Your website is your biggest marketing asset, you maybe just don’t know it yet. In this two part series we look at how I can help you to turn your website into your biggest digital marketing asset.
If you haven’t read part one you can read part one of the digital marketing asset series here. Go on, I will wait here until you come back.
Ready to go? Good then let me continue.
Forms
Another very important part of inbound marketing and lead generation is creating forms on your website. There is a lot more to forms than your basic contact us form. Forms allow your prospects to give you information about their needs and challenges and it is an ideal way for them to become known to you.
When creating forms only ask for the essential information as the more information you ask for does cause friction for your prospects and increase the barrier for entry.
The information you request needs to match your buyer personas and asking specific questions in your forms can help you segment your leads list and send highly personalised emails, as personalised emails increase click-through rates by 14%.
What kind of information you ask a prospect will depend on what stage they are at. If they are just becoming known to you and are looking for content at the top of your funnel (awareness stage) I would recommend that you only ask for first name and email.
When they are showing more of an interest in your brand (consideration stage) you can ask for more information, last name and company for example. When they reach sales qualified you can then ask perhaps for their website address and telephone number.
By utilising Hubspot you can use progressive profiling on your forms to reduce friction and increase the amount of people who fill them in. Progressive profiling is: if a prospect has already given you their email address and they return to your website, the form they get presented with won’t have the field to fill in their email as you already know it.
This can drastically increase your leads. If the information is not essential then don’t ask for it.
Lead nurturing programme
Once a lead has become known to you it’s time to create lead nurturing programmes to move them through your sales funnel. If a prospect is doing research and has downloaded one of your guides they are still not ready to buy and need to be nurtured into a customer.
You need to create lead nurturing emails that go out to your prospects to help answer their questions, address their pain points, pushback and introduce your company. Below is a short overview of how this is done.
Awareness stage – Three timely emails addressing the common sales questions while at the same time introducing your marketing qualified offer.
Consideration stage – Three timely emails that address your prospects pushbacks by using cases studies and fact sheets, while introducing your sales qualified offer.
Decision stage – No real emails at this stage as this is where sales make contact.
The better you segment your leads list the more personalised these emails can be. If in your forms you asked which industry sector they are in then these emails can be tailored just for that industry, thus increasing relevancy and click-through rates.
Clearly defined sales funnel
Before you begin you need to understand and define your sales funnel, if you do not then you will have difficulty generating leads and also moving them through your sales funnel. If you feel there are gaps in your sales funnel then introduce steps to fill this gap.
Get your sales and marketing teams together to discuss how your sales funnel will look. This will help both sales and marketing work better together and marketing can send sales higher quality leads.
Let people subscribe to your blog
Inbound marketing is an excellent way to build your email list not only with leads but also email blog subscribers. More than 46% of people read more than one blog a day. This is an excellent way to keep front and centre with your audience.
This will increase your traffic and help you become a thought leader within your industry. A lot of the people who are on your blog subscriber list may not be customers or leads but can be great brand advocates and share your content with people who are interested in your content.
By using landing pages like the HubSpot one below you can give people the option on how often they want to hear from you. Email marketing is a very powerful form of marketing and should not be overlooked. Another great way to increase your subscribers is to include a check box to subscribe in your forms as this can really help increase your subscriber base.
Conclusion
There are a lot of steps involved in making your website a digital marketing asset but the efforts will be worth it.
By creating forms that are intelligent and which react to your prospects needs and history, you will generate a higher volume of leads. Nurture your leads and help them through their buying process.
Make sure you have a clearly defined sales funnel as if you don’t cracks will start to appear. Build your audience by allowing people to subscribe to your blog as you never know when they will be ready to buy and this keeps you front of mind.
Now it’s your turn
What did you think of this series? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments below.