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Getting Started With Your Online Business Part 6 - 3 Ways To Turn Visitors Into Leads

You've got your site up and running. You've done everything you can to make sure your pages load fast and your visitors are engaged with your website. It's time to think about the goal of your page. Assuming you've done everything right to this point your visitors are now reading your content and find it to be what they're looking for. As a skilled marketer you need to be able to capture these people's contact information and convert them from site visitors into bonified leads. Here's 3 things you can do to increase your chances.

1. Use a form on your page.

The best way to capture your website visitors contact information is through a form. A form will provide your site visitors with a place to enter their contact information. That information will then be transmitted from your webpage to a database or to you can have it sent to your email. Once you've captured some basic contact information you can effectively follow up with each of your leads whether it be through email, a phone call, or other methods.

Be careful not to ask for too much contact information all at once. The more information you ask for the less likely someone will be to complete and submit your form. I like to ask for only their name and email address. If you need more information it's best to ask for the information over multiple pages and steps. For example, in the first step you can ask for their name and email address. After they submit that form perhaps they're directed to another page that asks for their phone number and address. Had you asked for all that information on the first step your site visitors may have not submitted anything at all.

2. Give them something of high perceived value.

In general people perceive their contact information as being valuable. They're not likely to provide it to you without good reason. I recommend giving your site visitors something of high perceived value in exchange for providing their contact information. The best things to give away are things which cost nothing. This works especially well if you have something electronic you can give them whether it be an ebook, software download, or video.

If you're selling hard goods you may want to consider giving away a free sample or maybe a coupon for a discount on your products. If you're shipping a hard good and want to recover some of the costs you can make up with it through the processing and handling. I once new someone who sold health supplements online. He'd send someone a small sample just for providing their contact information. He would then charge a small amount for shipping and handling at checkout. This would help offset the cost of giving away the free samples. He would then send regular follow up emails touting the benefits of his supplements.

3. Make a clear call to action

Don't assume because you placed a form on your page your visitors will figure out what to do with it. Be sure to provide clear instructions and draw extra attention to what they need to do next. I call this a call to action. It can be something as simple as a sentence that says "Enter your name and email address in the form below and then click submit".

Remember you're not going to convert your site visitors into leads until they submit that form. Make sure the form button looks like a button and make sure it's large enough to be easily noticed. Consider adding extra white space around your form and even highlighting it so it stands out from the rest of your content.

Now that you're turning site visitors into leads you'll have the opportunity to follow up with each one. A well known marketing study shows the average person needs to come to a website seven times before they ever decide to buy something. By capturing your visitors contact information you'll be able to send them regular emails, reminding them you exist and bringing them back to your website. If you haven't already created a website you can create a free website at WebStarts.com by clicking here.

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