There is little value in having website visitors interested in your products and services if you never get to know who they are. Sure some might call you, some might even fill out your Contact Us form. However the reality for many businesses is that they never get to know who these visitors are. Consequently there is no chance of them becoming a Sales Lead. What a missed opportunity. What a waste, particularly if you are paying to get the website visitors.

So how can you find out who is visting your website right now? Read on….

Well there are a number of solutions but the one we would like to bring to your attention is called Live Chat.

In your travels around the internet you may well have come across this. Typicall you will see an image something like this.

This image is sometimes statically displayed on a website and other times will appear after a short time.

If you are struggling to find what you are looking for on the website or you need more explanation the you can click on this image and start a real-time online chat with the website owner.

Now this is really useful for the vistor as they can get instant answers to questions perhaps not provided by the website content.

But here is the Lead Generation opportunity for the website owner.

Guess what! You can ask the visitor to give you their name and email address before they can utlise the Live Chat facility.

So now you have:-

1. The name of your website visitor.
2. Their email address. (For Email Marketing!)
3. An immediate opportunity to engage with the visitor.
4. Some applications even allow an instant voice call.
5. A Qualified Hot Sales Lead on Your Site Now!

So what else can you do with Live Chat?

• Discover what clients needs are
• Point them to places of interest on the website
• Give instant help on your products and services
• Send a transcript of the Chat
• The list goes on…………….

Ok I hear you say but how much does this Live Chat cost? Sure you can buy it but what if I also told you you can get it for FREE!

You can by clicking on this banner link.

So there you are, you now know How To Turn Web Visitors into Sales Leads (For FREE!)

P.S. For those of you who haven’t got the time or inclination to respond to Chat requests. you can even outsource this!

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Trebling Sales Leads at IBM Cognos

Know the single most important thing your website is supposed to do.

“I think deciding what our Website was meant to do was the first and most important step to achieving results.” So states John Blackmore, Senior Manager, Web Demand Generation for IBM. Your website, whether it be government, non-profit, intranet or commercial, requires management. And management requires knowing what you’re going to do and what you’re not going to do. In fact, in an age of endless choice and infinite information, knowing what you aren’t and what you’re not going to do must be the foundation for your web strategy.

For the IBM Cognos website it’s all about lead generation and because of that focus they have moved from an industry average 4 percent conversion rate to 12 percent. “If lead generation is job one, John states, “who is the easiest person to get a lead from? Answer: the warm prospect. Therefore, we could design a Website geared to a person who had a business problem and believed what we offered could solve it. We could “de-focus” from the tire-kickers, the partners, the media, etc. It also meant that content had a business purpose as well as a visitor purpose. It allowed us to have reasonable discussions with people who wanted things on the page — when it didn’t help lead generation we had a defendable rationale.”

If you don’t have focus then practically every request to put a page up on the website, or add a link to the homepage, becomes reasonable. Even responding to ridiculous requests will take up far too much time because there is a lack of overall website focus. “Your Website doesn’t have to be about lead generation,” John states, “but it should have a business purpose. It could be deflecting help calls. Or soliciting online donations. Or providing services to citizens online. The main thing is, and it’s our first principle-know what you want to do.”

Real people use your website. They’re not users. They’re not traffic. They’re not hits. They’re real. REAL people. In a hurry. Trying to get things done. Just trying to get on with their day.

Here are some very focussed comments on websites and Lead Generation we found from Gerry McGovern, a content management author and consultant

“Web visitors are often treated as second-class citizens,” John states. “They’re not serious people. They’re hippies. They’re ne’er do-wells. I like to think of Web visitors in a real-world rather than virtual-world way.

Imagine you’re running a GAP store and five people every minute of every day (even midnight) are walking in the door. You’d be overjoyed! Taking a page from Gerry McGovern, once they walk into your store, would you try to talk to them all about the GAP and why it’s a great store? No, they’re already in your store. You’d find out if they want to buy jeans or a sweater. And then, you’d help them get that pair of jeans and make the transaction.”

“Your fellow marketers may also treat your Web leads as second-class leads,” John continues. “Part of the thinking is it’s too easy to get the lead, therefore there is little value. The person didn’t drive downtown to a hotel in the morning. We didn’t host a breakfast with a speaker.”

You’re running a website. What business are you in? Content? Design? Technology? No. You’re in the business of service. Serving real people. Helping them get stuff done.

“Looking to improve upon your current online lead generation results? If you answered yes this is right where you need to be. Generate better leads for your business by following these three tips.

First remember the importance of clarity. What this means is that you need to give prospects a clear idea of your sites content by having organized clear organization of content. The aim here is to create a site that is easy to navigate to avoid confusion and create leads out of prospects. Make the information you brought them in for easy to find. The more clear you make it for them the better it will be to your lead generation program. Make lead capture forms short and to the point. Prospects aren’t interested in filling out long submission forms. Make it fast and easy at first and follow up later for more information after all your goal here is lead generation and conversion increases.

Last but not the least; realize the value of testing.

If the leads you’re getting do not seem to be consistent, it’s time to make small changes to see if they’ll do the trick. Testing is a system for gauging results that is a fact of life in this line of business. The process of testing is designed to make it easier for you to understand areas where improvements can be made. If you’re interested in continued improvement for your business, it is a good idea to be constantly testing.

Finally being able to get high quality leads is about precision. This will only occur when you know what you have to do. Consistent testing and tracking must be done in order for your lead generation to go the right way. Your landing page will become perfect overtime as you invest your time in making it better. Do not forget the feedback from your prospects. When you get your lead generation program going very well, you will be able to do it again in your other businesses and get the same type of results. So, do what you have learned and see the money pile up.”