Reasons Why You Are Not Getting Leads
You’ve spent hours writing content for your website: blog posts, educational resources, information about your products and services. You’ve checked and double-checked your spelling and grammar and used all the right keywords.
But you’re still not getting leads. And now you can’t help but think:
What am I doing wrong?
Your content marketing is more than writing great, keyword-rich content—it’s a strategy. It requires analyzing not just your content, but your entire website and marketing funnel, to ensure that you generate the quality leads you want.
Let’s look at some of the most common mistakes business owners make that keep them from generating leads.
Your content doesn’t offer solutions
Content marketing that’s focused on making a sale often doesn’t do the job. Customers are more likely to buy from someone they trust, which is why it’s so important to create content that helps people or educates them on a topic. By offering resources without charging a cent, you not only built trust and goodwill to potential customers—you also position yourself as an expert in your field. And wouldn’t you much rather do business with an expert than a novice?
Your content should solve a common problem that your prospects have. If your content isn’t generating leads, take a closer look and see if your content answers a question or solves a problem that users type in search engines. If it doesn’t, it may be time for a rewrite.
Your content is boring
Whoa, that sounds harsh, doesn’t it? But think about websites you’ve visited in the past month. What kind of content made you keep reading? Chances are it was well-written, compelling content that told a story and offered a fresh look at a topic. In order to be effective, your content needs to do the same.
There’s nothing wrong with covering some of the most important topics in your industry, but you have to do so with a new take or from a different perspective. If you can help people see a topic in a new light or show them something they may not already know, you’ll build your credibility as an expert—and encourage readers to come back to you for more fresh content.
You don’t have a clear CTA
Every piece of content you create should have a call to action. This lets readers know what they should do next. After all, you can’t generate leads from just content. You need to have a path and strategy in place to guide those readers into a funnel that turns them into leads.
If someone loves your content and you don’t give them a way to sign up for your email list or download more content, they won’t know how to move forward. Instead, they may never return to your site. That’s definitely not what you want.
Instead, make use of opt-in boxes or pop-ups that encourage readers to sign up to get the latest content. This is a quick and easy way to grow your email list and to ensure that you can stay in touch with people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
Your site doesn’t load quickly
You can have the most amazing content in the world, and it will be useless if your website takes a long time to load. Did you know that users are more likely to leave a site if it takes more than 10 seconds to load on a desktop? That number gets even smaller on a mobile browser—just 3 seconds!
These days we all expect pages to load quickly when we go to a website. If your page is slow to load, or even if it has a few elements, such as images, that take a while to completely load, you’re likely losing potential prospects as a result.
You’re giving visitors too many choices
Remember when we said that CTAs are important? They are! But too many calls to action can be confusing for users, and they may give up rather than try to decide what to do next. Too many options can lead to what’s known as analysis paralysis, which means that visitors will freeze and take no action at all.
Instead of offering a variety of actions your visitors can take after landing on your website, provide a clear path. Tell your users what you want them to do next and remove any other links or buttons that might distract from that goal.
Your site isn’t mobile friendly
These days your users are more likely to view your website on their phone than on a desktop. In fact, mobile traffic accounts for over half of all internet traffic. Ensuring that every page of your site is mobile-friendly is no longer optional—it’s a necessity.
Your website may look amazing on desktop, but things may be out of order or spaced weirdly on a phone or table. Make sure your site is functional and easy to use on any device. Otherwise, you may drive prospects away.
Your website uses stock images
The images on your site should be as authentic and genuine as your content. Stock photos immediately suggest to visitors that you didn’t put in the time or effort to properly promote and represent your business. They look cheap and can even reduce the credibility your stellar content has built up with your visitors.
Instead of opting for generic images, take photos of your actual office, products and staff. If you can afford it, invest in a professional business or branding session that will provide you with high-quality images you can use to promote your company, both on your website and on social media.
You haven’t set up your local listings (or you don’t update them if you do)
Have you moved your office in the past few years? Did you update your online listings when you did? If not, previous customers and prospects may have trouble finding you. Failing to keep your listings updated can give users the impression that your business isn’t trustworthy and may lead them to reach out to another company to meet their needs.
Keep your NAPS (name, address, phone number and site) information up to date across all local listing pages and platforms. Doing so ensures that users can find you easily and without unnecessary frustration.
You have too many redirects on your site
We get it, your website is a work in progress. You’re constantly updating and creating new pages, and even removing old ones. But multiple redirects can make it a challenge for search engines to index your site and can make your website feel less trustworthy to human visitors.
After you change a page URL or remove a page from your website, be sure to update any internal links. This way, you don’t have to create additional redirects that may confuse your visitors and search engines.
You don’t offer an easy way to get in touch with you
Anyone who visits your website should be able to quickly reach you, whether by phone, email or chat. If users can’t get quick answers to their questions, they’re more likely to visit another site where they can get those answers.
Make sure your visitors know how to reach you. Have a clickable phone number easily visible on your homepage, as well as your email address. Remember, if people can’t get in touch with you, they can’t do business with you.
If you’re feeling disheartened by this list, keep your chin up! All of these problems are fixable, and we can help you find the right solution for your SEO and marketing strategy. Let’s start with a free SEO Audit to diagnose the big problems with your site and get your business back on track!
