B2B
3 Reasons Your Visitors Don’t Convert to Leads
Want to ramp up the conversion rate on your lead generation site?
Lead generation sites fail to convert for three basic reasons:
1. Visitors don’t understand the value they get in exchange for giving their information.
2. They are informationally challenged and collect too little, too much, or incorrect information.
3. You haven’t established trust and set proper expectations of what to expect when doing business with you.
Obviously, each is interrelated and flow from one to the other. There might be a few more reasons, but for now, these three culprits are enough to start you identifying specific problems on your site and determining action items for optimization.
Keep in mind, more leads may not be what you need. You may need more qualified leads, and a properly planned Web site should help the visitor qualify herself.
We’ve worked with several companies that have seen a decrease in the number of leads, but increased sales and optimized the sales team time and closing ratios because the quality of their leads was improved.
Exchanging Value: My Name for Your Service
Many sites offering “free” whitepapers, case studies, or resources in exchange for some visitor information do a poor job of merchandising their downloads. Your downloads contain valuable information. Treat them as such.
Stop thinking of these downloads as free. You’re asking for something extremely valuable to both you and the visitor, their contact information. To get this valuable information “merchandise” your downloads better. Show the visitor the value of what they’re downloading. So when they fill out the lead form, they feel they’re making a good exchange, valuable information for valuable information.
- Include thumbnails of documents.
- Let them know what they’ll learn from the download.
- Let them know what they can do with the information.
- List everything what’s “in it for them” in the download.
- Let them know what will happen with their information. Will you be calling them? (More on this, below, under “Establishing Trust and Expectations”.)
If you offer a free trial or demo period, provide clear information about what they are getting. Is it a fully functional trial with a time limit? What happens when the demo runs out? Will you offer them support during the trial? (Sounds like a good way to win over a potential customer doesn’t it?) Disclose system requirements before they begin the sign up process.
Track the number of “bogus” e-mails you get, either bad e-mail addresses or e-mails from Hotmail, Yahoo, or Gmail. If you get too many emails from lucilleball@yahoo.com or elvisp@hotmail, rest assured that visitors don’t see value in the offer and the exchange.
Beware, sometimes these tactics will cause a drop in the number of leads, but rid you of junk leads. You have to determine if this is an acceptable trade off (it almost always is).
Help for the Informationally Challenged
Information, information, information is all around us. Some is useful, sometimes it’s hard to find what’s useful, and some information is just plain not helpful at all.
One approach to determine if you have info problems is to examine time spent on page. Often times I work with sites that have low time spent on main content pages but their FAQ page gets more visitor time. This may indicate that visitors aren’t finding information they need elsewhere. If a visitor relies on your FAQ to get information, it reduces trust. Why aren’t these frequent questions answered frequently (or linked to) on key pages like home and service/product pages?
Often sites put up so much information that visitors cannot find the piece of info they seek. This occasionally indicates an information architecture problem, but more often indicates that the visitors’ needs and motivations aren’t addressed in the content.
Another key issue often neglected is that often the person doing the research on the Web site isn’t the decision maker. She’s trying to gather, sort, and print (you do make it easy to do that, right?) information to give to the person making the decision. Are you making your site easy to understand for this person as well?
There really are no easy solutions to get your information in order. First begin to establish a persuasive framework, building personas then planning each persona’s interaction or persuasion scenarios with your site, and determining what information they need and when and where they need it on the site.
Establishing Trust and Expectations
Visitors must trust you. If they don’t, they don’t become leads or often they become bad leads. Visitors may even fill out a lead form if they mistrust you. Sometimes they are just going through the motion of getting proposals and pricing and are planning on buying from your competitor. You might have the better solution for them but the site or the lead process doesn’t instill enough confidence to take you seriously.
Most visitors who aren’t confident simply won’t contact you. They fear harassment from the sales team. Or sometimes your site is ineffective in communicating the values of the visitor and they bail. Again, this is a tragedy especially when you consider they could be in the market to buy what you sell.
Other times, visitors are in early stages of the buying process and an overly aggressive lead form will cause them to tighten up, assuming you’ll push them somewhere they don’t feel ready to go. Here are some things you can do to help instill trust.
- Include information about what it’s like to work with your company. Let them know when you will contact them. Assure them that you will only help them determine their needs and not pressure them.
- Ramp up your About Us page.
- Ask as few questions as possible in your lead form. Don’t force them to give you all types information or endure a stack of intimidating drop downs.
- Include short, friendly lead forms in several places on the site (not just your contact page). This will help you track where they filled out the form and better inform you what they might be interested in.
- Tell them exactly what will happen when they send their info, tell them how soon they will be hearing from you. If possible give them a choice of how and when they prefer to be contacted.
- Some visitors like to be prepared for the call. Provide a checklist of information they might need to have handy when they speak with you.
- Some visitors prefer to call. Provide the phone number near the lead form.
Now go get some leads.
. .
Originally seen on ClickZ.
Editor’s Note: Want more tips on lead-generation? Join Bryan on June 3rd in Manhattan at the Call to Action seminar.
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
7 Tips for Boosting Web Form Conversions
Whether your site is lead-generation or retail, you probably have a form somewhere. Here are some basic things you can do to optimize your forms.
1. Indicate which fields are required by using asterisks next to these required fields. Ask yourself if the non-required fields offer enough value. If they don’t, remove them from the form. This could potentially make all fields a requirement — and if that’s the case, the asterisks would be overkill — which brings us to our next point.
2. Only have them fill in required fields. Asking for too much information on a web form is like proposing marriage on the first date. We would all like to know our customer’s age, work title, phone number and address, but if you don’t absolutely need it, then remove it from the form. This will make the form shorter and less likely to frustrate the impatient, fast-paced visitor who may not feel comfortable exposing their personal info. Don’t let this be the reason why visitors are dropping off.
3. Clarify what you expect them to do. Doostang gives the visitor a dialog bubble explaining each field when the visitor clicks to fill out a field. This removes any potential confusion as to what information is being requested and could lead to a reduction in errors taking place if a field is filled out incorrectly.
4. Offer reassurances when asking for personal information. Your visitors are concerned about privacy and security issues. You can offer a link to a privacy and security page so that the visitor can click to read and gain confidence.
5. Clearly state what the visitor will get by filling out the form, and do it at the very beginning of the page. Tell them what the benefits are. There should be no question as to what they’ll expect once they fill the form out.
6. Don’t ask people to submit. Call to action buttons should clearly state the action they’re about to take. Use colors and shading that make the button stand out effectively and, please, try to not use the word “submit” — it’s generic and misleading geek-speak.
7. Offer contact information somewhere on this page and/or in the top-right corner of the site (on every page). Give the visitor a phone number and a “Contact Us” link. If they don’t feel comfortable filling out the form, persuade them to call and speak with you directly.
Do you have any other suggestions to add to this list?
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Written by:Melissa Burdon
Why’s B2B Price Such a Big Secret?
Mr. Smith (not Brad Pitt) walks into a bicycle shop asking for assistance in finding a bike for his daughter’s birthday. He quickly pipes up that he’s got a budget; he needs to find a bike under $500. This constraint would easily narrow down the options and the store clerk could continue to ask questions to help qualify which bike would work best for Mr. Smith’s daughter.
Let’s say Mr. Smith finds a bike that meets the requirements and asks, “How much does it cost?” and the store clerk avoids the question. Instead, he responds by giving Mr. Smith more technical info, then makes him fill out a ridiculously long form (like the one mentioned in Holly’s recent B2B post). Do you think he’d stand for this? Or would go to the next bike shop instead?
Some people are stuck on improving their online conversion rate with tactics–like button testing–alone . The problem is that, in order to really boost conversion, you need to sell in the way that the customer wants to buy. And that requires answering their questions and concerns in the order they’re likely asked.
B2B sites seem especially stubborn about listing price, but they omit at their own risk. Answering this would-be simple question is a critical step toward helping visitors gain the confidence to take action.
It’s usually companies that aren’t competing on price who want to keep price a secret. If a company doesn’t compete on price, they’re probably competing on quality; customer service or other factors. So, why avoid the question? Tell the visitor what your price is, even if it’s higher than your competitors’–just explain WHY it’s higher. If you don’t compete on price and your visitor is shopping on price, then that visitor isn’t your customer. Give him what he came searching for and sell him on your unique value. If that doesn’t work, don’t shy away from sending him elsewhere. That level of confidence is contagious, and often results in higher conversion, anyway.
Here’s an example of a site that asks you to fill out a form of very personal information in order to get a quote. The only price listed here is “…mailboxes can start as low as $6.00 per mailbox,” but this doesn’t give the visitor context for how much he’ll need to spend according to his specific situation. He’d much rather see examples of different customers and what their service packages look like, along with (at least) ballpark pricing.
Here’s another example of a site that asks the visitor to contact them in order to get a quote. It’s understandable that in some industries you can’t give the visitor the exact dollar amount for a product/service. Still, the visitor should be able to get an idea of a price range or the price that one of your previous customers paid in order to get an idea of the price they’re really looking at.
We suggest clearly featuring price next to each product/service, with a Call to Action immediately nearby. If the price is custom, give estimates and show previous customer examples so the visitors sees what he’ll get for the money. In a lot of cases, we even recommend showing a comparison chart that allows visitors to easily view your price, feature and benefits right next to those of your competitors. If your price is higher, no big deal–just explain why you’re worth it.
If you hide your price, you’re losing customers. It’s that simple.
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Written by:Melissa Burdon
Is Your Lead Generation Site Proposing Marriage on the First Date?
It was truly one of the scariest forms I’ve ever seen. It was an example Patricia Hursh of SmartSearch Marketing gave at Search Engine Strategies, Toronto. It was a form a B2B site (pictured) that was, like, 9 pages long, and asked everything from your company’s annual sales to your budget for the year to the social security number of your first born.
OK, I made up that last one, but it really was that bad. The even scarier thing is, I’ve seen hundreds of forms like it.
When someone does a search and lands on your website, they might have some familiarity with you if you’re a well-known brand. Or, more likely, they have little-to-no awareness as to who you are and what you do. Basically, you’ve just met. So, why ask for so much personal, sensitive information on this first meeting? Are you proposing marriage when you should be asking him/her out for coffee?
Part of the problem is, the only way many B2B or lead generation sites measure success is by the number of people who fill in a lead form. That’s a pretty big step. Many visitors to your site won’t be ready to make that kind of a commitment to you yet. So, do you just write them off? Do you consider that a failed conversion?
Don’t forget, there are other micro-conversions to consider. Your visitors might agree to a cup of coffee, or a short “date” to find out more about you. Examples of these types of conversions could be as simple as someone taking the time to read your ‘About Us’ page, or watching a short product video, or signing up for your newsletter. These are conversions. You should be planning and measuring them.
When trying to measure the ROI of your website, you need to take into account the ways you engage prospective customers when they’re earlier in the buying process. Yes, some people are ready to start some sort of relationship with you; meaning, of course, that they fill out the lead form. (You’re only asking for the least amount of information, right?).That’s a measurable success. But don’t forget those who were engaged enough to spend some time on your site, gather information, watch a video, download a whitepaper, sign-up for a newsletter, and so on.
All these micro-conversions indicate your visitors are at least engaging with your brand. They may only be willing to commit to a cup of coffee right now, but that’s an encouraging first step!
Several of the B2B panelists recommended this report by Enquiro. (Notice the wonderfully short registration form 
) I haven’t read it yet, but it got high marks from the panel. Let me know what you think!
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
Thick Heads, PPC, B2B Demand Generation, and Converting Visitors
I have four kids that range in age from 4- to- 13. I must confess, sometimes being a marketing consultant feels too much like my nagging daddy role.
Anyone with kids knows the routine when you impart your wonderful child with a bit of wisdom.
“Son, do you want to get hurt?”
“No, Daddy”
“Then please don’t jump on the bed!”
“Ok, Daddy”
Simple, right?
Then, about 8 minutes later, comes that ear shattering scream. Your son is curled up on the floor, clutching his thick head, sporting a fresh bump from a nasty tumble. Seems he was jumping on the bed.
Our faithful are likely tired of hearing the same conversion rate rants from us. For the rest, it’s not until after they take a tumble that they decide jumping on the bed is a bad idea.
Jon Miller at Search Engine Land posted a great article describing why B2Bs are typically unsatisfied with PPC agencies, wherein he makes a bold suggestion that B2Bs should abandon PPC agencies altogether. Here’s a nice little nugget from the post:
You know your business better than the agency. One of the most important skills for PPC success is picking the right keywords that your prospects actually use when they search – something you know best. Also, when determining rankings, Google and now Yahoo! care as much about the relevance of your content as they do about your bid (aka “what you say is as important as what you pay”). This means a good understanding of your business and your industry is at least as important as being a search “expert”. Over time, the balance of power between business knowledge and SEM knowledge will shift even further towards business as Google continues to find ways to reward relevant content and discount search agency tricks.
While Jon makes a stunningly accurate diagnosis, his suggested treatment is questionable:
The main value provided by agencies is expertise with SEM, and as I’ll explain, you can bring much of that expertise in-house by using the right kind of pay per click management software. A technology solution can create the best of both worlds: the control and business knowledge of doing it yourself, combined with the SEM best practices and techniques of an expert.
We love technology as much as the next guy, it makes life easier. But in-house technology and SEM best practices will likely still leave you dissappointed. Sure you’ll save their fees, and possibly see some incremental gains but unless you embrace a persuasion methodology, you are just jumping on the bed.
How do you find the right keywords? How do you ensure your prospects are being presented with relevant scent from the ad to the lead form? How do you optimize and measure every variant? What if you don’t have any ‘experts’ on staff?
By giving non-marketing experts a methodology for maximizing demand generation, Persuasion Architecture™ and Persuasive Scenarios are proven to solve this dilemma.
Bryan Eisenberg touched on just one aspect of B2B demand generation last week’s Clickz column.
Sure, it’s hard work, but the only thing harder is ending up with knot after knot on your head.
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Written by:Anthony Garcia
The ROI of Free Revisited
Why publish valuable content for free? This questions has come up so many times over the years we’ve been in business that it no longer surprises me. The answer has been the same since we started Future Now, Inc.
“An innocuous question can hit you where you live. I should have expected one day someone would ask me, “How do you measure your ROI for that?”
If I’m conducting client training on measuring, testing, and optimizing performance, clients have a right to ask about my own practices. The “that” she referred to is nearly 300,000 words we’ve published online for free over the past two years. I promised her I’d discuss it in this column.
How does someone who writes “ROI Marketing” justify publishing so much content for free? Do we charge for advertising, rent our list, or bombard those names with commercial offers? No. In fact, Jeffrey, my brother and partner who handles such things, estimates we’ve invested about $100,000 developing free content for our newsletter, free whitepapers and other publications. How do we measure its ROI?
We know one side of the equation: the investment. The money has been spent. What did we get in return?” keep reading…
That was from Bryan’s June 2002 ClickZ column, The ROI of Free, where he explained how we calculate the return on all the free content we create. He even said we would double down and did we ever. Since 1999 we’ve published almost two million words for free.
What made me think of this subject today is Chris Garrett’s interview with my friend Sean D’Souza. Sean sums up his response to a similar question with: “Give the ideas. Sell the System.”
I like Chris’s blog. Want proof? You may notice that mine was the first comment. Chris has the interview and links to Sean’s Psychotactics.com.
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
The Transparency Imperative: Moving Beyond the Suggestion Box
Your business can use transparency to its advantage, turning ordinary customers into tireless advocates for your brand
Do you ever get annoyed when a business’s online communications are as poor, if not worse, than their offline customer service? One of the most sacred promises of the Internet is that we have the power to chat with total strangers, regardless of how fragmented the information or disproportionately strong the opinion, to piece together the bigger picture about a given experience anytime, anywhere. Access to third-party information is always a good thing for any current or would-be customer; it’s the quickest way of saving ourselves the time, money, and opportunity cost of a bad decision. Besides, most customers take information from peers with a grain of salt. So why should business be afraid of online transparency?
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 136
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Written by:Robert Gorell
When Shopping Carts Aren’t Your Thing
Solve the dilemma of complex B2B sales and lead-generation processes with personas
Online sales are growing, but the Internet still influences a lot more sales offline than it does online! Think Persuasion Architecture is simply for sweaters and backpacks?Maybe you know WebEx? It’s a great business solution for powering online meetings , web conferencing, teleconferencing , conference calling, and video conferencing services. They don’t do shopping carts. The basic sales goal on the WebEx site is to persuade the customer to contact sales. In short, the WebEx site is a persuasive lead-generation tool.
To demonstrate the power of Persuasion ArchitectureTM, we worked with WebEx to modify an existing scenario for free trials. We identified six personas and created a new free trial persuasion scenario.
We increased lead revenue for that scenario by 7 figures.
You can pick your jaw up off the table now. It’s within your power to do this too!
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 135
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Written by:The Grok
Doing Business B2B? At Least 9 Things You Can Learn from Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?
Leverage the power of Persuasion Architecture to improve your business-to-business transactions
As marketers in today’s landscape, we must walk a different path. No longer will our product-centered, mass-market habits serve us well. The interconnectedness of emerging media means we must focus on the customer and create persuasive systems that have at their core an understanding of human motivations. Our unfolding experience economy makes this demand on all of us.Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? presents Persuasion Architecture as a set of big principles. Sometimes, the scope can seem daunting … it can feel like sitting in front of a great big feast of roast elephant with your little knife and fork. How, you sensible want to know, do you go about eating an entire elephant?
A perfectly sensible answer? One bite at a time!
Read the rest of this article.
Read the entire newsletter: Volume 134
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Written by:The Grok
Selling B2B Decision Makers
You sell business-to-business (B2B). Whether you sell paper clips or a highly complex, high-dollar solution, you must reach out to a decision maker. These elusive decision makers hold your transaction’s fate in their hands. And contrary to popular practice, selling B2B isn’t a mechanical, unemotional, linear, logical process.
To reach out and persuade decision makers, remember: decision makers are people. Treat them that way. Sell them that way.
They have identifiable motives, needs, and preferences. They have hopes, dreams, and goals. Their buying habits as consumers compared with their buying preferences as business decision makers may not be as different as you think.
Here are a few practical tips for making your B2B online communication efforts less stiff, more human, and a lot more persuasive.
Continue reading my column at ClickZ…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
