Seinfeld’s George Costanza can teach us a lot about online lead generation. Don’t believe me? Study this 33-second video:
George — borrowing a technique used by all comedians — becomes more effective in his business meeting by ending on a high note. He saves his best material for last and makes a terrific, long-lasting impression.
End on a High Note With a Great Call to Action
What does this have to do with website lead generation? Everything.
The average lead generation website — and even the above-average one — conveys a great deal of information about products and services. Visitors to these sites are bombarded with features, benefits, specifications, case studies, statistics, graphs, charts, ROI calculations, customer testimonials, patents and then …
Nothing. Just a lame message to call for more information, if that.
What these websites are missing, the fatal flaw, is a strong call to action. Something to get the visitor on the phone or filling out a contact form to place an order, get more information, set up an appointment, or whatever it is the company needs a prospect to do to get the sales ball rolling.
As any successful salesperson knows, you can have the best product or service on the planet, but you still have to ask for the order. You still have to give prospects an incentive to do business.
This is because 99.9 percent of prospects are like 99.9 percent of everybody — they would prefer to do nothing than to do something.
So, how do you create a strong call to action that gets the majority of your website visitors to do something? Here are a few ideas.
- A free, in-plant 30-day trial. Schedule by July 31.
- 25 percent off your first order, for orders placed in July.
- Contact us now for a free cost analysis. Our clients average a 30 percent savings.
- Try our new product for free — promotion ends July 31.
- Get a complete proposal and a free coffee mug now — just give us 5 simple pieces of information.
You get the idea. Free. Gentle time pressure. Real savings; an offer they can’t refuse.
Strong Calls to Action Improve ROI on SEO and PPC
Why so many lead generation websites go through the motions on calls to action, I don’t know.
I can tell you this, though: When an SEO or PPC campaign is floundering, it’s not unusual for the problem to be weak calls to action, not a lack of traffic or click-throughs.
If you are running an SEO or PPC campaign and not testing new calls to action, add it to the testing schedule.
If you are stumped for an attention-grabbing call to action, contact us — our whole business is based on coming up with ways to dramatically improve the quantity and quality of website sales leads.
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