As a marketer who helps advisors grow their advisory business, I see advisors make the same mistake when it comes to their website. Rather than treating their website as a lead gen tool, advisors treat their website as a brochure of their firm – they have pages of content blabbing about how much they know, they tout their years of experience and give an overdrawn history of their firm.
They launch their website and never touch it again. Unfortunately, content like this will not help users find your website in the search engines and it certainly won’t draw in the leads. So how can you improve your website performance and increase leads at the same time? I am going to give you 5 simple tips that will help your website function as your #1 lead gen tool.
1. Optimize content based on search.
One of the most common questions I get from advisors is, “How can I be number 1 on Google?” Search engine optimization can be tricky to understand but it’s an important part of your marketing strategy. The first tip I give advisors is utilize tools such as Google Keyword Planning Tool or Moz to come up with a list of keywords that are high in search volume and low in competition. Then, build those keywords into the content of your website.
2. Tell users how to navigate your website.
One easy thing you can to do enhance your content strategy is tell your users what page you want to click next by incorporating Calls to Action (CTAs) on each web page. On every blog page that we post, we have a CTA button encouraging users to download a free guide, schedule an appointment, register for a webinar, etc. (you’ll even notice a CTA at the end of my blog!) The goal is to keep users engaged and to provide an opportunity to convert your website visitor into a lead.
3. Use landing pages and contact forms.
For premium content such as free guides, webinars, ebooks, presentations and templates, we ask for 1 thing in return for providing website visitors with great free info – your contact information. By incorporating landing pages and contact forms throughout a website, you can collect important data on the users who come to your site. Data is extremely valuable.
We typically request name, phone number and email on our forms. Then we recommend that advisors reach out immediately via phone upon receipt of a web-based lead.
4. Nurture your leads.
An important part of the lead generation process is lead nurturing. We recommend automating your lead nurturing campaigns through the use of drip emails. In your drip emails, be sure to incorporate CTAs so users can continue to engage with the content on your website. The more data you can collect on these users, the more equipped you’ll be to have an engaging conversation when you reach out to these prospects.
5. Monitor analytics.
There are important metrics you need to monitor to help evaluate if these campaigns are working and the data can help drive any changes you need to make. Google Analytics is a great tool to watch your website performance. You can monitor traffic if it is increasing or decreasing as you implement these changes. I like to look at the organic traffic to see what keywords are driving users to our websites – this tells me if my keyword strategy is effective.
I also like to view the referral sources to our websites. By sharing content via email and social media, we get a great mix of organic and direct traffic so it’s very important to promote your content through the highest % of downloads/conversions, we’re able to determine what content we should focus on in our content and keyword strategy.
Lastly, we monitor open rates and click through rates for drip email campaigns. If open rates are low, an easy fix is to change the subject line to something more attention grabbing. To improve click through rates, I recommend modifying the call to action button by using a different color, verbiage, hyperlink or moving the button higher in the email blast.
These 5 steps are a great starting point to increasing your website performance and driving web-based leads. For a sneak peak into a marketing automaton strategy that’s driving 2-3 web-based leads per week to advisor websites, click here to request a quick demo with one of our marketing experts.
