Everybody wants more leads. More leads means more customers and more customers mean more money in your pocket. Unfortunately leads don't come cheap. Client acquisition cost is the highest expense in business. That means businesses spend more money trying to get new clients than any other aspect of their business. Getting one visitor to come to your website can cost several dollars depending on the industry you're in. So it's critical you turn as many of those site visitors into leads as possible. Here are 5 ways you can ensure you're getting as many leads as you can out of your website.

1. Don't ask for too much information all at once.

The more information you ask for from a client the less likely they are to provide you with any data. I recommend asking only for the information you absolutely need to establish communication with your client. Typically this is just a name and an email address. You can always ask for a phone number, address, and other information once you've established contact via email.

2. Create trust.

Many people are sketical about doing business on the internet. It's up to you to make your site visitors feel comfortable enough to enter their contact information into your form. You can establish credibility by posting a privacy policy on your website. They probably won't read it but knowing it's there helps their confidence. You may also want to put a short blurb next to your form ensuring your site visitor's email will never be sold or spammed.

3. Provide instructions.

Don't assume your site visitors will know what to do when presented with a form. Be sure to provide some clear insturction. I like to put something about the form that reads "Enter your name and email address below". To you it may seem obvious what you're looking for but it's not always the case with your prospective customers.

4. Keep the focus.

Web surfers will typically wait only 7 seconds for a page to load and only stay on a page for another 3 or 4 more if they can't find out what to do next. Be sure it's clear to your users what they need to do next. Make sure your form is visible without scrolling and has enough white space around it and a clear call to action button in order to submit the data.

5. Remove all possible friction.

It may be tempting to require a double optin for a mailing list or to add a CAPTCHA code to reduce spam but if you can avoid adding this type of friction to your forms you should. The more hurdles you introduce to your site visitors the lower your conversion rates will be. Do your best to keep each step of the process seemless and uncomplicated.

6. Give them a reason.

This is the most important thing you can do to turn site visitors into leads. The best way to do this in my opinion is to give something away of high perceived value for free. Hopefully this item will cost you little to nothing to give away. I prefer digital products. For example_ Perhaps you can give away a free consultation or a coupon for 10% off all your products or better yet a free sample. Too many people rely on their prospect to just volunteer their contact information without a compeling reason to do so.

By following these 6 steps you'll be more likely to gather contact information from your site visitors. With an effective email marketing campaign you'll be able to convert these into more sales, phone calls, and business. WebStarts provides everything you need to build and maintain your own website as well as run a successful email marketing campaign. You can sign up for a free website at this link.