Successful ways to convert website traffic into leads

Millions of people visiting your website won’t help your business unless they leave their footprints behind – for you to follow for your marketing activities. To convert website traffic you need to make your website effective and offer some value to them.

Here are some easy to implement ways to convert website traffic in to leads.

E-zine/newsletter subscription –Ask them to sign-up for your free e-zine. But give them some incentive for signing up. Give them an immediate incentive for signing up and show them how your e-zine would look like by providing some samples of previous e-zines.

Provide free e-book –Get an e-book for which you have resale rights, or create your own book, provide it for free to people who register on your website. The e-book should be relevant to your website’s context.

Let visitors upload content – Make a section on your website where visitors can add content – it could be mediated or non-mediated, but before adding they must sign-up and get a username and password. User generated content is one of the best way to convert website traffic.
Contest participation – Hold free contest or sweepstakes at your web site. Make it exciting and easy, so that the visitor gets tempted to participate.

Offer free help – Provide your visitors free consulting through live help/email. But before they proceed, ask them to provide basic info.

Poll/survey – Choose a hot topic and run an interactive poll on your website. Make you visitors participate by giving some enticing offers.

Online promotion – Provide offers that you would otherwise provide offline. To get the benefit, they would need to sign up.

Get feedback – Encourage visitors to give feedback on the website such as what parts they like, what areas lack information and the additional stuff they would like to see on the website.
Referral program – Start a referral program on your site. Many people will join in to get extra commission or discount, plus you will also get the email address and name of the referred person.

Free downloads – You can ask for registration, before anybody downloads any content for your website. These could be articles, whitepapers, case studies, survey reports, software, handy applications, or just anything of interest to your audience.

Choose a balanced mix of the above-mentioned tricks, but beware – do not ask the visitor to fill-up a big form. Ask only 3 or 4 relevant questions, two of which are name and email address. Once you collate your database, organize it properly and update it regularly.
These are some of the tested & proven ways to convert website traffic.

5 tricks to develop a successful permission based marketing strategy

Permission marketing is about building an ongoing relationship of increasing depth with customers. In the words of Seth Godin, "turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers." Permission marketing has been hailed as a way for marketers to succeed in a world increasingly cluttered with marketing messages,because permission marketing initiatives are directed to only those who’ve already agreed to receive information about your products or services.
Permission marketing works well and generates high response rates for any size of businesses. Here’s how you can create a perfect permission marketing strategy.

1. Define the irresistible offer
Consumers have a selective nature and so they grant a company permission to communicate only when they know what's in it for them. You have to provide immediate rewards to your prospects for paying attention to your messages. Offer something that your customers will want to learn more about and may be unable to find elsewhere, such as newsletters, ebooks, magazines, free offers, gift certificates, etc.

2. Create a targeted business list
Having your own database is a must. If you already have a clean and updated file with contact info of your prospects and customers, then that will work the best. If you don’t then you can compile one through industry directories, website, current customers, and their referrals. You may also buy a customized list relevant for your industry. Verify all email addresses in the list – if they don’t work get them appended, as accuracy is the key factor behind the success of your permission marketing campaign.

3. Create the opt-out message
This is the most critical part of your campaign. The opt-out message should be framed in a way that it creates a positive image of your company. It should also provide an immediate benefit and tell the person about the advantages of opting in. You are respecting the privacy of your prospects by asking them to opt-out. This also ensures that you get to target only those people who are genuinely interested.

4. Craft the perfect pitch
Remember that permission marketing builds trust via a two-way relationship with your customers. You need to be ready to talk about their needs and concerns, not simply to get their business. Your marketing campaign should touch those pain-points of your prospects, so that they get touched by your message, and take the next step.

5. Reinforce the relationship
Keep reinforcing the relationship as your permission marketing program matures. Maintain regular contact with your prospects (at least once a month) and keep reminding your prospects how and why the conversation started. Give them the option to unsubscribe at any time during the process. If you keep offering value to your clients, they would never get a reason to opt-out.

At each step, try a mix of different options available and select the best one for your business. By applying these methods you can run a highly effective permission marketing campaign that will generate more business for your organization.