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How to Turn Website Traffic Into Leads: 5 Essential Steps

Turning website traffic into leads is one of B2B marketing's secret sauces.

We spoke to Cognism’s Chief Marketing Officer, Alice de Courcy, to hear her advice on increasing website traffic, and turning that traffic into leads.

She told us:

“If your product has a large TAM and can be used by most of the world, then prioritising quantity of leads makes sense. If you have a clearly defined TAM and ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) then you should be looking for quality over quantity.”

“Some companies will hack together quantity traffic plays. If you search for almost anything you’ll find a page they have on it. Keywords will be random and it won’t add any value to the business.

“We don't use this approach because we don't want just any traffic, we want the right traffic. We start with quality and look at quantity after.”

We recommend this B2B lead generation approach:

Generating masses of leads who might not be interested in your product will ultimately waste your sales team’s time. Instead, focus on finding the right people first, and only once you’ve found them, focus on scaling up.

To see Alice’s advice for increasing website traffic and converting traffic into leads, scroll down! 👇

See Cognism's Diary of a CMO

How to increase website traffic

The first step in generating leads from website traffic is to attract more visitors to your site.

Alice gave us 8 ways to increase website traffic 👇

1. Develop an SEO strategy

Cognism's current SEO strategy is devised around two types of keyword:

  • Money keywords - our most valuable keywords, mostly BOFU/product-related and optimised for conversions.
  • High-traffic keywords - those keywords that generate the most traffic, mostly TOFU and optimised for high Google rankings.

For more info on this, see our guide for creating high-ranking content.

2. Gain backlinks

Clever backlink plays are great ways to direct more traffic to your website!

Offer something that other companies will want to use, such as primary research/statistics or an infographic; these will naturally generate backlinks. 

3. Create a free tool

Look at who your ideal prospects are and provide something for free that they will want to use.

This will build a positive relationship between yourself and the user, and promote future website visits.

See Cognism's TAM calculator for a real-life example of this.

4. List the great tools and software you’re using

If you're using a product that's helping your business, tell people about it!

Posting about your positive experiences with other companies will encourage them to share your opinion with new people. This will increase brand awareness and website traffic.

Cognism has published numerous lists of tools, including this one for B2B marketing tools.

5. Get listed on review sites

Encourage your current customers to leave reviews for you on websites like G2 and Capterra.

Getting listed on these sites will drive a lot of traffic back to you.

6. PPC

Make use of paid channels such as Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, and Google Display.

PPC costs more than the free channels, but when managed correctly, they produce great results. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money!

7. Email marketing

When running email marketing campaigns, try to encourage website visits.

It’s usually easy for people to find content on a website. This isn’t always the case with an email.

8. Create a content hub

If you’re able to create a video or webinar library full of useful content, it could become the go-to place for people who want to learn about certain topics.

A content hub increases website traffic and will also establish you as a thought leader.

How to turn website traffic into leads

Chances for the website visitor to convert should be present throughout your website, but try not to overwhelm the visitor. If you do this, you’ll lose them!

The secret of turning website traffic into leads is in the balancing of two extremes.

Alice gave us 5 ways to turn your website traffic into targeted leads 👇

1. Design your website with the user journey in mind

Place CTAs (calls to action) all over the site. It should be hard for someone to exit without being presented with an opportunity to take action.

Talk to your web hosting provider about design elements such as CTAs. Consider web hosting options that ensure a quick loading, reliable web browsing experience.

Choosing the best type of hosting service is important for your site, so do your research.

A poor-performing site can turn potential leads away - a website builder can help you create the best possible experience for your visitors.

2. Test, track, optimise

One of the main benefits of using your website for lead generation is the home-field advantage.

You can measure the success of website links and find out where people are dropping off. Hotjar is an excellent tool for tracking where users click on your website pages.

3. Use chatbots

Chatbots will allow you to promote different playbooks and messages around the site.

A chatbot can prompt people to take certain actions, speed up navigation for people interested in specific topics, and provide options for people to take.

Be creative with your chatbots! Try to make them fun and engaging. Have you spoken with Coggy the Cat yet?! 😺

Screenshot of Cognism chatbot Coggy the Cat

4. Try lower commitment CTAs

If you’re struggling to get visitors to request a demo, try playing with your CTAs and offer a lower barrier to entry. Examples could be subscribing to a newsletter or following your brand on social media.

Test a few things out and see what works.

5. Retargeting your web traffic

Make sure you have retargeting journeys set up across your marketing flows (LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Google, etc.).

The idea here is that if someone comes to your site and then sees your company again afterwards, you’ll be building trust.

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