need to identify your customer journey, and test different ways of cultivating that customer at different stages of the conversion funnel. Optimising your sales funnel means your customer has the easiest, fastest journey to purchasing.

8 ways to optimise your website’s sales funnel

1. Understand your audience
2. Identify your customer journey
3. Set goals and measure your progress
4. Analyse your existing content
5. Use the right content at each stage of the sales funnel
6. Take a look at competitors
7. Evaluate Your Customer Journey
8. Optimise your website’s sales funnel

Keep this guide handy for the next time you need to optimise your sales funnel. Even if you’ve already done some of the “beginners” steps, it’s always worth revising those to potentially get a fresh perspective on your conversion funnel.

Remember: don’t do this in isolation. Speak to your colleagues, customers, employees, friends…anyone who will listen, and see what they think of your conversion funnel. What snags could they spot that you haven’t?

Now go forth and optimise that sales funnel!

Or, read some of our other awesome guides.

What To Read Next

• 20 B2B Lead Generation Ideas (You’ve Probably Not Tried Yet)
• How to Do Keyword Research Like a Pro
• SEO Competitor Analysis Tutorial
• How to Create Content that Ranks Top of Google

The post How To Optimise Your Website’s Sales Funnel appeared first on Thinkplus.

The aim of fintech company Wise, formerly known as TransferWise, is simple — make international money transfers cheaper.

But how do you stand out in a market with hundreds of banks and financial services to choose from?

This article looks at how Wise became so successful in a crowded space and our tips for replicating their success.

We’ll be covering:

• Wise’s History
• Wise’s Blogging and Content Strategy
• Wise’s Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns
• Wise’s Website and Conversion Rate Optimisation
• Wise’s SEO Strategy
• How Can You Replicate Wise’s Digital Marketing Strategy?

Wise’s History

Wise was started by two friends who had the same problem — they were being paid in one currency but needed to pay bills in another, in this case, pounds and euros.

They realised that their banks were charging a big markup on the exchange rate, costing way more than it should to move their money between accounts.

So they launched TransferWise, now known as Wise, a company dedicated to helping people get the best exchange rates possible.

They’ve branched out into bank accounts and cards, offering their users the ability to keep up to 54 currencies in one account.

It turns out a lot of people had the same problem with conversion rates as the founders, resulting in a $5 billion valuation for Wise in 2020, which is described as one of Europe’s most valuable fintech unicorns.

Wise’s Blogging and Content Strategy

Wise covers multiple niches on their blog, including personal finance, living abroad, travel tips and business. Here at Thinkplus, we’ve seen multiple clients have huge success because of their blog content, including;

• How we used content marketing to increase a US e-commerce store’s revenue from $463 per month to $3,030,000
• London Law Firm Sees 311% Increase in Search Traffic YoY after implementing our content strategy

Covering multiple niches related to their brand is an excellent way to use their blog as they are creating content that is not only relevant to their service but also focuses on their different customer types.

So what are the benefits of doing this?

The answer is in their blog titles.

Screenshot of the Personal Finance section on the Wise blog

Starting with the personal finance section, we can see that the titles here are well optimised for Google search queries that their customers may be searching for.

Someone searching for “How to open a Monzo account” is likely to be looking to open a Monzo account. Wise powers Monzo’s international payments, so it’s in their interest to encourage people to sign up for a Monzo account.

The second blog, “HSBC Foreign Currency Account“, fits not only someone searching to learn more about, or open, this type of account but also someone who could benefit from Wise’s international money transfer services.

The final blog, “How to close a NatWest bank account“, could be filling a gap in search — banks may not want to make it easy to find out how to close your account with them.

As a person trying to close their current bank account is likely to be looking for a new bank, Wise uses a call to action, proposing themselves as “a money-saving alternative to banks”, and explaining why their multi-currency account and Wise debit card are a great alternative.

Screenshot of a Wise call to action

If a searcher who isn’t quite ready to convert yet lands on this page gets the help they need, they are more likely to remember Wise in the future when they are ready to convert, so Wise is covering all bases with this type of content.

Screenshot of the Living Abroad section on the Wise blog

The living abroad section on the Wise website also covers topics that could be useful to those moving abroad. All three of the above blogs, “Paying property tax in Italy? Here’s your 2021-2022 guide“, “Selling property in Spain: A complete guide“, and “How to pay road tax in the UK“, all aim to help the reader with an issue they might face while living abroad.

As with the personal finance blogs, these blogs have been written to help a section of their target audience.

In this case, Wise is aiming to reach potential customers who are moving abroad and may need international money transfer services. If they are making searches about moving abroad, it’s likely they’d benefit from Wise’s services.

In the “Selling property in Spain” guide, there’s a call to action in the first few paragraphs explaining that those selling properties in Spain can get their money back to the UK using Wise to save them money.

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If you’re stuck with writing your own CTAs, our ultimate call to action guide will help you get started.

Wise has identified that those selling property in Spain who are also English speakers (hence why the blog is in English) face the problem of high exchange rates and fees when they sell properties in Spain.

If someone is searching for guides on how to sell properties in Spain, it shows that they are likely going to do so soon and are likely looking to get the best deal on their international transfer once the property is sold. This makes it the perfect type of content for Wise to share and the perfect place to promote their international transfers.

Screenshot of a call to action in a Wise blog

Wise’s Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns

In Wise’s early days, they were no stranger to guerrilla-marketing tactics.
Because the founders set up Wise to solve a problem that they realised was impacting a lot of people who would likely be outraged if they knew the truth about exchange rates and the cost of international transfers, they played on that to attract customers to their low-cost alternative.
This was a fantastic way to stand out against well-established banks and financial services that Wise’s ideal customers had possibly been with for years.

Hidden Bank Fees are History

Wise’s first guerrilla marketing campaign was a play on words using currency to spell out a certain word. This campaign focused on the feeling you might get when you realise you’ve been paying more than you should to exchange a currency or move funds abroad.

Photo of a Wise advert in London

So, did this initial campaign work, despite its nature?

Apparently, in the space of four months around this ad campaign, they doubled the volume of money transferred using Wise from £125 million to £250 million.

This may only be partly due to this marketing campaign, but it’s important to note the correlation between this campaign and the increase in transfers.

Daylight Robbery – What would you do?

Wise doubled down on the guerrilla marketing tactics, keeping the goal of exposing banks for charging high fees while promoting Wise’s lower fees.

Wise also tried jumping on current trends. Back in 2015, it was popular on YouTube to create “social experiment” videos, where actors would create a situation in public; for example, one actor drops their wallet, and the other actor picks it up and walks away.

The aim of this type of video was to see how the general public would react if they saw these situations. Wise took the opportunity to create social experiment videos on YouTube that tied in with the themes of money.

If done right, jumping on current trends can work in favour of your brand and generate digital PR. If you’re wondering where to get started with digital PR campaigns, check out our digital PR guide.

The Exchange Rate Race — Lego Challenge

Jumping on another meme, Wise created an ad where runners representing different banks raced each other across Lego bricks.

Lego bricks being painful to step on is apparently such a common shared experience that it became an online meme. Wise used this as a euphemism for how paying more for currency exchange or international bank transfers can feel painful.

They also represented how much different banks charged for these services by making the lego brick “obstacle course” longer for those who charged more, with Wise’s being the shortest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iybKYj3OoXQ

The sentiment in the comments is that this is a good ad, with others being unsure if speaking badly of competitors in this way is allowed.

Screenshot of comments from the Wise Lego advert

Judging by the number of views compared to the number of comments and likes on the video, we can assume that Wise chose to put an advertising budget behind this video, as the views are very high compared to the user engagement on the video.

Pay per click advertising, or PPC, is not just for big-budget businesses. In fact, SMEs can get a good return on investment from PPC.

The World’s Most Confusing Souvenir Stand

It looks like Wise’s last tongue-in-cheek campaign was in 2018 when they set up “the world’s most confusing souvenir stand” outside of the European Parliament to raise awareness of a vote happening to decide whether banks needed to be more transparent about how much cross-border payments would cost.

We haven’t seen any more guerrilla marketing from Wise since then, but this is common when a company reaches a certain size. They begin to scale back on more divisive marketing tactics once they are well established as a brand. We saw the same thing happen in our Brewdog digital marketing deep dive.

Wise’s Website and Conversion Rate Optimisation

There are a lot of good things to say about the above-the-fold section on the Wise website.

The above-the-fold section is everything you see when you arrive on the homepage before scrolling down. This is the first impression people will get of your website, so you need to make sure this space is optimised.

Let’s start with Wise’s above-the-fold CTA.

Screenshot of the Wise website

On the right, we have an international transfer calculator, which is straightforward to use and shows live rates, the cost of transfer and how much the recipient will get in their own currency.

It’s very clear and accessible for everyone, no matter how experienced they are with transferring money.

If you’re looking for the perfect lead magnet for your website, you can check out five of our favourites in this video.

Another great part of this tool is the CTA’s at the bottom. The one in blue, “compare price“, is for those who know they need to transfer money internationally but aren’t quite ready to convert yet and might need to do some more research before picking a provider.

Screenshot of the price comparison section on the Wise website

By clicking the “compare price” button, you are taken further down the homepage to the price comparison table. By including this table further down the page, those who didn’t click the CTA and instead scrolled down to learn more will still be able to see the table, which might help to convert them.

The green CTA, “Get started“, is for people who want to get started with their transfer right away, and takes them to the sign-up page for a Wise account.

Screenshot of the Wise transfer calculator

This is a great way to cater to two audiences at different stages of their customer journey without over-complicating the call to action. Going with only “Get started” could be off-putting to customers who are not ready to convert just yet. Just using “Compare price” could feel redundant to those who don’t want to compare and just want to go ahead with their transfer.

Think about the type of people visiting your website and what stage of the sales funnel they might be at, and see if you can include a tool or multiple calls to action above-the-fold on your homepage.

Don’t try to add more than two, or things will start to get complicated, and visitors won’t be able to find what they need.

On the left of the above-the-fold section is a promotion of Wise’s international bank account. It gives you the option to watch a video by clicking the blue play button. The headline “the 6x cheaper international account” clearly tells the visitor what this account and bank card are for.

Screenshot of the Wise international account promotion

Although this is a great headline, there isn’t a clear call to action for this service. As it is right next to the calculator, visitors could become confused and think the two are connected and that by pressing the “Get started” button, they will end up signing up for a Wise bank account rather than just creating an online account they can use to make a transfer.

Further down the page, Wise includes a very clear and easy to read section explaining the services they offer, which are tailored to the country you are searching from. If you want to look at services in another country, you can easily change the country using a drop-down menu.

This section is extremely clear, and each service has a call to action tailored to the service, rather than something generic which is the same across all services.

Screenshot of Wise’s services

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Wise’s SEO Strategy

With finance and fintech being such a competitive industry, Wise needs a strong SEO strategy to help them appear above their competitors in search.
According to SEO tool Semrush (which you can try for free for 30 days using our exclusive partner link), Wise is getting over 42 million monthly organic global visitors from search alone. This is an estimate, but regardless, we can still see that they are getting a lot of traffic.

Screenshot of Wise’s traffic and backlinks in Semrush

They also have 13 million backlinks from 24,000 domains, likely in some part due to their content and guerrilla marketing strategies, which are likely to have generated some digital PR.

In terms of keywords, they are ranking on the first page of Google for terms such as “dollars to pounds“, which is estimated to be providing 3% of their traffic. They’re also still ranking highly for their old brand name, Transferwise.

Screenshot of Wise’s top keywords

Most of their high-traffic keywords are along these lines — searches for conversion rates from one currency to another. Wise has targeted these keywords with currency conversion calculators specific to the most popular currency-conversion search terms.

Screenshot of the USD to GBP conversion calculator

It would be interesting to see how well this traffic converts once the user is on the site or if they are just using Wise’s currency converter and then leaving the site.

They have included two great calls to action, again for different members of their audience, just like they did on the homepage.

The one in blue and white, “Track the exchange rate“, takes the visitor to a section where they can input their email and get alerts when the exchange rate is at a specific rate. This brings them into the Wise ecosystem even if they’re not quite ready to convert.

They also include the “Send money” call to action for those looking to send money right away.

We can assume these calculators, combined with the SEO strategy, have been converting fairly well, considering the $5 billion company valuation.

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How Can You Replicate Wise’s Digital Marketing Strategy?

Now we’ve looked at the key elements of the Wise marketing strategy, let’s look at how you can replicate their success.

Content Marketing

Think about who your target audience is made up of and the different stages of the buyer journey they may go through before making a purchase with you.

If you have multiple target consumers, it could be well worth creating different blog sections on your website that cater to those audience types. Wise does this by targeting travellers, businesses and those moving abroad.

Regarding the buyer journey, think about the types of questions customers will have in the run-up to purchasing with you, and then create great content that answers these questions.

Guerrilla Marketing

Full-blown guerrilla marketing might not be for everyone, but there are still some great lessons here.
If your company stands for a cause or was founded to solve a specific widespread problem, don’t be afraid to shout about that.

Conversion Rate Optimisation

Including a simple, free tool such as a calculator or quiz on your homepage can be a great way to lead visitors towards a purchase. Once they have invested time into a quiz or using a tool, they are more likely to make a purchase or feel a stronger affinity towards your brand if the tool helped them.

SEO

Conduct keyword research to better understand the types of searches your ideal customers make before they convert. Create landing pages that specifically target these searches, especially if you can offer a tool or calculator to help them with their search.
If you’re new to keyword research, check out our guide on how to do keyword research like a pro.

More Marketing Deep-Dives

Check out some more of our marketing deep dives:

• Airbnb: How To Replicate Their Digital Marketing Strategy
• lululemon’s Digital Marketing Strategy
• Brewdog’s Marketing Strategy — A Digital Marketing Deep Dive

What to Read Next

• 20 B2B Lead Generation Ideas (You’ve Probably Not Tried Yet)
• SEO Competitor Analysis Tutorial
• How to Get to the Top of Google in 2022

The post How Wise’s Marketing Strategy Lead to Their Success appeared first on Thinkplus.

Have your leads started to dry up?

Are you getting leads but need to scale them up?

Here are our top 20 B2B lead generation ideas that you’ve (probably) not used yet.

We can guarantee there’s at least one lead generation strategy in here that you haven’t tried before.

Looking for B2B marketing strategies? Check out our guide.

1. Add a CTA to Your Blog Content

Let’s start with a super easy change you can make that will make your blog content work harder for you.

If you have a blog that’s earning you a bunch of traffic, why not capitalise on that traffic by including a CTA?

All your blog content should have at least one CTA included.

You might use different CTAs depending on who the content is aimed at – if it’s aimed at top of the funnel traffic, you could include a CTA for your email list or an eBook.

If it’s content aimed at consumers further down the sales funnel, you could include a CTA for a free consultation. Don’t forget to make it enticing to your audience.

Of course, these CTAs will only generate leads if you have enough traffic coming to your page. Here are some tips on how to create content that ranks top of Google.

2. Package Up Your Best Content as an eBook

Make your blog content go further by repurposing it as an eBook.

We’re sure you’ve already got some great blogs on your website, but if you haven’t, watch our video on how to find high traffic blog post ideas.

Each blog post serves as a chapter of the eBook. In our case, we could package up our keyword research blog post as one chapter then use our guest post outreach blog post as another one.

It’s a great way to get leads as they’ll need to provide their email address in order to receive the eBook.

Here’s one we made earlier…

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3. Use Automated Chatbots

Here at Thinkplus, we’re big advocates for automated chatbots like Tawk or Collect.Chat.

In 2021, we earned more than 4,000 leads via our website.

250 of those came from the automated live chat on our website.

250 leads for 30 minutes work setting it up.

Not only that, but we set it up to help users find blog posts, training guides and podcasts too.

Even if they weren’t ready to convert right at that moment, we kept them on our website and began building a relationship with them via this chatbot.

Screenshot of the Thinkplus chatbot

4. Build a Community

Creating an online community space where your target audience can come together and connect is a great way to cultivate a relationship with your audience.

Keep in mind: this only works if you genuinely want to help your audience and engage with them regularly.

You can do this by setting up a Facebook Group, Slack community, Reddit Subreddit, Discord server, or forum on your website.

This not only gives your audience somewhere to seek help and chat with others, but it also provides you with an opportunity to do three things:

1. Learn more about your audience’s pain points
2. Connect with them on a more personal level, giving them more affinity with your brand
3. Highlight your brand, services, or products

5. Start Live Streaming

We love a good live stream here at Thinkplus.

It’s an amazing way to interact with your audience live and in the moment.

YouTube is actually classed as the second biggest search engine in the world, and people searching YouTube are often doing so to learn how to do something…or to learn about a product that can help them skip the learning part altogether.

If you’re already writing blogs full of great information, why not use those ideas for live streams too?

You can use the live feedback you get from your audience to improve on the content you already have, or for inspiration for new content.

We use our live streams to show our audience a bit of what they can expect from our website reviews (although we do stress that they won’t be done live unless requested). We also use them to host presentations with different team members who share actionable insights from their marketing skillset.

Here’s an example of one of our website review live streams. It doesn’t have to be complex – it just needs to connect with your audience.

6. Use Exit Popups

Exit popups are a great way to grab someone’s attention just before they leave your site.

They are set to appear when a visitor is about to click away from your website. For example, when their mouse has moved towards the close tab button.

If they’ve managed to miss your main call to action, including it on an exit pop up is ideal for giving yourself one last chance to get it in front of them.
Here’s an example of an exit popup that appears on the Teamwork website.

Screenshot of Teamwork’s Exit Popup

You could also use this as an opportunity to offer them a free download, an extended free trial or a discount code – this totally depends on your product or service offering and what works for you.

Exit-intent popups should:

• Not ask the viewer to input too much information
• Have a clear message and benefit
• Create a sense of urgency with limited-time deals

If you want to bring your exit popups to the next level, you can make each one relevant to the page the user is leaving, or even include testimonials in the popup. Just make sure you don’t make them too cluttered.

Here’s an example of the exit-intent popup that we use on the Thinkplus website.

Screenshot of the Thinkplus exit-intent popup

7. First Step in a Consultative Sales Process

This is our fancy way of saying “offer a free consultation but make it better”

What we mean is that you need to be clear about the benefits of your free consultation to help you stand out from everyone else who is offering the same thing.

For us, it’s our free website and marketing review. Rather than us offering a free quote for our marketing services, we instead offer a free, 10-15 minute video review. We stress that there’s no obligation either. This takes away the fear of awkwardness that potential customers might have if they decide not to work with us right now.

It’s high reward and low risk.

In this video, Tim dives into more reasons why this strategy is so effective.

8. Automate Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing gives you the chance to target more specific content at different demographics within your customer base.

Automated email campaigns have several benefits, including;

• Saves time
• Generates leads (whilst you sleep)
• Increases revenue
• Retains customers
• Helps to monitor campaigns
• Shortens sales cycles

Automation allows you to set up different triggers, such as joining the newsletter or abandoning a shopping basket.

Email Automation Benefits for B2B Companies

Some popular eCommerce automation campaigns are;

Welcome Sequence

A sequence of 3-5 emails that are triggered when someone signs up for your newsletter.

Re-engagement Sequence

Reconnect with someone who has been subscribed to your emails for a while but hasn’t engaged with your emails or made a purchase.

Abandoned Basket

Email sent automatically to email subscribers who abandoned their cart to encourage them to complete their purchase.

Browse Abandonment

This is similar to the above, but it focuses on products they have viewed.

Preference Emails

Learn more about your customer’s preferences to find out the types of products they like, the services they’re interested in.

Review Collection

Collecting reviews, testimonials and user-generated content

The possibilities when it comes to email marketing are endless!

This webinar talks you through increasing your conversions using email automation.

9. Use FOMO

Harnessing the fear of missing out can be a very effective lead generation strategy.

Including a widget on your page that shows the last time someone bought something or offering a discount with a time limit, are both good ways to draw people in, as they won’t want to miss out on what you’re offering.

You can use this at various stages of the sales funnel too. If someone is further towards the top of the funnel, you can tease exclusive information and discounts if they join your mailing list.

For those closer to the bottom of the funnel who are nearly ready to convert, limited time offers work well as well as initiating a countdown on a deal once it’s in their basket.

Screenshot of the “last bought” widget on the Thinkplus website

10. Try A/B Testing

A/B testing is an extremely effective way to develop a better understanding of your target audience.

You can A/B test different landing pages, different social media ads, different offers, different wording, different emails – the list goes on and on.

It’s important to keep testing and innovating, but if you try and overhaul everything at once in a permanent fashion things could go downhill fast.

It’s much better to make small changes and see which performs best and then make adjustments over time.

By doing this, you can see if current lead generation trends work well for your business and target audience without accidentally alienating your existing customer base.

11. Host a Virtual Summit

Virtual summits not only help you get leads during your event but also help establish you as a thought leader in your industry, hopefully leading to even more leads and sales in the future.

Hosting a virtual summit has tonnes of benefits. It’s even better if you have an international business with a “virtual” product offering, such as software, marketing services or consulting.

Not only that, it’s far cheaper than hosting an in-person summit. All you really need to worry about is streaming software like Streamyard. Most streaming software is free and easy to use, depending on which one you go with.

Other expenses could include PPC promotion and paying people to speak if you don’t have anyone internally who is able to take part.

Virtual summits are a fantastic way to offer lots of free value to your target audience while promoting your product or service.

We run our own virtual event called ‘Dominate’. You can register or watch replays of past events here. This all-day live virtual event is focused on helping businesses like yours to get more traffic, more leads, and more sales from your digital marketing.

You might even get some ideas for how you can host your own virtual summit in the future.

12. Use Content Extensions

It’s common for people to close the page when they’re done reading a blog post on your website.

By adding something extra as an extension to that content, you can keep them around for longer or get them onto your mailing list.

People making informational searches that lead them to your blogs might not be quite ready to convert yet, but offering them something in return for their email address can be ideal for beginning to build that relationship with them.

Rather than a service or product call-to-action, you can offer an eBook, template, checklist, or another freebie that matches the subject of the blog post.

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13. Start a Podcast

Starting a podcast sounds scary, but it can be very lucrative for your business!

Many of our highest value leads come via our podcast. The same could be true for your business too.

Podcasts are great for those who prefer audio over text or video. Think about how many people listen to some form of audio on their commute. This is a fantastic way to get your audience’s full attention while sharing genuinely useful information with them.

Podcasts don’t always have to be hours long either. We have the same stance on podcasts as we do on blogs and videos. If you can get the same message across in fewer words then why pad it out with information that won’t be useful just to hit a timestamp or a word count?

Being good at podcasting takes practice, but the more you do the better you’ll get. Once you’re more confident in your podcast skills you could reach out to other podcasters in your industry or related to your industry and inquire about guesting on their podcast, reaching a whole new audience.

If you’re putting the effort into creating a podcast you should be putting effort into promoting it too. Check out our ultimate guide to promoting a podcast.

14. Use a Cold CTA

Cold CTAs are ideal for visitors to your website who are at the top of the funnel but not quite ready to convert.

These colder leads need something that’s going to bring them into your ecosystem and gradually warm them up.

eBooks, email courses, white papers, case studies. These are all useful pitchable items you can offer to people to get them into your funnel and become more receptive to your marketing.

15. Offer a Free Tool

Free tools are a fantastic way to collect the details of leads while giving them something in return.

Think about how you can make it as easy as possible for someone to purchase your product or service. What kind of questions and concerns may stop them from working with you?

Barclays’ B2B Business Loan Calculator

If you offer business loans, by creating a calculator that gives a loan estimate and doesn’t affect their credit score, you handle potential customer concerns over how much they can actually loan from you in a matter of minutes, without them making a phone call or doing the calculations on their own.

Not only do you remove these barriers to purchase, but you can also collect their details through the tool and send them automated follow-up emails about their results and your services.

16. Use Social Proof

Testimonials and reviews should always be visible on your website.

If someone is nearly ready to become a lead, it’s possible that all that’s standing between you and your competitor are some great reviews.

Testimonials and reviews help build trust with your target customers. If you’re getting testimonials from current clients, see if you can get a photo to go with it. It adds that extra human touch.

Example of a client testimonial on the Thinkplus website

17. Use Remarketing

Pay-per-click advertising is great for showcasing your business to new people, but it’s also perfect for reconnecting with people who have visited your website.

If someone didn’t see your primary call-to-action the first time they visited your website, you can highlight it to them via remarketing ads on social media platforms or search engines.

If someone started filling out your call-to-action but dropped off the page before finishing, you can remarket to them with a secondary offer, one that’s softer and easier to complete, in other places they spend their time online.

Remarketing is used a lot by eCommerce and direct-to-consumer brands, but not nearly enough by B2B businesses. Your B2B customers are normal people who spend time on social media when they’re away from their desks, so reconnecting with them via retargeted ads can be just as effective at generating leads as it is for D2C brands.

18. Share Case Studies

Similar to social proof, case studies are a great tool for helping your website visitors convert into leads.

By creating detailed case studies, with images and videos where possible, you are proving to these potential customers that not only do you follow through on your promises, but you also make an impact on your clients.

It’s important that you include calls to action throughout that are relevant to the case study, especially if you have multiple products or services.

19. Do Co-Marketing

Co-marketing is the production and distribution of a new piece of content in partnership with another company. It could be the results of a survey, a new white paper, or a training course.

The advantage of partnering with another company is that they’ll share it with their audience too, which could be hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of people.

If they’re emailing it to their contact list, promoting it on their website, via their social media, or on their YouTube channel (if they have one) just think how many people could be reached.

The advantage goes both ways too. By sharing it via your channels you’ll be highlighting the partner business to your audience, putting fresh eyes onto their brand, services, or product.

Wins all around.

20. Offer Short-Form Actionable Insights

Our policy for content here at Thinkplus is that every piece has to have actionable insights.

When you read, watch, or listen to anything we produce, you should be able to do your marketing better after finishing it.

You can follow this same principle while creating content for your business.

A great place to start is short-form content, like TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. This gives you the chance to share fast insights and test out different ideas while not having to put too much time into the content.

If you don’t think that video is the best format for your business or industry, then posting short pieces on LinkedIn or Twitter might be best for you instead.

Recap: 20 B2B Lead Generation Ideas

Need all the above ideas in one place? We’ve got you covered.

1. Add a CTA to all your blog content
2. Package up Your best content as an eBook
3. Use automated chatbots
4. Build a community
5. Start live streaming
6. Use exit popups
7. First step in a consultative sales process
8. Automate your email marketing campaigns
9. Use FOMO
10. Try A/B testing
11. Host a virtual summit
12. Use content extensions
13. Start a podcast
14. Use a cold CTA
15. Offer a free tool
16. Use social proof
17. Use remarketing
18. Share case studies
19. Do co-marketing
20. Offer short-form actionable insights

What’s Next?

Looking for even more ways to promote your B2B business?

This video shares 7 essentially B2B marketing strategies for 2025:

Or, get this video in podcast form (perfect for commuting):

Reading List

Here are some of our top guides on B2B marketing.

• How To Build Backlinks for “Boring” Businesses
• Definitive SEO Guide for Business Owners
• How to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy
• Why Your Website Isn’t Making Any Sales (and How To Fix It)

The post 20 B2B Lead Generation Ideas (You’ve Probably Not Tried Yet) appeared first on Thinkplus.

But what’s even better than all that? LEADS!

That’s right. Carefully crafted blog posts can do wonders for your lead generation efforts. You just have to know how to do it right. Let’s walk through the anatomy of a smart, lead gen-optimised blog post so you can start converting that blog traffic into precious leads. Luckily, it’s far from complicated.

Anatomy of a Lead Generating Blog Post

1. Eye-Catching Title

Before you can even get readers to a point of conversion, you first need to attract them to read the blog post. The article’s title is your best opportunity to grab their attention, so don’t overlook it.

Choose a title that is interesting, eye-catching, and indicative of the article’s focus (i.e. informative). Also, shoot for 8-9 words or fewer to keep it clear and concise.

2. In-Text Links to Landing Pages

Once you have viewers for your blog post, now you can start making attempts to convert those visitors into leads. A well-constructed blog post should always include in-text links to other resources. (See what I did there?)

To maximise lead gen potential, why not point these links to landing pages for downloadable offers such as an ebook you’ve written, an upcoming or archived webinar, or other conversion opportunities like demo requests, free trials, etc.?

3. Sidebar/Banner Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

In addition to the individual blog articles you publish, the homepage for your blog can help generate leads in itself. The top of your blog, as well as its sidebar, are both prime real estate for CTA banners and buttons.

Design some visually stimulating CTAs that link to landing pages for some of your best-performing offers. Feel free to also test and rotate different offers to make sure you’re using this space for maximum lead generation power.

4. Social Sharing Buttons:

It’s a fairly simple concept — the more visitors you can attract to your blog, the more chances for conversion!

Give your blog content extended reach by including social sharing buttons (e.g. “Like,” “Share on LinkedIn,” “Tweet,” etc.) on every post. This will encourage readers to share your content with their personal networks and expand its reach beyond your own connections.

5. CTA at the Bottom:

Always — I repeat — ALWAYS include a call-to-action at the bottom of your blog post.

Using the same philosophy as with in-text links and sidebar/banner CTAs, this CTA should link to a landing page with a form for another offer. This will satisfy readers’ interest in learning more about a given topic and reward you with some fabulous leads. It’s a conversion gold mine!

6. Relevancy

Relevancy is the blood of a blog’s anatomy; it should run through the entire blog. Any time you include a CTA, it should be as relevant to the content of your blog post as possible. In the above example, the blog article is focused on social media strategy, so the in-text links and bottom CTA both point to landing pages that house social media offers. The philosophy behind this is easy to understand: if a reader is interested in the topic of the article enough to read it, he or she is more likely to be interested in obtaining more information on the same or a similar topic. Ensuring your CTAs are relevant is key to generating the most leads from your blog.

Is your blog optimise for lead gen? In what other ways can you create a conversion-optimised blog?

Having trouble converting your traffic?

Get a free marketing review for your website, created by our expert Ninjas.

The post The Simple Anatomy of a Conversion-Optimised Blog appeared first on Thinkplus.

Your website may not be getting any sales or conversions because it doesn’t match what your customer needs, wants, and expects. It may be that your website has technical issues. It may be that what you’re offering isn’t compelling enough.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to troubleshoot your own website’s ability to sell, using user data in your analytics software, to find which part of your website needs to be optimised to improve your sales, leads, and conversion rate.

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“I’ve spent a lot of time, money, and energy on my business. Is it all for nothing?“

All of the time, money, and energy you’ve put into planning to start your business, developing your product or services, getting your new website live, and perhaps running some advertising was not in vain.

You’re not expecting your website to be ranking top of Google overnight (although, you may do well if you’ve read our book, “How To Get To The Top of Google“), but you were expecting at least a few sales and conversions at the beginning to make it all worthwhile — Yet, after a few weeks of your site going live you’ve very few or almost no sales or conversions recorded.

It’s incredibly frustrating .

You know you should give it more time, just a few more weeks to fix some of the remaining minor technical issues that tend to remain with new websites, but you’re understandably anxious.

How much longer should you wait?

A month? Two months? Six months?

If your website isn’t making any sales or converting new leads then this is not something you should ignore.

Digital marketing campaigns can and will take some time to take effect and to work — especially the case with Search Engine Optimisation where ranking improvements have to be earned — but websites should convert immediately, no matter if your traffic is only five-hundred visitors in a month.

If you’re converting 0% of 500 this month, without any changes, your website will convert 0% of 500 next month and the next month after that.

You have to improve your website — and you have to do it today.

First, you have to identify exactly where things are going wrong.

Why Does My Website Have No Sales or Conversions?

I get emails from new businesses with no sales who are planning to rebuild their website, to change their product or service, or planning something else drastic because they assume that their current website, product, or service isn’t what people want.

Seven times out of ten, the problem isn’t with what is being offered.

The first problem is usually with the lack of any significant traffic to their website.

You could be giving away free Lamborghinis, but if nobody is seeing your website, then your warehouse full of Lamborghinis is going to stay full because nobody is going to claim them.

The second problem is with how their product or service is being offered — and normally, it’s exactly what the website’s stats are telling me.

If your website advertises the different colours of Lamborghinis in your warehouse but doesn’t mention that they’re free to those who ask, then nobody is going to claim them. They’ll just assume that they’re available at the regular price and leave (because who has the money for a Lambo, right?).

The third problem is with the way in which the product or service is made available to order.

If you’re advertising free Lamborghinis but there’s no telephone number, email address, or contact form then how is anyone supposed to claim their free car?

To troubleshoot why your website is getting no sales then we’ll need to look at those problems.

1. Is Your Website Getting Enough Traffic?
2. Is Your Product or Service Being Offered Correctly?
3. Is Your Product or Service Easy To Order?

Are You Getting Enough Traffic?

Take the owners of fifty websites getting more than 500,000 visitors to their websites every month.

Ask them “Who wants more traffic?“.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess how many put up their hands, does it?

Every website needs more traffic, but what use is more traffic if you’re not converting enough of the traffic you already have? But if your website is getting no sales, we need to do some quick maths…

Conversion rates vary between markets and according to the type of visitors you are getting to your website. But there is almost always a way to get at least 1% of your visitors to convert into buyers or leads. Assuming this conservative conversion rate, do you get enough visitors to your website?

If you launched your website and in the first month only brought in 60 visitors, 20 of whom were friends and family, 4 of whom were you testing your website on different devices, should you expect any sales? Probably not. In which case, your next task is to bring in more traffic to your website.

Let’s examine how we can earn more traffic.

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How To Earn More Traffic

There are two ways to increase traffic to your website.

1. Earn more traffic
2. Pay for more traffic

Earning more traffic takes a commitment of finances, time, resources, and plenty of patience.

Earned traffic comes from Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Referral Traffic (websites linking to you and their audiences following those links), and from Social Networks.

An SEO campaign can take several months to see a return on, but the returns typically last for a long time after the money spent on the campaign has been used, unlike paid for traffic which tends to stop immediately the last penny has been spent.

Paying for more traffic can increase traffic quickly, but can consume business finances much faster.

Paid traffic comes from Pay-per-Click Ads (PPC), such as Google Ads, Microsoft (Bing) Ads, Facebook Ads, and so on (there are many more).

Paid traffic can deliver a mixture of qualified and unqualified traffic quickly. This can help when sales are needed quickly. This traffic can supply a steady income of sales, but the Cost-per-Acquisition will be higher than that of earned traffic, resulting in a smaller return on investment.

Should I Use a Digital Marketing Agency?

Both earned and paid traffic sourcing can be run by yourself by someone within your company, but as much as we may have an aunt who’s good at DIY, we wouldn’t trust them to build an extension for our house. We’d use a professional.

A specialised SEO or PPC consultant can help to do all of the required analysis and set-up required for new SEO or PPC campaigns.

They’ll know exactly how to research the marketing and to see what the competition is doing.

They’ll know how to get a higher return on investment because they’ve had lots of practice earning traffic for other companies.

They’ll also know how to get traffic improvements much faster than an aunt or uncle who’ll be learning the ropes as they go, resulting in traffic increases weeks or months later than a professional would.

What Sort of Traffic Growth Rate Should I Expect With An Agency?

As you can imagine, the answer to this question depends on a number of factors.

Which Channels Are The Agency Using?

If the agency is using paid traffic channels, like Google Ads, then traffic increases are normally seen in a matter of days. With SEO results will be slower, but the quality of each lead  is typically much higher and should continually growth on a monthly basis.

How Much Work Are They Doing?

Cheap digital marketing is synonymous with little or no work, and you are often better learning yourself and going it alone than opting for the cheapest marketing companies who will do little to no work.

Paying cheap gets cheap results so you can expect low-quality traffic, expensive Costs-per-Acquisition, and the types of content and new backlinks that Google will simply ignore.

Are They Looking At The Big Picture

Some digital marketing companies work in only one area and will wash their hands of anything that is not on their patch. Agencies that handle PPC, for example, might bring paid search traffic to your site but might not be able to help if you find this traffic isn’t converting into customers.

If you need help in multiple areas, find a full-service digital marketing company, we happen to know one we strongly recommend, which has experts in every field.

We’ve written a blog post about agency expectations, but the important thing is that you are seeing constant growth and that this growth is fast enough that you feel encouraged by their work.

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Am I Getting The Right Type of Traffic?

If you’re getting hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of visitors to your websites but converting next-to-no sales or leads then you need to examine what type of traffic you’re getting.

It may be that you’re getting hundreds or thousands of website visitors who are never going to contact you or buy one of your products.

It may be that what you’re recording as traffic isn’t really traffic at all.

In the screenshot below, from Google Analytics, you’ll notice how the language settings of the visitors look spammy. That indicates that some of this website’s traffic isn’t legitimate and should probably be ignored.

Next, you should check the pages your visitors are landing on most frequently.

Are people coming in through your blog posts? To your homepage? Or to other pages?

Blog traffic will often have lower commercial intent because these people are looking for information or advice and may not yet be committed enough to settle on a final product to purchase.

To check how people are finding your website, in Google Analytics (Google’s own free-to-use analytics software) click Acquisition, then All Traffic, and then Channels.

In the image below, we see that a site which seems to be getting some traffic but just isn’t converting.

Social traffic tends not to convert as well as Organic or Paid Search traffic — there are exceptions, though (think, influencer marketing) — so although we’d have expected the site to be getting some leads from this social traffic, there’s no need to panic yet.

The website is also getting a small amount of organic traffic. These visitors seem to be using the site quite well, as we can see from the 3 Pages per Session and low Bounce Rate of 12.82%. From these figures we should be able to expect to have converted at least one sale so far, right?

On closer examination, we see that not all of this traffic is what it seems. Clicking on Organic Traffic shows us this:

To test whether people are likely to buy from this website the owner could try by running a brief Google Ads Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign to see whether search traffic will convert.

If the PPC campaign does result in sales or converted leads then we know that working on improving the visibility of the website within Google, using Search Engine Optimisation, should be a key focus long-term to improve the number of qualified visitors finding the website.

If the quality of traffic coming to the website is low then this needs to be improved. To do this, focusing on what more qualified visitors needs are will help to determine what to improve on the website. This could be improved content for your website. It could be more or deeper content in your website’s blog (if you have one).

It may be that you already have the right type of content, but it’s not in the right medium.

Would videos be more effective on your website? Would downloadable books or PDFs be useful to more qualified visitors? Would a podcast or video series provide the level of information or expertise the visitor is looking for before converting?

In a nutshell, your website needs to provide the kind of content people are searching for before they purchase a product or request a service.

Making this content available via search engines may be the best method of finding traffic, but so may Google Ads, Bing Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, and all the other important PPC ads networks.

Be mindful that PPC is great for finding traffic, but can get expensive if not managed with a high-level of care — especially if that traffic isn’t converting. You may end up out of pocket entirely.

If you’re selling an impulse product or something that people see and immediately want, then social ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest could work well for you.

Whichever PPC network you use, make sure to target the right types of audience so that the most relevant buyers are seeing your ads.

Does Your Website Have Technical Issues?

I’ve seen clever people tear their hair out over a marketing campaign that just doesn’t seem to be working, only to find that the contact form or buy button isn’t working properly.

No matter how much you have tried and tested your website, you absolutely have to find out the answers to these four questions right now:

1. Does everything work as it should?
   
   Go through the entire process of buying or converting on your website.
2. Are visitors getting notifications/emails when they submit a form?
   
   If it seems to work okay, next you must check the back end. If you are driving people to a contact form they must get confirmation that their information has been received.

We like to use Gravity Forms because it saves all form submissions inside the plugin so you can check whether people are filling the form out even if you’re not getting the notification emails.

Sometimes these notification emails get caught by an overenthusiastic spam filter, so you must check.

1. Do all of your payment gateways work on all browsers?
   
   We once ran an offer via Facebook ads with Paypal as the payment processor. It didn’t seem to be doing as well as we expected and we couldn’t figure out why. Turns out that Paypal was conflicting with the Facebook mobile browser and that people using this mobile browser were unable to checkout using Paypal.
   
   The problem is that everyone who clicks on a Facebook ad from the mobile app uses this Facebook mobile browser! Doh!
   
   This issue didn’t show up until we tested the payment inside Facebook. Testing via other mobile browsers worked absolutely fine.
2. Does your website work properly on all devices?
   
   And by properly, I don’t mean “is it possible to use your website on all devices”. I mean, “is it easy to use for people on all devices?”

Another example I saw recently was a long copy landing page which had a contact form in the right-hand sidebar as the main call to action. On desktop computers, this worked great because the contact form was on the right-hand side of the page, just where the Amazon “buy now” button is. Perfect!

However, on mobile, conversion rates were appalling.

Why? Because the sidebar was being forced to the bottom of the page, underneath the long copy.

Mobile users who wanted to quickly fill in the form would have to scroll for 10 seconds just to see that there was a contact form at all. No one scrolls for 10 seconds on mobile, not even for a free Lamborghini.

How To Check Your Website’s User Engagement

If you’re getting traffic to your website and it looks legitimate then the next step is to see how well this traffic is engaging with your website.

The first step is to troubleshoot the basics;

How long are visitors spending on the website and is there anything that is immediately turning them off?

To check this, we need to look at bounce rate and session duration inside Google Analytics.

In the example below, you’ll see this very new site has started picking up a small number of new visitors, but they are screaming a collective “Hell no!”:

The top traffic source is Paid Search, which should be well-qualified visitors. But 93.44% of them are leaving the site without visiting a second page, and the average visit length of these folks is just 7 seconds! Either the ads are misleading or the site sucks.

Even our trusty favourite, organic search traffic, which has an absolutely teensy number of visitors so far, still has a high bounce rate.

In this situation, we’d give the site another week or so to pick up more traffic numbers, but early signs don’t look good — clearly, something is putting visitors off.

If you find that your bounce rate is high, that average duration is low, and that people aren’t visiting many pages, then you have found your blockage: the first impression your website gives.

Check out my blog post on how to reduce bounce rate, and run some user tests to find out what sort of first impression the site is giving people.

It might even be time to start thinking about a new website. We build two types of website: low-cost lead generation websites for small businesses and bespoke websites which are custom-built to meet the unique needs of larger businesses.

If in doubt, request a free marketing review from our super review Ninjas. They’ll tell it like it is and if you need a new website, they’ll let you know.

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What if my engagement looks okay?

In the example below, notice how the traffic numbers look okay.

Visitors seem happy enough and, projecting our simplistic and conservative conversion rate of 1%, we’d expect 44 conversions (4,445 new users x 1%).

The engagement stats look okay too. The bounce rate on some of those channels looks a little high, but it’s certainly not in the danger zone.

In a case like this, clearly people are using the website and, better yet, they aren’t horrendously repelled by what they see.

If this is you, then you are almost there. Victory is so close that you can smell the celebratory pizza. Your visitors are relevant, engaged, and interested. We just have to get them converting.

Is Your Conversion Goal Appealing Enough?

“Why aren’t my visitors enquiring or buying (‘converting’)?“

There is only one reason that an interested visitor doesn’t ‘convert’ to a customer or lead on your website:

They haven’t been offered something where the perceived pleasure outweighs the perceived pain to the extent that they are motivated to action.

In other words, either your product or your service is not appealing enough that people want to buy it.

Recognising which element of your website is preventing people from converting is the first step to fixing it.

Here are some ways to identify why people aren’t buying:

Run User Tests

The simplest thing to do is to run some user tests. We like usertesting.com and they have a free taster service (good idea) called peek.usertesting.com (now discontinued – we’re big fans of the cheap user tests at UsabilityHub). 

It’s important to recognise that all user tests are slightly biased because:

1. Testers are sophisticated enough to sign up and install user testing software, so there’s a slight selection bias towards those who are able to do these things
2. When people are being tested, they tend to give answers which make them seem clever. If they can’t figure out what your site is about, they’ll often start talking about the elements they like or don’t like. Even so, user tests are a useful tool to start with.

Use Heat Mapping Software

Heat mapping software is a simple piece of code you can put on your website which records the behaviour of its visitors.

It can show you how much of a page people are viewing. Are users scrolling down far enough to see your call-to-action or should it be higher up the page?

Our preferred heat mapping tool, HotJar, also has Click Maps which detect which links users are clicking on the page. This can highlight which links or buttons are or are not working effectively to drive traffic around your website or to convert.

HotJar also has funnel and form monitoring systems which help to visualise which parts of the sales funnel or forms are preventing people from fully converting.

Install Live Chat

The next thing you can do is install live chat on your site and have it pop up when people have been on the page a little while.

You can start by asking them a question like “How can I help you today?”

If they are stuck or unsure about something, this question can get them talking. If you notice that different website visitors all seem to be asking the same questions, this is an indication that there is an issue on your website that needs to be addressed.

We recommend tawk.to to our customers because it’s simple to install and cheap to run. We also highly recommended Olark as an alternative.

HotJar also has Survey and Poll tools in-built which can help to ask customers what is preventing them from converting.

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Use Exit Popups

Lastly, you can test using an exit popup. This is a type of popup that appears when someone moves to leave your website.

You can use this to offer them something enticing to get them to stay or an extra incentive to move forward with you.

Let’s say that you’re an eCommerce business. Your exit popup might include a code for a discount or for free delivery just in case that was the thing preventing the visitor from buying.

You might want to offer them a free gift with their purchase just in case they need something to make the perceived reward higher than the perceived risk.

If you’re a service business, your exit popup might include an offer for a webinar or a free download that your visitors can request.

Perhaps they weren’t ready to buy yet — but, by offering them something free of charge which is designed to move them closer to their goals, you have a chance to give them something to begin a relationship with you in a low-risk way.

Here are 20 more B2B lead generation ideas that you’ve probably not tried yet.

How To Improve Your Conversion’s Appeal

Your ‘conversion goal’ is the thing that you’re asking people to do on your website. Sometimes this is “Request a free quote”, sometimes it’s “Buy Now”. Basically, what do you want people to do when they visit your website?

The problem is that most websites’ conversion goals are unclear. Worse, many websites are completely devoid of conversion goals whatsoever.

A struggling service business might treat their website as a passive brochure, where visitors can get information about the services they offer. And that’s it. It’s like a salesperson who just reels off the spec or hands over an information sheet then walks away without ever asking for the sale.

To a website visitor, this approach sounds like:

If you want to buy from me, take the initiative to reach out to me and tell me exactly which of my services you want to buy.

You don’t know me and you don’t know if I’m right for you but, once you’ve hunted out my contact details, I’m going to try to sell the hell out of you until you buy.

This will feel uncomfortable and weird if you’re not ready yet, so don’t bother getting in contact unless you are ready to buy from me.

ECommerce businesses , meanwhile, can be equally guilty of failing to make their conversion goals sufficiently appealing. Obviously, the goal of an eCommerce site is to sell products. But sticking up a single low-res image of each product with a sentence of text and expecting people to buy, is often a leap of faith too far.

To the visitors of many struggling eCommerce websites, here’s what they see:

Here’s a low-resolution picture of a product with very little information at a higher price than you can buy it on Amazon.

You’ve never heard of me or my company and I’m going to take you through a long and painful checkout process before charging a fortune for delivery which will take five times as long as Amazon, which, incidentally, you know, like, and trust already.

Because you can’t really see the product and don’t really know anything about it, you are taking a big risk by buying it from me.

But hey! At least you get to practice putting your contact and payment details into a massive unsecured form.

Maybe that felt a little harsh and you might even be angry. But don’t shoot the messenger. This is not me talking; this is your website visitor.

Don’t despair and lose hope. Remember, you are almost there.

Understanding the mindset of your visitors, and particularly their risk perception, will help you to convert them better.

Here’s the message that you need to be delivering in order to absolutely maximise the number that want to buy:

For Service Businesses

If you have some pain, I want to help you fix it.

You don’t need to know anything about my products, nor do you have to have researched what I offer.

If you have this problem, I am here to help you and get you on your way.

Despite being very valuable to you, this help won’t cost you a penny. It’ll take you less than 10 seconds to get the help you need. Just give me a few details. Once you give me these details, here’s exactly what will happen…

Take a look at how Solutions4IT do this on their website, adapting our own free marketing review to offer their visitors a free IT audit.

For eCommerce Businesses

Here’s the perfect product for people in your situation.

You can see it in multiple angles, up close, and get a feel for it which is as close to picking it up and holding it as possible.

Here’s a video of someone using it so you can see it in action.

Lots of people in your situation have chosen to buy this product from us, and they are happy with their decision both with the product and with their experience of us. Here are their reviews.

All of the technical information and advice on how to use it is here.

If you’d like to buy it, it’s very good value, the process is very simple, and it’ll be delivered quickly.

If you’re not happy with it for any reason, just send it back to us and we’ll give you a refund.

As you’re new to us, we’d like to show you how good we are. So here’s an extra special something to welcome you.

Those are the messages your website needs to convey to maximise leads/sales.

Many companies decide to dial back or add pre-qualification hurdles, particularly in the case of the service business, to ensure that all of the leads they get are qualified potential clients, particularly if they are offering a free consultation or spending time and money servicing the leads.

But if we’re talking about turning around a site that is currently selling nothing, let’s start by casting the widest and most attractive net possible.

A common mistake on sites that are zeroing is expecting the visitor to do all of the work and take on all of the risk.

You’ll notice that in both of the good eCommerce and service company messages is that the seller removes as much of the risk as possible. They explain exactly what happens and offers something that appears to be far more valuable than the price that is being asked.

In fact, offering something more valuable than the price that is being asked is the foundation of every successful business transaction. Even if the “price” is “give me your email address” and the transaction is just having someone fill in a lead capture form.

Incidentally, this is why “sign up for our newsletter” is the worst call to action ever invented. The visitor reads it as “give me your email address and prepare to be spammed”.

If you’re getting website visitors and they’re sticking around on your website but they’re not buying or turning into leads, then you need to look at your calls to action.

What are you asking people to do on your website?

Does the perceived benefit massively outweigh the perceived risk to them?

If you sell something at a high price, or if you sell something which requires some discovery or customisation (like consultancy), going in for the kill straight from your website is not a good idea. Instead, offer your website visitors an easy, desirable first step which opens up a conversation where you can establish the precise need and prescribe the right solution.

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How To Use Social Proof To Improve Conversion Rates

Before people buy, they like to know that others in their situation have made the same choice and been happy with that choice.

Testimonials and case studies are a great way to do this, as are reviews, both on your website and on third-party sites like Facebook, TripAdvisor, TrustPilot, and so on.

The challenge for new businesses is getting those all-important first reviews. The good news is that you don’t need many: one review is better than none, and you should have a way of getting someone to review your product or service.

One of the things that eCommerce businesses can do to boost the social proof of their websites is to include product videos where a knowledgeable person in the company shows visitors around each product. This should be done in a sensitive way as to avoid coming across overly ‘pitchy’, but as long as the reviewer is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, the effects of these videos can be significant.

When I interviewed conversion expert Khalid Saleh on the Thinkplus podcast, he mentioned how Skis.com increased their product page conversion rate 30% by adding this type of video.

Here’s an example of social proof in the form of a testimonial that we use on the Thinkplus homepage:

Simple Conversion Improvements For When Nothing Is Working

If you’ve tried everything and yet no-one is converting from your website, it might be time to take a look at your business model or offering.

• Do you see successful competitors in your market?
• How is their offering different to yours?
• Do they have more credibility than you?
• Is their product or service more appealing than yours?

Taking an honest look like this can be painful. But guess what? It’s nowhere near as painful as quitting. So ask for feedback from people far enough away from your business that they will tell you straight up. Pay a target customer to give you honest feedback about what they do and don’t like. Make it clear to them that you are paying for the honesty, not for praise.

If you’re at a complete loss, then be sure that you’ve asked yourself these questions…

• Are customers buying/signing up/contacting? If so, why? If not, is it clear that they are supposed to take the action that you want them to take?
• Does the perceived benefit of this action outweigh the cost?
• Premium products have to bring a premium benefit. Premium is about more than a high price tag, and the product or service quality must not only justify the high price tag but communicate the difference clearly on the website.
• Do your product pages sell? In other words, are you getting visitors to them but no one is buying?
• Try selling at cost price. This is obviously not sustainable in the long-term, but in the short-term it will tell you if it’s the price which is putting people off.
• Is there social proof? Can you add more reviews, testimonials and case studies to show that purchasers were successful and happy as a result of their purchase?
• Is there enough demand for this product or service? How do you know? Check to see if your competitors are running Google adverts for the phrases that you are targeting, as this shows that these searches have commercial intent (i.e. result in purchases being made).
• Do you see successful competitors?

…And be sure to do these things:

• Don’t rely on your brand if you’re a new company. Brand equity is built over time and with multiple touch points. If you are a new brand, your brand equity is essentially zero, so you will have to work harder to sell your products than established competitors. Accept this, and get on with selling.
• Run user tests and have testers analyse your site and your successful competitors’ websites. Don’t let the testers know which website you run, because you want their most honest feedback.
• Add live chat, and see what people are asking about. This can guide you to the extra information you need to provide on your website and show you the common sticking points that visitors are facing.
• Add an exit popup with a discount to tempt back those who have decided to leave.

If you’re still lost, if you still have no idea why you’re not making sells, then it’s time to contact us. Request a website and marketing review and let’s get this turned around.

Need Help Increasing Sales For Your Website?

Seriously, request a free digital marketing review from Thinkplus. They’re free. No catches.

We’ll take a look at your website, marketing, and competitors and give you honest feedback about what you need to do to get more leads and sales. We’ll even make you a prioritised action plan that you can follow.

It’s totally free but it will take us a couple of days to make it for you. This is because each one is made manually by one of our marketing experts — no automated software reports here!

The post Why Your Website Isn’t Making Any Sales (and How To Fix It) appeared first on Thinkplus.

At Thinkplus, we’ve built hundreds of websites and studied the Google Analytics accounts of thousands more, and we’ve noticed a huge difference in the conversion rate of different websites. Our top converting website turns ⅓ visitors into a lead (a conversion rate of 33%), whilst the majority convert at between 0.7% and 2%. Thus, the difference between a high conversion rate and a low conversion rate can be generating 30 times the leads or sales from your website, with the same amount of traffic. So, the incentive for improving the conversion rate is clear!

In this post, we’ll share a process that you can use to improve your website’s conversion rate, whatever your business.

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How To Improve Your Conversion Rate

What does “conversion rate” mean?

Your website’s conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that take the desired action, whether that action is buying your product or becoming a lead.

In order to see your conversion rate in Google Analytics, you need to define your conversion by setting up a goal using the checkout or contact form thank you page. If your goal is to have website visitors call you, you can integrate a service like Mediahawk, or track clicks on a button that takes visitors to call a phone number.

What’s a normal conversion rate?

Across the more than 1,000 Google Analytics accounts we have access to, we find that typical conversion rates are between 1-2%. This means that for every 100 people visiting a website, one or two of them take the desired action.

Many websites, however, have no clear visitor goal and rely on website traffic deciding on their own accord to visit the contact page and submit their details. It’s not uncommon for these websites to see a conversion rate of less than 1% and, in some cases, it can be as low as 0.25%. For these websites, 400 visitors are required before a single person gets in contact. Obviously, then, there is so much potential for improvement!

What’s a good conversion rate?

Our top-performing website has a conversion rate of between 26% and 34% each month (shown below), generating legal leads:

The highest conversion rate we’ve seen for an eCommerce store is one of our clients, which regularly hits 15%:

These are at the very top end and are not typical. We’ll look at what makes them so much more effective than the average website later on.

What impacts your conversion rate?

Getting a high conversion rate is partly about removing conversion ‘blockers’ (things that prevent people from buying or becoming a lead) and partly about actively encouraging visitors to take the desired action.

Conversion blockers are usually relatively easy to identify, so let’s look at them now.

Conversion Blocker 1: Unclear Message

The most obvious conversion blocker is making it difficult for visitors to understand what your business does or what your website is about.

This usually starts with the lack of a clear and descriptive headline on every page, assuming that visitors on each page of your website have prior knowledge of what your business does and for whom.
Conversion Blocker 2: Not answering key questions

If the website visitor has any uncertainty about taking the action you want them to take, they usually won’t act.

Often, the uncertainty is about what will happen next if the visitor inputs their contact details. Will a salesperson call? How long will they have to wait?

Sometimes, the uncertainty is around whether the business is actually suitable. On eCommerce sites, for example, displaying a different currency anywhere to the one that’s used by the visitor can reduce conversions, as a percentage assume that the business can’t/won’t ship economically and quickly. Lead generation websites that fall victim of this conversion blocker are sometimes unclear about their location or service area, so visitors are left unsure of whether the business serves them.

Conversion Blocker 3: Poor usability

This is the most obvious conversion blocker, whether it’s websites that aren’t mobile friendly, have intrusive pop-ups, or dated and unappealing design.

Whilst many websites see a far lower conversion rate on mobile, the one below shows that with mobile-focused design, it’s actually possible for mobile traffic to outperform desktop traffic!

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How to improve conversion rate dramatically

We’ve looked at some of the common impediments to conversion rates, so now let’s look at some of the tools we have in the conversion arsenal to actively improve conversion rate.

Offer something genuinely compelling

The fastest shortcut to improving your conversion rate is to offer something that your visitor values. All too often, we see lead generation websites offering no clear benefit to getting in touch, and eCommerce sites selling the same products as everyone else at the same price.

Visitors seeing a contact form that just says “contact us” think ‘meh’, and for every one that converts, there may have been 1-5 others who just didn’t perceive enough value in what they’d get in return for taking the action.

The best-converting sites we see all offer something of clear value, and visitors take action because they’re excited and have a genuine desire for what’s on offer.

Take this legal lead generation site, for example:

The call to action is “find out how much you could claim”, and the benefit is clear: by filling in this form, I’ll find out how much money I’m owed.

This website outperforms most solicitor websites by 15x because they all say things like “Contact Us”, or have no call to action at all. The trouble with “Contact Us” is that there’s no clear benefit to doing so, and the perceived value is low. What does the visitor get in return? A sales call? How compelling is that?

In another great example, this lead generation website (with a conversion rate of 6.92%) offers visitors a free “claim assessment” to help visitors identify whether they have a case, and how much they could be owed:

I was talking to Larry Kim of SaaS company Wordstream recently, who explained that in the early days of Wordstream, the website offered a free trial because that’s what all software companies did. This worked okay and their conversion rate was around the 2% mark. They tried changing button colours, layouts and so on, and whilst these resulted in small initial improvements, the website never really got beyond a 2% conversion rate.

So, Larry decided to offer something of greater value, and built an AdWords Grader. This would allow people to test their Google AdWords account and get some quick feedback on its performance. The tool took three months to build, but it was worth it. Conversion rate jumped to 20%! Here’s the CTA that increased Wordstream’s conversion rate by a whopping 10x:

eCommerce websites can use this technique to great effect by offering sign-ups with something tantalising with their first order. “Sign up for a 10% discount on your first order” is a popular option and, so long as the business knows its lifetime customer value and profit, they’ll usually be happy to take a hit on the first sale’s profits to build their customer list and sign up people who would have otherwise left the website.

Write for your conversion

Assuming that you’re offering something attractive, it’s a good idea to centre your pages around this target. For example, on our website, we offer a free website review which shows you the hidden profit leaks that could be costing you 45-65% of your sales. We refer to this call to action throughout the website copy (and blog posts).

Prominent calls to action

If your conversion goal is appealing, don’t hide it away! The website below has a high double-digit conversion rate, with most of the leads coming from the homepage lead capture form above the fold:

If your call to action is compelling, low-risk and easy to understand, putting it above the fold on the homepage is a good option, because it means that those visitors who are keen and ready to convert can do so without hunting around.

You’ll also want a call to action in the middle of any long page or blog post, to get those who didn’t feel compelled enough to take action at the top of the page. Notice how Wordstream uses sidebar calls to action in its blog to give readers a signup option throughout:

Of course, you’ll also want a call to action at the end of the page or post, to capture those engaged enough to read to the end:

Notice how this eCommerce store with double-digit conversion rate uses a newsletter CTA at the bottom of every page, but adds in a compelling reason why people would want to sign up.

Use social proof

Another way to increase conversion rate is to show that others who have taken the risk have been pleased with their decision. Putting testimonials and reviews in places that you’re asking for visitors to take the action is a simple way to do this.

The Property Buying Company uses third-party reviews prominently, right below its CTA button, to reassure visitors and show that others have had a good experience. This is particularly important in businesses where there is a high perceived risk, such as selling your house online.

See how funding circle uses statistics to give social proof, showing how many others have taken this action and restating the benefit of their service by giving a specific loan amount:

Notice how online mortgage broker Habito uses a combination of social proof, reviews and metrics for ease of use, combined with reassurance in the form of their FCA authorisation, to overcome objections and fears to generate mortgage leads:

This website we built uses logos of some of the places that the business has been featured, to give their eligibility check more credibility. It converts at 22%, which is more than 40x their previous website’s conversion rate. Note how we also built up the perceived value of becoming a member by using a ‘takeaway’ sale: “most people who apply don’t get in”. The irony, of course, is that this only increases people’s desire to get in:

Looking for more inspiration? This article covers 20 lead generation ideas.

How to improve conversion rate: Conclusion

Your website will ‘convert’ traffic into leads or sales as long as it’s offering something compelling and attractive, in an easy-to-understand way, whilst removing any fear or uncertainty in the mind of the visitor.

If your website’s conversion rate is below 2%, that’s usually a symptom that it’s missing some — or all — of these criteria. Your conversion rate can be as high as 10%, 20%, even 30%, but to do that, you have to be offering visitors something of extremely high perceived value, with little or no risk, and from a position of real authority.

Want us to show you the conversion rate tweaks to make on your website? Request your free website and marketing review now

The post How To Improve Your Website’s Conversion Rate 3x-10x appeared first on Thinkplus.