WHY IS A SITE SO VITAL?
When the majority of your sales team is in bed with the lights out, who’s communicating with your leads that could be coming in from the other side of the world?
Your website is your only 24/7 sales team member, so it needs to be good at lead generation.
Besides: when you have a problem or a question, where do you turn? Nine out of ten times, probably the internet. And now that over 50% of B2B buyers are millennials, is it really any surprise that they’re doing that, even if you’re not?
Millennials grew up as the internet did, and they learned to adjust to it.
Remember, millennials are not the generation that’s in middle and high school right now – they’re all college graduates, and most are approaching or already in their thirties! Many of them can recall the first time their family got a household computer, or the first time they switched from a pager to a flip phone to a smart phone.
So how do you generate [millennial] leads with your website?
1. USE AN APPEALING DESIGN
Your website needs to effectively communicate who you are and what you do from the first moment that a visitor arrives. Why?
Visitors will make a decision about your site within the FIRST. THREE. SECONDS.
If they don’t think you’re the right fit for what they need or want? Au revoir, potential leads.
2. CREATE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT
Do your users want to learn about your product? Sure. But more importantly, they want to learn about their problem and what you know about all the intricacies of that situation.
When people visit your trade show, do you bombard them with widgets? No – you usually ask them what they need.
“How can I help you? What drew you to our booth today? Is there something specific you’re looking for?” After you know what someone needs, then the selling process starts.
Your site can act as an extension of your sales team…especially once you get marketing automation up and running.
Write blogs, film vlogs, and create landing pages with valuable content. “But where do I find the ideas for content?” people often ask.
Get out a piece of paper and write down the three most common questions you keep having to answer. There are your blogs.
Now, don’t make it just the three most common questions asked by people who already own your product. Should you answer those questions? Sure. But what about the people who are just coming to browse around or to see what you can tell them about the industry in general?
When people ask you about your services, what if you could point them to a webpage or a video that helped provide value or even offered suggestions about the problem they have? You’d be surprised how valuable that content will become to you over time!
3. USE GATED CONTENT OFFERS
Once people have come to recognize your content as valuable, you can use gated content offers to continue providing even more valuable information to them, while gaining more insights into who they are.
Remember, these subscribers still might not be buyers or existing clients, so don’t just create offers for existing consumers.
Create webinars, eBooks, or buyers’ guides that provide valuable insights on industry trends.
If you sell steel tanks, try an offer highlighting top trends in craft breweries. If you’re in pest control, highlight different practical tips on how to bug-proof a building.
Just make it relevant, and make it valuable.
When you’re trying to give your pet a pill, you usually have to wrap it in a piece of bacon or cheese.
How do you get a lead’s information? Gate your content. If they know it’s valuable, they’ll consider the subscription well worth it.
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