Dear Mr. Customer, Are You Interested?

3 Website Tips That Guarantee You'll Connect with Customers - Part 2 of 3

If you build a website with your name and picture prominently displayed along with your tagline and a description of what you do, your visitors – MAY – express an interest. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be in the form of a phone call from mom telling you how proud she is about all you do online.

Consider an alternative. Display a bold headline on the upper half of your home page. Something like:

• 3 Pool Maintenance Tips Guaranteed to Wipe Out Green Algae
• 3 Tax Prep Mistakes to Avoid So the IRS Leaves You Alone
• 3 Employee Moral Boosting Recommendations for Keeping Your Employees Engaged

These types of headlines do two things.

1. They call out a pain point or problem your visitor wants to address.
2. They call you out as an expert with the solution.

And if you combine your headline with a website form visitors can use to sign up for this information, you’ve got one very important thing.

You’ve got a way to identify visitors with an interest in your expertise.

Now this doesn’t mean these folks are reaching for their wallets yet, but it does tell you this person's a prospect...a lead. They're interested enough to part with their name and email address. That’s real currency online even if it's not money.

So here’s what you do. Decide on a headline using a format like the ones below:

• 3 (topic you know well) Tips Guaranteed to (something your visitors want)
• 3 (topic you know well) Mistakes to Avoid So (something your visitors want)
• 3 (topic you know well) Recommendations for (something your visitors want)

Then come up with a three part article supporting the headline. These don’t need to be long and you can consider making them a YouTube video or audio recording.

In my previous article, You Are the Expert, But How Does Your Website Say That , I provide a few examples to guide you. If you choose the article route (which is what I recommend for starters), limit each of the three parts to 500 to 700 word.

Once written, place a form near the top of your home page asking visitors for their first name, last name and email address.  Put up your headline along with a brief description. You should consider having the form appear on every page.

When visitors sign up, have their submitting the web form trigger sending them part one of the article via email right away.  Schedule part two of the article for arrival two days later.  Send them part three two days after that.

By doing this, you’ve:

• given them information that positions you as an expert,
• stayed connected with them over a week’s time and
• VERY IMPORTANT, gotten their permission to follow up.  (You're not spamming here.)

This approach can be added to any organization's lead generation program and tied into a longer term lead nurturing campaign. It provides you with an inexpensive and extremely effective technique for identifying potential buyers, calling the out as leads that need follow up and growing your prospect list so you can target them with future marketing activities.

Hope this helps.