As much work as you put into gaining traffic to your website, you need to also consider how you will turn those visitors into leads. After bringing visitors to your site, you need to encourage them to take the next step: provide you with their contact information. You can then use this info to continue nurturing leads until they are ready to become customers.

Generating leads may seem like a difficult task, but there are actually several strategies you can easily implement to see immediate results.

1. Develop Buyer Personas

If you are receiving a large amount of traffic but few users are converting, the problem could be that you aren’t tailoring your message to your audience. Before you do anything else, create buyer personas to accurately represent every type of customer.

Take into consideration the demographics, interests and behaviors of your audience. You can find information through social media, through website analytics, and by asking current customers. The result will enable you to fine tune your efforts to convert your traffic into leads.

2. Engage with Users

To build trust and show a personal side to your brand, communicate with prospects directly. You can reply to comments on social media, seek out questions on forums (LinkedIn groups are especially effective for B2B companies), and send personalized responses to queries you receive through emails and live chat.

3. Create Premium Content

Premium content gives visitors extra information about a topic they find useful or interesting. You should always require contact details in exchange for access to premium content.

A few options to entice visitors include:

• Ebooks. An ebook is an extended blog post. It is best if you include points, tips, or statistics from research that users cannot find elsewhere online.
• White papers. If you have a shorter sales funnel, use white papers instead of ebooks. These tend to be aimed at users who are almost ready to buy but need a little more information to come to a decision.
• Infographics and slideshows. These options are perfect for presenting visual information or quick facts.
• Webinars. This is a find out more about your customers concerns, desires, or needs. You can also rerelease a webinar after recording for future premium content.
• Interactive tools. These are good options if you are trying to attract high-value leads who may want more from you before they are willing to provide their contact information.

4. Start an Email Newsletter

You can also collect contact information by asking your visitors to subscribe to an email newsletter. Segment your audience to send the most relevant newsletters to users and keep nurturing them until they are ready to convert.

5. Design Your Website for Conversions

Your entire website design should be based around converting traffic into leads. Provide users with multiple opportunities to download premium content or to sign up for your newsletter. This involves placing CTAs in strategic places, for instance as buttons on main pages, popups, and at the end of blog posts.

The most effective CTAs relate to the content on the page and stand out (whether on a mobile or desktop device) without dominating the screen. Test various versions and placements to find out what your audience responds to best.

6. Provide Easy Access to Contact Information

Make it obvious how users can contact you by adding a tab in the navigation. Contact information must include your phone number — this adds credibility to your company and gives your customers a direct way to reach you.

These tips apply to every business, no matter what you’re offering or how long your sales funnel is. If you want to maximize leads, every one of these should be part of your marketing strategy.

Ready to improve your lead generation and increase leads?