On a recent sales call, in the middle of explaining our web design process with a successful Sacramento personal injury attorney, I was on the topic about how great business websites are designed with one primary goal in mind, that goal being different for each business…
“So, after discussing your business model Mr. PI attorney, your website goal is to capture inbound leads, meaning that a website visitor who comes to your site will like what they see and fill out their contact information to have you call them.”
All of a sudden his face contorts in anger and he spouts:
“Greg, I’ve spent God knows how much on websites over the years, throwing around ad dollars all over the place, and I’ve never had a single lead come into my website. Then I see this term inbound lead, and you’re saying it, so what the hell is that? What does an inbound lead look like?”
I could feel his heart racing, his frustration boiling over the 3 foot oak conference table that separated us. It was obvious a lot of hard earned money had been spent with high expectations and crappy results. So I say;
“You want to see what an inbound lead looks like? Here are some examples.” I proceeded to pull up my emails and show him a recent example of an inbound lead from one of our clients, B&T Catering.
About two weeks into B&T Catering‘s launch, I have counted 6 inbound leads requesting catering quotes. Here’s a screenshot from my inbox:
You’ll notice the Quote Request form (orange box), as well as a Thank You email (in red). Let’s explore each of those, as this is where you create a great client experience from first contact.
First off, the site visitor fills out their Quote Request Form.
After the visitor submits the form, two things happen automatically:
An email is sent to the business owners with all of the details of the what was filled out in the form:
A second email is automatically sent to the visitor who filled out the form. Notice the professional touch of the form extracting the first name of the person and putting that in the email subject line as well as next to “Hell0 ___”
The follow-up email to prospective client gives the business owners a chance to gather their thoughts about what the visitor is looking for so they can better serve them.
Yes, it looks easy and straightforward, but there is a lot of thought and time that goes into a plan like this. If you don’t have a system for generating inbound leads, give us a call at (916) 992-4744 or email us hello@helpingmerchants.com, we would love to build you a lead generating website!