Let’s face it, the end goal of any business owner is to be able to drive as much qualified traffic to their business as possible and convert website visitors into leads and buying customers. But convincing people to buy is never the easiest of tasks, especially if you do not have an interesting product or don’t automate your lead generation process.
Author: Jayson Davis, Research / Senior Editor, Hosting Foundry
Here, we show you five effective tools that will turn your website into a lead generation machine by tapping into the power of conversion rate optimization (CRO). If you’re frustrated about not closing enough leads despite attracting a significant amount of traffic to your site, these tools are probably what you need to make your business more profitable.
GTMetrix
You probably already know how important fast load speeds are when it comes to website conversion and even rankings. The faster your business loads on the web, the higher the chances your visitors will navigate to your important pages and buy from you. The reverse is also true – having a slow-loading site discourages users from engaging with your business and ultimately contributes to loss of potential customers.
If you’re serious about speeding up your site, the first step to take is to measure the actual speed at which it loads. One of the best tools you can use here is GTMetrix which is a collection of multiple page site tools combined into one suite. Use it to discover your current site speed, all the underlying factors behind your issues with site speed, and how to fix them.
Alternatively, you can use Google’s own PageSpeed Insights tool which gives you insights on key metrics like the number of file requests, time to first byte, start render, and document complete among others. This tool also offers you suggestions for improving content and other aspects of your site for faster page loading speed.
Don’t forget that even after you’ve implemented all the necessary tweaks, getting a good hosting provider will come in handy in boosting your overall site speed.
Kissmetrics
Kissmetrics is easily the most informative tool when you want to understand everything that happens on your website. This plugin helps you answer the majority of crucial questions and concerns you might be having concerning activities on your site. For example, it can help you identify the most popular pages, the features of your products and services that your customers enjoy the most, reasons customers are cancelling subscriptions, etc. In a nutshell, Kissmetric’s biggest value revolves around providing insights on customer behavior and suggesting ways to optimize website interactions.
Drift
Drift is a popular live chat software that can automate a part of your customer support, qualify leads, and ultimately boost your sales. And as you might already know, when used correctly, live chat functions can significantly boost a site’s conversion rates. Indeed, statistics show that 38% of consumers will buy from you and 51% are likely to be repeat customers if you offer live chat support.
Drift is a pretty advanced tool, and while it comes with a free plan for light users, it’s mainly targeted at the more established businesses that can afford it (paid plans cost anywhere between $360 and $1200 per month). Perhaps what you’ll love the most about it is its ‘LeadBot’ function whose main task is to qualify visitors based on your set rules. This means your business deals with only the most qualified leads that are likely to convert.
Optinmonster
If you are like most modern online businesses, you probably have an email marketing campaign in place to gather leads and boost traffic for your business. While the standard email tools like Aweber and GetResponse come with their metrics and templates to assist you in tracking and collecting leads, most don’t go deep enough to provide detailed insights about visitor actions.
If you’re looking to get the most out of email marketing efforts, implementing an effective tool like Optinmonster is highly recommended. This plugin enables you to create highly converting lead forms and sidebars and also provides you with easy-to-use templates to help you gather crucial visitor data. And the best part? It allows integration with some of the most popular email marketing suites including Constant Contact and Campaign Monitor.
Hello Bar
Our last but obviously not the least in our list of best CRO tools for lead generation is Hello Bar. Just as its name suggests, this tool manifests as a bar, usually appearing at the top section of your site. You can use it to add subscribers to your email list, drive traffic to specific resources like webinars or web pages, or connect with readers on social media.
What we love about Hello Bar is that it offers a free plan that supports up to 5000 monthly views – which is sufficient for small and medium-sized lead generation businesses. What’s more, it’s easy to set up and integrate it into your online business – the entire process takes only a few minutes to complete.
Use this CRO tool to test conversions, boost your site subscriptions, and even carry out A/B tests to determine which lead generation strategy works best for your business and what doesn’t.
About Hosting Foundry and the Author
Hosting Foundry is run by a collective of web designers, with the purpose of centralizing their hosting data and research. Hosting Foundry creates comprehensive reviews and comparisons showcasing the best web hosting options for various countries and specific hosting types.
Jayson Davis is the research / senior editor at Hosting Foundry. Aside from his interests in the web hosting industry, he also loves astro-photography and anything to do with visualizing big data related to astronomy.
For more information on Hosting Foundry, visit hostingfoundry.com.
