Your website is the digital equivalent of a brick-and-mortar business’s storefront. And your homepage is what customers see when they look through the glass windows. Are they enticed by what they see? Does it encourage them to “come inside” and learn more? Or does it fail to generate lasting interest — or worse yet, even drive them away?
Among the many aspects that go into creating your homepage, one of the most important things to keep in mind is how it will drive your digital lead-generation efforts. With lead generation consistently cited as the top priority for marketers, finding ways to maximize your homepage’s potential will prove key to your own growth efforts.
In this post, I’ll share seven actionable steps to turn your homepage into a lead-gen machine, many of which you can implement today to start converting more visitors as soon as possible. Let’s dive in.
1. Create custom-tailored content.
Content is king, and I’m not just referring to blog posts and social media content. As the first thing most potential leads will see when they visit you online, your homepage must also be fully optimized with content that speaks specifically to your brand and your target audience’s pain points.
Within seconds, your headline, sub-headline, additional copy, and images need to help convince a lead that your business can help them. Your content must emphasize the pain points that are most relevant to your target audience, and then highlight the benefits you can offer — how you can resolve the problems that matter most.
Some of the most common pain points include challenges with productivity, finances, process, and even people. Carefully evaluate all of your homepage copy to ensure it speaks directly to your leads’ top concerns.
2. Showcase your most compelling reviews.
Eighty-three percent of individuals will trust their peers rather than advertise when it comes to product or service recommendations. Ninety-seven percent of B2B buyers trust peer reviews more than any other type of content.
As such, few things are more convincing than a positive testimonial or review from your current customers, particularly when they share many of the attributes and pain points as your top prospects. Their words and experiences will be far more compelling than any marketing message you could develop on your own.
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However, while many brands can generate reviews on third-party sites like Google or Yelp, they don’t always feature these testimonials as prominently as they should on their own websites.
You can make your homepage much more compelling with some simple reviews and/or testimonials. Even showcasing a short snippet of a real customer review or highlighting the number of 5-star reviews you’ve received can make a compelling argument right there on your homepage.
3. Don’t give up on forms.
While other lead generation tactics may be more trendy at the moment, there is still much to be said for forms. In fact, 49.7 percent of marketers report that web forms offer the highest conversion rates of their digital marketing techniques. Interestingly, HubSpot research also notes that multi-step forms tend to have higher conversion rates.
That being said, the most effective forms typically only ask for no more than five pieces of information, often in exchange for a lead magnet such as an ebook. Forms should focus on the most essential pieces of information that will help the sales team with their outreach. Key details include the person’s name, email address, employer, and role within their company.
While forms may be primarily associated with B2B brands, many B2C companies also use forms. For instance, a subscription service could include a form on its homepage that gets a visitor started on the signup process. After filling out basic contact information, such forms would then take customers to a secure portal for providing payment information.
These forms don’t just belong on landing pages. Depending on your layout, they could fit right in on your homepage, as well.
4. Learn who is visiting your site.
There’s a big difference between seeing how many unique users have visited your website and knowing exactly who those users are. Knowing who is visiting your site helps paint a more complete picture of your target audience and their interests. It also reveals new lead generation opportunities.
In a blog post for Lemonade Stand, Greg Trimble recommends, “Find an analytics tool that gives you the following: The ability to identify companies by their IP Address and domain. Insight into where the leads and website visitors are coming from. Email notifications when a new prospect is on your site. Contact information for possible contacts from the company that is visiting your website.”
While Google Analytics can provide some of this information, custom-built analytics tools can take things a step further to help your team understand who is visiting your website and the type of actions they are taking there.
With this information in hand, you have a powerful prospecting resource for your sales team. They’ll know which businesses were looking at your site (and possibly even why), providing a valuable baseline when reaching out for a sales call.
5. Utilize retargeting ads.
It’s estimated that as many as 95 percent of potential customers aren’t ready to make a purchase when they visit a retail website. For lesser-known brands and B2B websites, those numbers can be even lower.
Quite often, someone who is interested in your products or services will click away without even clicking on a CTA or taking another step that makes it easier for them to become part of your sales funnel. This doesn’t mean all hope is lost — retargeting ads will allow you to continue messaging, even after a single homepage visit.
For social media, the Meta Pixel is a prime example of how brands can retarget. As Facebook explains, “It tracks the people and the types of actions they take when they engage with your brand, including any of your Facebook ads they saw before going to your website, the pages of your site they visit, and the items they add to their carts.”
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This data enables personalized retargeting to those who visited your homepage, and even allows for tailored messaging based on what they did (or didn’t) do on your site. Advertising cookies play a similar role with Google Ads and other platforms. Such campaigns can keep your brand top of mind after a single website visit, eventually resulting in more leads.
6. Provide clear CTAs.
There are many different types of calls to action you could incorporate onto your homepage, from growing your email list to getting visitors to sign up for a free trial of your product. While the exact nature of your CTA may vary based on your marketing goals, two things should remain consistent: CTAs should be prominently displayed throughout your homepage, and they should guide visitors into your marketing funnel.
The average homepage will require a fair amount of scrolling for visitors who want to see all of its content. But if you only have one CTA near the top of the page, visitors might forget about it by the time they get all the way to the bottom. Repeated, consistent CTAs serve as a helpful reminder to visitors while also adding visual variety to your homepage.
CTAs should also lead to consumers entering your sales funnel in some fashion — at the very least, providing an email address so your team can contact them later. Ultimately, your CTA should lead to future brand engagements.
Finally, consider personalizing CTAs when possible. Calls to action that adapt their messaging based on a visitor’s location, previous interactions with your website or other factors convert 202 percent better than generic CTAs.
7. Leverage live chat.
Live chat can be another powerful resource for generating leads directly on your homepage. In fact, research indicates that not only are 38 percent of customers more likely to buy from websites that offer live chat, but 63 percent are more likely to return to that website. Among businesses that have implemented live chat, 79 percent report increased sales and revenue.
While chatbots can certainly handle much of the workload for your homepage’s live chat, this service can become even more effective when your customer service team gets integrated into more complex questions or requests. By having live chat built into your homepage, prospects can potentially get all the answers they’re looking for without ever clicking to another page.
Live chat can further play into your lead-generation efforts by encouraging users to schedule a call with a service rep. Best of all, because chat tools are available 24/7, you can generate leads while you sleep.
Turn your homepage into a lead generation machine.
Your homepage can (and should) be so much more than a placeholder where you encourage visitors to click through to other pages to learn more about your company. When set up properly, the homepage can be a compelling lead-generation tool in and of itself, regardless of whether someone decides to check out other pages on your website or not.
By maximizing the selling potential of your homepage, you can generate more quality leads and turn your website into a true powerhouse for digital sales.