What is the difference between Lead Generation and Conversion Optimisation?

How well is your website performing?

Do you measure the answer to that question by the number of visits it receives each month, or do you look deeper?

More importantly - do you link performance to lead generation?

This is a common mistake made by businesses in the digital age. It’s all well and good having a beautiful, functional website, but what if it fails to generate new business for you?

Today, we’re going to take a quick, jargon-free look at lead generation and conversion optimisation. You’ll be surprised by the difference and probably equally surprised about where you’re missing out.

Conversion optimisation: making the most of what you already have

If you’re already attracting a decent amount of traffic to your website but failing to generate new leads, conversion optimisation is something you need to take a look at.

You’ve already done some of the hard work; people are coming to your site. But why aren’t they engaging?

There are several schools of thought on how to raise the conversion rate on a business website, but here are some basics - and they all relate to page design:

• make sure your headlines are compelling - think of them like newspaper headlines;
• be concise with your page copy - don’t waffle on or wax lyrical about how amazing you are - get to the nub of the solution you have for your visitors;
• make sure your call-to-action (CTA) is instantly clickable and available on every single page; and
• make lead capture forms short and simple to fill out.

Most importantly, make sure your website features a brilliant user experience. And if you’re not sure what that means, put your customer hat on for a moment and use your website; how does it feel?

Lead generation: finding relevant, new traffic

New leads are out there, but you can’t expect them to simply arrive at your website as soon as it goes live.

Generating leads for your website can be achieved via a number of strategies:

• pay-per-click (PPC advertising)
• search engine optimisation (SEO)
• traditional marketing (cold calls, trade shows and email marketing - that kind of thing)

We’ve only scratched the surface above, but that’s the essence of lead generation. Your business website can’t survive in the digital economy without SEO, but you’d be hard pressed to find a better avenue for quick-wins than PPC.

Traditional marketing still has its place, too; who says you shouldn’t conduct a snail mail invite to try out the demo of your latest software?

The key lies in combining these strategies to the best effect. You can rarely do that alone, which is why employing the services of an experienced digital marketer or agency is advisable.

Crucially, it’s important to remember that lead generation isn’t a fire-and-forget routine; it’s something you need to keep any eye on regularly and continually adapt your approach to.

Wrapping up

Are you ready to make a success of 2020 with your website? Make sure lead generation and conversion optimisation are at the top of your list, if so - and remember the key differences above!