Well-Planned Sites Proven Lead Generators

By Angela S. Charles
President, Packaging Business

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Or can you? This commonly heard axiom might apply to animal husbandry, but it doesn't with Internet marketing. At least not among companies whose sites have been designed, developed and promoted by Packaging Business Internet marketing affiliate Pilot Fish.

A recent analysis of clients' web site traffic and leads demonstrates that well-written, professionally designed sites are quite successful at generating qualified sales leads. Where the internally stated goal of the company's web site has been to generate leads in the form of contact forms off the web site, Pilot Fish has been successful in achieving an average lead conversion rate of 12 percent. That is considerably higher than in traditional forms of marketing.

The conversion rate is determined as a ratio between the number of contact forms filled out and submitted vs. the number of visitors who viewed the contact form. This definition, developed by Pilot Fish, is important in making apples-to-apples comparisons of online vs. offline marketing. Because web sites are easily accessed by anyone on the Internet, regardless of their having a true interest in your business, it's important to distinguish the number of truly qualified visitors to the site. With Internet, that's a self-selecting process, as the user determines the relevance of your site to his/her needs. Compare that to a trade show exhibit. Can you say that 12.6% of the people who pick up brochures at your booth (self-selecting qualification) turn into sales leads?

The key to generating a high conversion rate is having a web site that effectively and professionally communicates what you do and through the design and navigation of the site, naturally leads the user to the contact form. Sounds simple enough, but based on what we see on the web every day, most companies completely miss the mark.

For example, a current client, whose site management Pilot Fish assumed not long ago, complained about how few contact forms were being filled out. An analysis of the site determined that the site's content and navigation failed to direct the users to the contact form. After correcting the problems, the site has seen threefold increase in the number of contact forms being filled out at a conversion rate of 12.6% -- more than exceeding the client's expectations.

Getting the horse to drink isn't the problem - it's getting them to the water.

For more information on how to improve your web site's performance, call 877-799-9994 or fill out this form.