Turn your website into a lead generation machine! 

I was recently asked to critique a client’s website with regard to effectiveness for generating sales leads.  As is usually the case, our client was working with limited time and budged so they wanted to address only the elements that would have the most significant impact on lead generation in the first stage of their site upgrade.

Now, I would consider my expertise to be in sales and not website development – the scope of which goes well beyond what is being considered in this article.  However, reviewing how our client’s website would impact on their sales process has resulted in the development of the following top 6 “must haves” for your Home Page to ensure that you reap the greatest financial rewards from your website.

During the review process I reviewed 5 of the big fitness chains and 10 independent fitness centre websites to see which of the following elements were featured on their sites. 

Background:

More people are using the internet to find and research products before hitting the road than ever before.  Additionally, thanks to Mr Google, I can’t recall the last time that I picked up a Yellow Pages directory.  As such, the first experience that many prospects have with your business will be via your website.  

It is safer to assume that your prospect is both busy and smart.  You need to capture their attention quickly and concisely and help them move effortlessly to the next stage of interacting with your business – that is direct contact.   

Be found – Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Marketing.  Whilst SEO and SEM can be very involved and expensive, it takes little time more or effort to ensure that your site appears for the most common search terms.  For example “gym <your suburb>”.

Value based headings and summaries – capture your prospect’s attention immediately by using headings and summaries that confirm that you can deliver what they are seeking.  You need to ensure that your prospects know that they in the right place quickly and easily.  Additionally, it is never too soon to start building excitement about your services – start with the headings!

Make your service (or product) the hero - the benefits offered by your primary service should represent the main emphasis of your home page.  Prospects will only want to know more about who you are (for example: About Us) once they have established that you provide what they need.

Proof – one or no clicks to proof that you can deliver on your promises.  For example, video or written testimonials on your home page or link to your testimonial page.

Clear call to action – you should have a goal for your site (in this case we are assuming that you would like to generate sales leads) and this outcome should be clear.  Let the prospect know what they should do next if they like the look of what you have to offer. 

Make it EASY to contact you - once you have your prospect’s attention and you are building excitement about what you can do for them, make sure that you find out who they are.  Examples include: 

•   Phone number – large and visible on every page
•   Contact form - either available on every page or available with only one click
•   Big button or banner displaying a free or special offer that links to a contact form
•   Don't use a splash page - it means an extra click to get to your site.  That extra click will cost you traffic.

By implementing the above elements on your website home page you will ensure that your site is working hard - generating quality sales leads for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Website Review

Following is a quick review of the Home Page elements of some of Australia's biggest fitness chains verus a random selection of independent health clubs.  It is only a small sample set and therefore not "statistically" significant.  However, it does serve to illustrate how, with little effort or cost, you can create a website that rivals a big budget site in terms of functionality and effectiveness.

The Chains were selected as the first 5 that came to mind and the independent clubs are just a random selection of our clients.  The independent clubs are a mix from different states, and both metropolitan and regional.  In making the list of 10 independent clubs, I found 3 clubs that did not appear to have a website.  

The review is predominantly qualitative, based on what I consider to be adequate in terms of generating maximum quality leads.  In many cases it wasn't black and white.  For example, there may have been a single click to the contact form, but the link was a bit too hard to find.  If the small text link was changed to a big button on every page, then Easy Contact would change from No to Yes.