We’ve seen it all before. A colleague or business associate will redesign their website to look amazing. They have a solid trustworthy brand, plenty of content, and overall great functionality. There’s only one problem… it’s been 6 months and they’ve not generated a single lead! Sure all this traffic is great, but why aren’t these visitors converting? Have they defined a clear path or are their visitors simply getting lost in the woods?

As the famous “they” say, “numbers don’t lie,”which is why I’m starting each section with stats you just can’t ignore. If your traffic is steady but your conversion is dwindling or nonexistent, these 6 elements below will help you generate leads and get your visitors acting.

1. Lead Capture Form

Reducing your form fields from 11 down to 4 could increase your conversion rates up to 120%. (Source: Quicksprout)

This is a simple and often ignored technique to capture potential leads before they wander off your website for good. It’s important to clearly showcase these forms throughout your website. Give your form a solid background or border that stands out from the rest of your site. Length of the form, position & number of form fields have the ability to sway a potential lead one way or another. Typically the shorter the sweeter. I mean, who likes filling out forms?

Be sure to include a Thank You message so the user knows the form has been submitted. Even better, redirect to a thank you page with a call to action offer to further awesomeness to that potential sale.

2. Call to Action

70% of Small Business B2B Websites Lack A Call to Action. (Source: Small Biz Trends)

Calls to Action graphics (or CTAs) should appear constantly throughout your website. We’re big on it here at gobeyond, as you can see if you take a glance at our sidebar to the right. They are the first and most crucial step in the conversion path. Without them, there is no connection from your website to the landing pages that you ultimately want to convert those leads.

Here are a few rules to follow:

• State your CTA as clearly as possible. Simple content with a clear message.
• Try to evoke an action by using buttons with “download now” or “subscribe.”
• Make wise color choices. Avoid designing your CTAs to look too much like your website. Your goal is to make the graphic stand out, not blend it in. On the other side of the coin, use complementary colors so they grab your visitors’ attention.
• Do A/B testing to discover which color/design/position performs best in terms of clicks.

Location is key. Always add a relevant Call to Action at the end of a blog post. Using your sidebar content for smaller CTAs is an easy way to put offers on every page of your site. But be wise about placement. This is to attract potential leads, not drive them away.

3. Social Proof

78% of small businesses attract new customers through social media. (Source: Relevanza)

Include share buttons on every single page of your website. Even if a visitor doesn’t find your information useful, they still may want to share it within their social media circles. Give credibility to your content by including the number of likes & shares at the top or bottom of each blog post next to your share buttons. If a visitor sees your article was shared 23 times on LinkedIn, they’re more likely to read the entire article than they would be if it only had 1 or 2 likes.

4. Useful Educational Content

80% of business decision makers prefer to get information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Exact Target)

It’s important to provide your visitors with the information they are looking for. Judging from the above stat, information is key. However, some visitors don’t know what they’re looking for & it’s your website that will guide them down the path of conversion.

Some examples this useful content are:

• blog articles
• ebooks
• white papers
• webinars
• infographics
• checklists

5. Simple Navigation

Approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because users can’t find information, and 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience. (Source: Forrester Research)

The most important parts of your website are connected to your navigation menu. Having a simple, clutter-free menu for your user will ensure your content is being reached. Positioning is key. Visitors expect to find it at the top or sidebar on every page. You don’t want to bombard your visitors with so much information it sends them running. Provide your services in a clear way with a simple structure they can easily navigate through.

6. Landing Pages

Companies with 31+ landing pages got 12 times more leads than those with 5 or less. (Source: Hubspot)

Because landing pages are the last point of contact before a website visitor fills out a form to become a lead, it’s important to make sure you’re optimizing them correctly. Landing pages should follow the same design as the rest of your website (with a few key differences). Here are some things that you should keep in mind that will help you create top notch results and convert visitors into leads:

• Keep the layout of the landing page as simple as possible.
• Get rid of the top navigation so you don’t distract the viewer.
• Use the shortest form possible to gather relevant info, preferably on the right of the page.
• The form button should say something other than submit (try “Get Your Ebook Now!” or “Download Now”).
• Keep any content on the right short and sweet. A few sentences and bullet points make it quick and easy to read.
• One awesome, relevant image for visual appeal, or a graphic of the ebook or product.

Conclusion

Integrating these 6 elements into your website will help increase your conversion rate and generate new leads. You can optimize these elements by testing variations of your calls to action & landing pages to learn what gets results.