If you’re like most business owners, you’ve already heard about lead generation websites: free websites that allow you to receive leads from companies looking for your services. That is, after all, the whole point of the b2b lead generation websites idea. The reason there are so many of these types of sites is simple: it works! Increasing your lead count by up to 100% or more has never been easier thanks to these highly organized sites.
Looking for b2b lead generation companies? Web design lead generation companies? Inbound marketing web design firms? Lead generation websites free? This article provides detailed information on how to find these and use them effectively. Choosing the right solutions to your marketing problems is an important step in successful lead generation.
For small business owners and marketing professionals, we have to keep in mind that the time for getting more website traffic is before you build the website. It’s all about lead generation website design. A lead generation website is simply a web site that helps collect leads from interested reader within your target market.
You’ll get leads from your website that are highly qualified and ready to buy. You don’t have to do cold calling or sitting on the phone with the sales team all day long. The right technology can automate marketing and sales so you can focus your time and energy doing what you were hired to do; lead generation and selling. And now, there is a technology that works! It is a web design specialized in lead generation, canvassing thousands of businesses across the web to find the best prospects for your business.
How to Create a Lead Generation Website
Prior to building a website, you need to define your target audience. Having a really strong understanding of who you’re selling to, whether that’s persona specific or segment specific, and understanding the pain points they experience is the best way to start this process. Then, layer everything else you do on top of that.
Make sure the way you set up the infrastructure and the navigation of your website is best suited for your target visitors. For example, if you have niche, industry-specific content that speaks directly to your personas’ pain points, you should make it easy to find through your main navigation along with information on the solutions to those pain points.
Another essential element is your actual conversion points.
After initially building your personas, you need to come up with conversion paths for your personas. Ideally, you’ll start with at least one conversion point for each funnel stage so you have three conversion points per persona: one at the top of the funnel (ToFu), that’ll convert them from visitor to lead, one in the middle of the funnel (MoFu) that will indicate they’re marketing qualified and one at the bottom of the funnel (BoFu) that indicates they’re ready to start the sales process.
Having these conversion points developed in advance helps you ensure that once you start identifying the specific pages of your website and their intended personas, you can leverage their appropriate conversion points. CTAs should be dispersed sitewide to convert visitors along with forms that collect the information your sales team needs to take future actions.
For example, if one of your personas is beginning the discovery process and they’re just starting to learn about their challenge, you’d want to offer them a ToFu offer, like a gated introductory ebook.
The next step you offer to visitors needs to be intentional. You don’t want to present someone with a BoFu offer, like an assessment, right off the bat because that can scare them away. The three-tiered ToFu, MoFu, BoFu approach helps prevent that from happening.
Requirements of a Minimum Viable Lead Generation Website
In addition to the foundation based upon your buyer personas and their conversion paths, there are a few more things a lead generation website needs to be successful and create a positive user experience.
A BoFu CTA that isn’t “Contact Us”
Because “contact us” appears so frequently on websites, many B2B companies think it’s a good choice for their primary BoFu CTA. However, as a user, “contact us” is a very vague and general action to take; it’s unclear what exactly will occur after filling out that form.
Instead, you should try to use more definitive copy for your CTAs. Even if “download a free trial” or “request a readiness assessment” aren’t appropriate for your company, “talk to sales” or “book a meeting” still gives the site visitor more context about the next step. Providing more information about what to expect can help increase conversions overall.
CTA strategy and organization
We build a lot of our websites in HubSpot, and there are a couple different ways you can generate CTAs within HubSpot. You can create unique CTAs on each webpage and have some of them lead to the same place and say the same things.
However, if you have a large site, that can make reporting of the efficacy of those CTAs complicated. Instead, you can create a single CTA and place it in multiple locations leveraging Google Tag Manager to track the individual button clicks on pages. On top of minimizing the number of CTAs you employ, you can also make it easier to manage your CTAs by using a clear and consistent naming convention. That way, if you do need to make an update, you can locate the CTA easily.
Utilizing CTAs in a way that’s easy to track and report on is vital for your website’s success. To continue to improve your strategy over time, you need to understand the analytics behind conversions just as much as you need to actually bring in leads.
Strategic conversion points
It’s OK if you only have two or three forms for users to convert on. Don’t feel like you need to have five or ten content offers for each persona from the start. What’s important is that there’s intent in how you’re routing site visitors.
When determining which CTAs to place on a page, think about where visitors are in their discovery process. For blog posts, you typically only want to drive towards one offer in the text — blog posts are targeted at visitors who are earlier in the buying process and still learning about their problem and your credibility. Offering multiple next steps can make them feel pressured.
However, on a product page, it’s completely fine to have multiple CTAs. The best step for your company is for the visitor to jump on a call with sales, so including that is a logical next step. But, the visitor might still want more information about your product before speaking to sales, so guiding them to a case study for that product is also a relevant next step.
Clear labels
Whatever your button text says should match to the page the button takes visitors to. If someone isn’t actually requesting a demo, don’t use that text on the button. Describe what they’re actually doing instead.
Visitor-centric navigation
The specifics of your navigation layout depends on what industry you’re in, what you’re selling and who your site visitors are, but there are a couple best practices that hold true, regardless of those details.
You should always have a BoFu CTA button on the top right-hand corner of your nav. Folks could be anywhere on their journey when they come to your site, so always providing that opportunity to convert will reduce friction for people looking to convert right away. Using a fixed navigation reduces friction even further so that BoFu CTA stays accessible while visitors are scrolling through your site pages.
Additionally, your navigation labels should align with the pages they lead to. People will subconsciously recognize the terms you use as they move around your site. If what a page is called in the navigation doesn’t match with the page visitors arrive on, they might feel like they’ve been brought to the wrong place.
A balance of aesthetics and usability
At the end of the day, people are vain. So if your website doesn’t look good, the likelihood people are going to convert or purchase your product decreases. That’s just the way the human brain works.
There are design principles that people are just drawn to, and when users see a website that’s aesthetically pleasing, they’re more likely to be interested in that product or organization. But there’sa balance. The primary purpose of a B2B website is to be helpful to users — and that doesn’t come from a pretty design.
Some of the biggest things to consider are spacing and contrast to make sure everything on a website is legible. Additionally, your website design should align with your company’s overall brand. It’s better to have a website that’s consistent with your brand than something new and flashy that’s unrelated to how your company presents itself elsewhere.
Best Examples of Lead Generation Website Designs
1. Databox
Starting off with one of my personal favorites, Databox is a key performance indicator (KPI) dashboard that pulls data in real-time for businesses.
Up until a few months ago, however, the messaging on the homepage didn’t reflect who they were truly selling to.
Databox’s Director of Marketing, explains how “in the years prior, Databox had been positioned more toward executives and the analysts that work for them within enterprise companies, enabling them to understand how their business was performing at any time, on any device–but with a strong emphasis on mobile.”
Selling to enterprise companies proved difficult so by mid-2016, the company started to pivot to sell to mass market, by opting for a freemium model that allowed users to sign up and use the product for free.
Why their Homepage Works:
- Targeted messaging to their audience. As you continue to scroll down the page, you’ll see alternating sections that speak to some of the most common pain points their audience has. As business owners, marketers and sales leaders, we’re constantly crunched on time and Databox capitalizes on that feeling. We all know we need to analyze our data in order to make informed decisions that drive sales and marketing, but when can we fit it into the day?
- Dynamic messaging to keep your attention — the opening question changes to ask “Do you know how your marketing performed today” and “Do you know how your sales performed today?”
- An opt-in to get started right away, with the extra sell text telling you it’s “Free Forever.”
How to Improve:
- Remove the animation further down the page. I scroll through pages quickly and as I do so down the homepage to get a sense of what the product does, I miss half of the information because it’s still fading in.
2. RedShelf
In the ever-expanding digital world, RedShelf provides eTextbooks for students and publishers. After hearing about RedShelf, I thought it was genius but couldn’t help but ask, why would a textbook publisher want to sell eBooks? They would see 60% less revenue per book sold.
However, RedShelf was able to use its model to help publishers see more money in the long run. Since eBooks cannot be resold or passed on to other students, “publishers make more moolah by selling books every year, rather than just when the books disintegrate from use or get yet another edition bump to encourage students to buy new books.”
Why their Homepage Works:
- Clear calls-to-action (CTA). I immediately know how to search for a title and am directed to a page where I can find and purchase the book.
- Separate messaging per audience. It can be tricky trying to market to multiple audiences with different needs. RedShelf does a great job in keeping its navigation uncluttered and a clear breakdown of why publishers, schools and students would all want its product.
- Separate contact options for support and sales. Nothing is more frustrating than receiving a support question when you’re trying to navigate through sales prospects, and your customers also want answers to their issues quickly. Easily distinguishing how to contact support versus sales is crucial for both sides.
How to Improve:
- Draw more attention to best sellers. Add the title and author beneath the top selling eBooks to make it more clear on what the books are. Relying on cover images alone is tough.
3. Evernote
Evernote’s digital notepad allows you to sync your thoughts and notes across multiple devices. I’ve used this product for some time now and love it. I’m able to take notes on a book I’m reading while traveling and pull them up on my desktop during our company’s book club meeting.
Why their Homepage Works:
- Dynamic messaging. Before the hero statement, “Meet Evernote, your second brain.” appears, different messages scroll in the same spot to keep the user engaged — “Remember everything. Get organized. Succeed together.” Simple messages that help explain what the product enables you to do.
- Easy sign up. In addition to the traditional email and password registration, Evernote gives users the option to sign up with their Google account.
How to Improve:
- Incorporate other calls-to-action. Throughout the homepage, there are really only two calls-to-action: sign up for free and learn about Evernote business. Though being able to create an account for free is a huge draw, I know Evernote has a lot more content they can use to help drive users to sign up, such as multiple plan offers, customer stories and use cases.
- Make it clear images are videos. It took me several minutes of scrolling on the page to realize each of the three images used to describe the product were actually videos that provide further context. With 72% of businesses saying video has improved their conversion rate, you want to get it right.
4. Ellevest
Ellevest is a digital investment platform specifically for women. CEO and co-founder Sallie Krawcheck describes having an “a-ha” moment when she realized the financial industry was built “by men, for men.”
Women face completely unique income life cycles that many investment companies and firms weren’t talking about. For instance, did you know women’s salaries peak at 40 while men’s peak at 55?
Ellevest’s messaging addresses women-centered financial issues head on and created a software to do the same so it can help women plan for a future where they may earn less money yet live longer than men.
Honestly, this is the only investment company I would sign up with thanks to their website.
Why their Homepage Works:
- Ellevest truly knows its audience. The messaging speaks directly to women, in a tone that is conversational and real, not stuffy and cliche like most financial advisor and investing websites.
- A simple call-to-action. The “Get Yours” message is powerful and immediately directs the user to create an account.
- Social Proof. I love that they include a few quotes directly beneath the header to showcase positive writeups about the company. Plus, two of the three publications have women as primary readers.
How to Improve:
- Change up the headline. Though the current message is strong and powerful, it doesn’t immediately make me take action. Further down the homepage is a message that speaks to women’s concerns in a more direct way — “We live longer. We don’t get equal pay. Shouldn’t we use financial tools created for us?” Now if this was the headline, I would immediately click the “Get Yours” CTA.
5. Basecamp
This project management system has grown exponentially over the years, with more than 2.5 million accounts currently signed up.
Why their Homepage Works
- An image that resonates. All too often, companies use stock photography or images that barely have anything to do with the product or audience — but Basecamp gets it perfectly. They capitalize on the ever-so-often feeling of being overwhelmed when managing projects.
- The free offer explains benefits in signing up. The simple checkmarks beneath the call -to-action “Try Basecamp for FREE” answer the unwritten question of why, enticing users to sign up.
- Evident customer support. The homepage showcases three statistics and supporting statements from customers, providing a validation component to visitors.
How to Improve:
- Alignment of text. The center alignment for all text on the homepage makes it difficult to read. The harder your copy is the read, the more likely it won’t get read.
Examples Of Easy Lead Generation Done Well
Before we show you examples of real websites that are getting it right – let’s talk about a few best practices. Remember to design, write, and set goals with the end in mind. Have a clear goal (sign up for our blog, contact us, download content) and work backwards from there. Lead generation tactics can be big: forms to capture visitors contact info, CTAs for conversions, and they can be small: click-to-call phone number features. Finally, remember to test and look at data frequently to see what’s converting and what’s not.
Here are 5 examples of websites or individual landing pages that follow best practices for effective lead generation.
1. Flywheel
Flywheel has done a great job with incorporating multiple lead generation tactics on their website – it even gets a thumbs up from our own designer. Check out Flywheel’s homepage and you’ll see:
- A dynamic CTA – convert visitors with a Hello Bar or pop-up CTA
- Live chat option – your sales team can connect live with visitors that are interested or have questions.
- A free ebook sticky box – a non-invasive CTA that will stay in place as a user scrolls on your website.
- Multiple CTAs – an appropriate number of CTAs that lead to valuable content for the visitor will increase lead generation.
Try it yourself: Add a dynamic CTA (like a Hello Bar) on your site, which can promote your website’s most important content or a time sensitive landing page. You can even use this to get visitors to opt-in to a newsletter or blog subscription. Use software like HubSpot Free, Hello Bar, or Privy to make a dynamic CTA for your site.
2. MailChimp
Compared to Flywheel, MailChimp is a little more subdued, but still effective. When you visit MailChimp’s homepage you’ll see:
- Design that makes visitors scroll down – use a page design that visually pushes a user to scroll and read more of your content.
- Content that tells a whole story from top to bottom – keeping visitors interested will make them more likely to click a CTA (even if it’s at the bottom of a page).
- Use of the same CTA in different places – convert visitors to leads who have different user behaviors.
- Easy to find navigation – encourage visitors to explore more of your valuable content.
Try It Yourself: The design layout of your website can be optimized for lead generation. Having a design that visually inspires the visitor to scroll down exposes more of your content and CTAs.
3. Raven Tools
Now here is a tool that we use all the time, especially to measure website performance metrics. Turns out, Raven also provides a great example of lead gen done well. If you check out the Raven Tools homepage you will see:
- Bold headline statement – make it very clear what you do and who you do it for in the first few seconds someone lands on your homepage.
- Two different CTAs in the headline statement – convert visitors who may be in different stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Lots of CTAs – different CTAs for different content offers encourage different ideal buyers to convert into leads.
- Lots of in-product screenshots – allow your visitors to see your product in use, and move them toward requesting a demo/quote/etc.
Try It Yourself: Be clear about what your company does and how you’re different with an engaging headline and imagery at the top of your homepage.
4. Zillow
Not only does Zillow do TV commercials well — Zillow has solid online lead gen tactics. This webpage from Zillow shows some great best practices that you should be using on your landing pages:
- Well branded, colorful, but not too busy – make sure your visitors know who the content offer is from and keep it consistent with your website branding.
- Bulleted list of benefits – focused headline – Be clear and short, encourage your visitors to fill out the form by telling exactly what they get in return
- Compelling data as proof points – remember to share data that your personas care about
- Form is short – we’d even recommend downsizing to just name, email for a simple content offer
Try It Yourself: Keeping your landing pages short, well branded, and data focused to make them more likely to convert visitors into leads.
5. Airbnb
Not only does Airbnb have just a good lookin site, it’s functional and optimized for some damn good lead generation. When you hop over to Airbnb’s website you’ll see:
- Gorgeous hero photo – keep your visitors interested in your content with nice photos.
- Extremely compelling form content – even making your form interesting can encourage visitors to fill them out.
- Clean Design, Nice images – don’t make your web pages busy, a nice aesthetic is also a lead gen tactic.
- Process outlined clearly – tell your visitors their next steps to guide them down the buyer’s journey.
- CTAs & sticky bar at top – use CTAs that move with a visitor’s scroll to increase the chances of them ending up on your landing pages and forms.
- FAQs – providing commonly asked questions and answers is a great way to show how you can help your ideal buyer’s pain points.
Conclusion
Web design companies may have leads on a number of places. Majority of them would be in the form of appointments, where potential customers call them after visiting their website and getting enough information about their own business. These appointments may be for free to the visitor, or for a fee.
Web design lead generation companies and free lead generation websites are commonly used by businesses these days to promote their products and services. Many of these B2B companies have been in business for some time now and their online existence reaches far and wide. Then there are those that are newbie’s on the internet, with a fresh perspective towards getting customers for their target market.