In part 1 of this 4 part series we took a look at the first step& of the 4 Inbound Marketing Activities – Attract. In part 2 we will continue exploring Inbound Marketing by discussing the second step – Convert.
AC/CD Step 2 – Convert
Now that you’ve attracted visitors to your website it’s time to covert them into leads. But in order for someone to be a lead, you obviously need to have some information about them, like names and email addresses. However, because barely anything in life comes for free, you need to give them something in return for this information. This comes in the form of more valuable, but gated, content. You’ve already whet their appetite with some nuggets of information, now is the time to give them the goods.
Gated content is free content that is made available ONLY after your visitor has completed a call to action, like entering their name and email address into a form. This content can be eBooks, whitepapers, training videos and more! You may have already come across something like this before; that it, an opportunity to enter your name and/or email to download or watch something you want to learn more about. That is gated content.
Two things you need to remember here; be obvious about what you are offering, and be obvious about what action your visitor needs to take.
A few tools are necessary to successfully guide your visitor to your gated content. Let’s take a look at them below.
Calls-to-Action
In order for your visitors to convert to leads they need to be enticed to take an action. Calls-to-actions are typically graphic buttons (like the big green one below) which tell the visitors what is awaiting them. Things like “click here for your free eBook download” or “watch our new training video here” guide your visitor through their buyer’s journey and tell them exactly what their next step should be. Like everything else, these calls-to-action can be updated and optimized in order to maximize their impact. Through simple tracking and A/B testing AHA Factory can make sure these buttons are attracting the most clicks as possible.
Landing Pages
Forms
Every landing page must include a form. This form and where the “exchange” happens. Your visitors fill our the form, and in exchange you give them their free eBook, whitepaper, video, what have you. You can ask for and collect any and as much information you’d like in a form. But be careful, the more you ask, the less likely they are to fill it out.
Pro tip: As a general rule of thumb, introductory content should only require a name and email. But the more valuable the content, the more you can ask for. Just make sure your landing page is clear and really entices your visitors to give you the information you require!
There you have it! You have now successfully attracted a stranger to your site and converted them from a visitor to a lead by offering them informative content in exchange for some information. In part 3 we will look into the third step – Close – and discuss some tools that will help you sort through and track your new leads.