Effective Inbound Marketing: 3 Crucial Steps to Converting Website Traffic into Leads

Websites are the magnifying glass that share your business’ value with the world and are a lead’s first impression of your business and your brand. With that being said, it’s crucial that your website is optimized to not only attract visitors, but to convert them into leads. According to SEMrush, a website’s average bounce rate is 41-55%. So how can you ensure that your web pages are eye-catching and informative enough that visitors will stay on the site longer? Inbound marketing is key to converting website traffic into leads.

Prioritizing inbound marketing is a great way to optimize your website for lead conversion. Inbound marketing is the methodology of providing high-quality, educational, and relevant content to attract, convert, and delight each potential customer throughout their buyer’s journey. An inbound marketing survey determined that companies who started using inbound marketing techniques saw a 25% increase in ROI. By creating valuable content tailored to your best-fit leads, your website will garner organic traffic and conversions. Let’s take a look at the three most crucial steps to leveraging inbound marketing to converting website traffic into leads.

1. Capture Visitors' Attention & Offer Points of Conversion  

First and foremost, your website needs to attract visitors. Simply producing content explaining who you are and what you do won’t cut it. It’s time to reel them in and grab their attention with a compelling hook, great visuals, and above all else educational and relevant content.

One way to accomplish this is by offering unique value that they can't get anywhere else. Depending on your business model, this could be anything from a downloadable guide on the benefits of a STEM summer program to a blog listing all the reasons teens should adventure abroad. Let’s look at an example of one of the simplest and most common inbound marketing tactics — a blog. Blogs are a great way to attract leads to your website from search engine results pages or via social media. According to SEMrush, companies who prioritize blogging produce 67% more leads per month! 

So let’s say your organization is hosting a summer program. Your goal is to gain 20% more attendance than last year by converting website traffic into leads. In an effort to attract new leads to your website, consider consistently writing relevant blog posts on the why and how your summer program is beneficial to teens. What do they gain from it? What does your program offer that others don’t? Be sure to include keywords and phrases that teens, their parents, and school counselors are likely to search the web for. This way, when conducting a Google search, your educational and relevant blogs will show up in the search results. 

2. Build Landing Pages That Serve Up Quality Content

Landing pages are — you guessed it — an inbound marketing tactic. According to Hubspot, a "landing page" is any page on the web in which one might land that 1) has a form and 2) exists solely to capture a visitor's information through that form. Think for example, of a web page that offers a downloadable ebook. Often, before downloading the ebook, a lead must input their personal information — first name, last name, email address, etc. — into a submission form on the page. 

When creating a landing page, try not to clutter it with too much content or copy. This will draw the audience away from your offer, leading to a lower chance of converting website traffic into leads. As an example, below is a landing page offering a downloadable ebook from our site. The minimal content helps navigate a visitor’s eyes through the page, while describing the type of content visitors can expect to receive.

To see examples of eight incredible ebook landing pages, click here.

3. When Converting Traffic Into Leads Present Clear Calls-to-Action

The final key step to converting website traffic into leads via inbound marketing methods is to use specific and concise calls-to-action (CTA). According to Hubspot, a CTA is an image or line of text that prompts your visitors, leads, and customers to take action. These actions can be anything: download an ebook, sign up for a webinar, get a coupon, attend an event, etc. CTAs can (and should) be placed in multiple places throughout your marketing campaigns to convert traffic into leads — on your website, in an ebook, in an email, or even at the end of a blog post.

What a call-to-action isn't, however, is a direct attempt to get a purchase. What you're after here is a means of getting in contact with the lead so that you can provide them with tailored information later in their buyer's journey about the specific program or service they might be most interested in. 

On a website, “calls-to-action” can mean the difference between someone moving onto another page or becoming one of your customers. For example, the “Sign Up” call-to-action, below, is a direct link to a landing page where visitors can sign up to receive our e-newsletters. The messaging is clear and bold — if you sign up, you’ll get the next digital guide.

Keep in mind that you desperately want to avoid having too many or unclear calls-to-action. For instance, let’s say that you conclude a marketing email with a CTA to contact your admissions team plus another CTA to schedule an appointment with a school advisor. Which CTA should the recipient choose? More importantly, which CTA do you want the recipients to choose? Having one, clear call-to-action is the best way to ensure that your marketing initiatives bring about the results you desire. 

Final Thoughts

By leveraging inbound marketing, specifically the starter steps listed above — offering unique value, creating landing pages, and presenting clear calls to action on your website — you can put your organization on the right path to converting website traffic into leads. These steps are essential to attracting new and potential long-term customers all the while achieving a higher ROI on your marketing initiatives.

Interested to learn more about what TeenLife can do for you and your business? Contact us today and let’s chat!