4 Ways Manufacturers Can Build Lead Conversion by Using Landing Pages
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Manufacturers have a much more important audience than average consumers. The big sales for manufacturing happen when you close a deal with a new distributor, dealer, or retail company, and it's important to market to them, specifically. A lot of marketers will say that SEO is king, and that if your landing page is easily found on Google then your job is done. Well, we at Water Street have some other opinions regarding that.
It doesn't matter how many people see your page in their Google searches if they're not interested in your products or content. After all, converting visitors into qualified leads is the name of the game, here. Landing pages are a great way for manufacturers to convert visitors into qualified leads. (If you need a refresher on some general landing page pointers, check out my previous post, Tips for Creating a Successful Landing Page.) By focusing on your content and audience, your landing pages should target all stages of the sales funnel, not just the top. That's not to say SEO isn't important; it's but one strategy you should employ when creating landing pages for your products/services.
These are the ways you can put landing pages to work that don't involve SEO but still convert leads like nobody's business:
Product Launch
When you have a new product, you want to shout it from rooftops. You created this product because you believe in it, and your marketing efforts should reflect that. Your offer could be for a free sample, spec sheet, selling guide, or other helpful info about your product — the possibilities are endless.
I highly recommend pairing a product launch landing page with a PR blitz by submitting a press release to industry publications and news outlets. On top of that, you should create a compelling social campaign. Now, these details may change depending on your target audience. You want to push this content to where your target audience will find it. If you don't have a social media strategy to speak of, focus on creating Press Releases and Media Kits to push traffic to your website. Time after time we see clients' previous campaigns that have failed to capitalize on their social media potential. We love social media and think you will too after working with us and seeing its ability to expand your product's reach and visibility. By targeting contacts in your industry or people who are already interested in your product, you are increasing the chances of these contacts converting.
Trade Show Pages
You know that stack of business cards you get after a trade show? Of course you do. I have sort of a love/hate situation going on there myself. Wouldn't it be nice to automate the process of adding potential clients and industry contacts and nurture them into becoming actual leads? The key to this method is building different versions of the same landing page to target the potential clients you met specifically. Did you meet mostly distributors? Or wholesalers? Well, the beauty of this method is that you can direct the appropriate people to the version of your landing page that appeals to them the most. An excellent way to do this is by including specific URLs or QR codes on different versions of your business cards. If you meet a distributor, give him or her the business card with the code that will take him to the 'distributor' version of your page. We would have integrated an offer like a selling guide or something similarly targeted toward distributors. You can then build a nurture campaign specifically geared toward each segment of your target audience.
If having a bunch of different QR codes on your business cards isn't your style- consider sending the contacts you meet a friendly email with a link to your landing page directly in it. You can still build different versions of your landing page according to client type, but the technology curve is not as steep.
Announce A Sale Or Discount
Many manufacturers have different ways of increasing sales at certain times of the year, including periodic sales or a limited discount period. Landing pages in which the offer is a discount or promo code for your product are great for building leads quickly. These pages do tend to rely heavily on SEO to bring traffic, but PR efforts are also very beneficial (press releases, social media blitz, etc.) The benefit of this offer should be clearly spelled out on the landing page; people are always wary of vague language when it comes to sales.
The same contacts should be retargeted every time you have a sale in a nurture campaign. This method will lead to exponential lead growth.
Create Helpful Tools
This method requires more up-front work than the others, but it is a reliable way to increase lead conversions. Creating an arsenal of helpful tools will increase lead conversion via simple persuasion. Everyone wants to make their lives easier. If the argument can be made that using your products is easier than your competitor's, the leads will come flooding in.
Tools like how-to-videos, sales guides, inventory management systems, mobile apps, etc., can be great ways to funnel contacts to your page. These assets are time and money-savers for your target audience, making this type of landing page the belle of the ball.
There are many ways that landing pages can build lead conversion for manufacturers. A lot of marketing departments struggle with creating web pages that look beyond SEO, but it can be very fruitful to make that leap. When it comes to creating landing pages, it is always helpful to think outside the box. When you become efficient at creating and managing landing pages, your lead conversion rate is bound to skyrocket. This list includes some unusual methods, but all are tried-and-true methods I wholeheartedly suggest, and as always- if you need any help, you know who to call.