Traditional marketing is an outdated model for marketing online. It focuses on delivering messaging outwards to people who the marketer hopes will have an interest in the product being marketed.

Online marketing is different. Unlike traditional marketing, there are little to no ‘gatekeepers’ for communicating. Because of this, there is now a surplus of messaging, and users are more selective with what they give their attention to. Inbound marketing aims to pull people into your messaging by their own choice and interact with your website, not because they have to- but because they want to.

According to Sydney web development company Magicdust; ‘With the huge number of websites online constantly providing an enormous quantity of information, you need to put in a lot of work just to be found. In addition to this, you must be perceived as providing value’.

The way to do this is to provide good quality content that acts as a magnet for qualified traffic that you can convert into leads.

Sound good? Here are 6 ways to turn your website into an inbound lead generation tool without having to call your web developer:

1. Newsletters and subscriber lists

One of the most effective ways to encourage inbound leads is by building up a mailing list and sending your subscribers newsletters, enticing offers or valuable information. The usual way of doing this is to provide something of value for free to people – it might be an eBook, a white paper or a download of some sort. When they access this content they also opt in and give you their permission for you to use their email address to nurture them as a lead.

Once you have a mailing list, you can create a newsletter and target your offers or content to people who you think will be interested.

2. Landing pages

A landing page is a part of your website that you have designed to be the first point of entry for a new or existing customer who is searching for a particular product or service.

By doing this, you can use targeted information to optimize a user’s journey with the goal being on a conversion of some form. It is well known that having landing pages is more successful than sending everyone to a generic homepage. The reason being is that through targeted content and conversion pathways, your able to optimise the user journey to a specific target market or niche.

3. Forms

Most websites will have multiple forms for a multitude of tasks, such as helping people download items, request more information, lodge an enquiry etc. For non- ecommerce websites – forms or inbound enquires are used as a websites main point of conversion. For this reason the strategy behind where and how users interact with your websites forms is important.

To increase your conversion rate and generate leads, you need to make sure you consider the user experience with your forms. Make them easy to fill out, relevant to the user journey (pre-fill fields if possible) and visually attractive. If you’re seeing a high bounce rate from these pages, it might be worth re-visiting your strategy. Usually most content management platforms like WordPress, will allow you to customise your own forms on the fly- without any need for custom development. If you don’t have this feature, it’s worth asking your web developer to add this for you.

4. Highly Actionable CTA’s

Most pages will also have “Call to Actions” (CTAs) such as links or buttons prompting users to ‘take the next step’. Ultimately, CTA’s aim to make the conversion pathway or user journey through your website easy, obvious and as a result- more successful.

Instead of simply having ‘click here’ make sure you reflect an action or reward ‘Download your free e-book’ or ‘See how this could work for you’. Also make sure your CTA’s are obvious and not overwhelmed by competing call to actions or other visuals- you want to have the user’s undivided attention.

5. High Value Content

As the internet has become more sophisticated, so has the demands and tastes of the consumers browsing it. Therefore you will get better results if you include some higher quality content on your site.

Video content, images, infographics and educational blogs demonstrate high value for visitors and this increases engagement. The more engagement there is, the more likely it is that visitors will become leads, and leads will convert to customers.

You want to ensure that your content is relevant, however, and you want it to demonstrate brand affinity. Every time you post something new on your site, include a relevant conversion point.

6. Record leads

Use some form of CRM or database where you can track qualified leads or traffic to your website. A benefit of this is that you can target people who will find your content more relevant than others. More sophisticated tracking software will allow you to dynamically re-market to visitors based on their browsing behaviour and search history.

Remember that having a company website is very different from traditional forms of marketing. A successful website is not something that you set and forget. You are pulling customers who choose to visit you. You firstly need to encourage them to come to your site. You then need to give them a reason to be there, and to progress through your sales funnel and into becoming a repeat customer.

Although a website can be a cost effective form of marketing that can deliver high returns; it is one that you need to be constantly working on. A common mistake is thinking you need your web developer to implement the changes necessary to do this, but as this article shows there of plenty of changes you can probably make right now. By optimising your website to be centred on these inbound marketing principles, you’ll no doubt see a dramatic impact on your business.