TMI (too much information). Who would ever think that too much TMI is a bad thing for those aiming to drive lead generation from their websites? Well, I know it goes against common sense on many levels, but when you step back and look at it, giving your visitors Too Much Information is something that goes hand in hand with a plummeting conversion rate. Let’s examine the situation for a couple of minutes…
What happens when a visitor lands on your site looking for information?
Well first of all, let’s reiterate that fact alone — visitors are always looking for something when they find your site, and more often than not, that something is information.
So, your visitor does a search engine search with a quest for information and your site is well optimized enough to be the recipient of that search’s visitor traffic. Next, the visitor immediately finds the answer to their question, thanks to your excellently informative website. Visitor is happy they found their information, and now satisfied, they click away. Your lead generation opportunity has just been missed.
How could you have possibly avoided this missed opportunity, while still keeping your visitors happy and informed?
First of all, you’ve always got to provide lots of accurate and informative content revolving around your niche — it’s what keeps the search engines sending visitors to your site. It’s also what draws visitors in. So eliminating all of your informative content is definitely not a solution at all.
What’s next to consider? Well, by providing just enough information to "get the click" and draw the visitor into your content, you’re hopefully building up a degree of trust and inspiring confidence in the visitor. Give them a little and then give them the opportunity to share their contact information or request more info — capture that email address!
You can do this in several ways:
- It can often be as simple as asking visitors to contact you for more information as they are reading your informative content.
- You can offer them something of value in return for sharing their contact information via a quick and easy to submit form.
- Some have found success by using a "speak to a live agent" option that reveals itself as the reader becomes immersed in the site’s content.
- Getting the visitor to sign up for your info-packed email newsletter is a highly effective tactic. Opt-in lists are practically the standby technique of all online marketing gurus.
- You might offer free samples of your product or service for visitors that give you a call (and a chance to develop a more personalized customer relationship that way).
- In fact, the list of lead generation methods to use online is practically endless; limited only to your imagination.
The bottom line is this. If you give your visitors TMI without taking the opportunity to capture their info and build your leads list, they’ll be happy enough with the information you share with them, but you’re missing out on the benefit of building the excellent informative site in the first place. Make it a win-win proposition for both you and your visitors by avoiding lead generation overload.
Until Next Time.
George Chaney
President/CEO
SEO King, Inc.
