You shouldn’t be sending leads to your website, your website should be sending leads to you.

“The thing is our website is where we send leads to get more information. It’s basically like a digital brochure.”

The next time you hear anyone in your marketing or sales department utter those words, let them know if that’s how they view the website, it would probably have been less costly to create some printed collateral to give potential customers then to invest in a website.

The Internet is the best way to let people you don’t know and who don’t know you, but who need what you have, find you.

Create a website so that it’s helpful to users who know nothing about you, and keep in mind that they will be stopping by your competitor’s sites as well. Help them understand what you do or sell and why they should consider doing business with you. For B2B sites (especially those with complex sales cycles), you don’t need to put every tiny detail about your business front and center.

Remember that for B2B sites that don’t have an e-commerce function (like selling white paper downloads, for instance) the goal of a website isn’t to close a potential sale, it’s to create interest. The website should introduce your company to the user in a way that gets you on their short list. You simply want them to say, “I should get more information from these guys.”

That’s why if you’re investing in a website, it should be more than a high-tech, high-priced, brochure. Brochure’s are generally given to people following some sort of interaction. They are given out after a sales person has provided some background on the business. Even a 30 second conversation can put the information that’s in the brochure into context.

That process is backwards. Rather than using a person to provide initial information and sending leads to your site for more information, create a website so it can be easily found and write it so it provides the necessary introductory information.

It will act as your best salesperson, working 24/7 to get your business in front any potential customer looking for what you provide. Done correctly, the website will lead them to you for more information.

Marketing, Website Content, Website Design B2B, business to business, Lead Generation, Leads, Online Content, Online Marketing, Small Business, Website Design, Website Usability

Your website is out there representing your business 24/7 and can be a great resource in generating leads for your sales team. Below are a few simple things you can do to increase the quality and quantity of leads your site generates:

1) Write it so they can read it. Write your content for users who are scanning, not reading. Making it easy for them to find the information they need on your site makes it more likely they’ll contact you and not your competition.

2) If you have a “contact us” form, remove the phone number as a required field. Users fill out forms rather than calling so as not to have to speak with sales people. Removing the phone number as a requirement lets them know you understand this.

3) Add your physical address to your site. It gives users a sense of comfort that they are going to be dealing with a real company.

4) Provide valuable information users researching your products or services may need. The more you become a resource, the more they feel they can trust doing business with you.

5) Make it as easy as possible for them to experience your product or service on a temporary basis. If you sell a product, can they try it free for 30 days, or see a demo on your site?

And remember, the point of your website isn’t to tell them every minute detail of your business. The site content needs to move a potential customer or client to put your business on their “short list” of companies they need to consider prior to signing with anyone.

Your website should get you on that list. Your sales people should close the deal.

Digital Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Content, Lead Generation, Leads, Online Content, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Small Business, Website Usability

We so often hear the term “interactive media,” when referring to websites. I understand the underlying sentiment that users can come in and navigate through to where they want to go, they can spend time with the pages they like the best, and leave if they aren’t happy. And on sites that allow for UGC, they can even “talk” to you or others about your services or product.

The problem I have with labeling this activity as “interactive” is that clients often confuse it with “conversation.” This so often means that clients create their sites as if they are actually having a dialogue with their customers. When in fact, the user is there to “pull” information from their site. If they don’t find the information they are looking for, quickly and easily, they leave.

There is no chance for a company representative to say “no wait, we actually do have exactly what you’re looking for,” or “in fact, we do provide that service, maybe I just wasn’t explaining it right.”

Think about the conversations your sales people have at trade shows. Potential clients/customers come to your booth and you explain what you sell, the service you provide, your point of difference, etc… Then they have a chance to ask questions, and if it seems like they aren’t quite getting the benefits of doing business with you, the sales person can try a different tack. That is “interacting.” Online, if your website isn’t providing information in a succinct manner that lines up with the user’s query, you don’t have the luxury of changing your tack and trying again.

That’s why your content needs to be written from the users’ point of view, not yours. It has to be written to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking to “pull” and not what you’re looking to “push.”

Website Content Content, Lead Generation, Leads, Online Content, Website Usability