How to Improve Website Traffic and Generate Quality Sales Leads

Mark Hunter, a sales expert, once said: "Sales is a contact sport.  It takes contact to make sales."

Generating quality sales leads used to be simpler.  In this case, simpler means more direct.  Many of you began your business to business sales careers in an era when generating sales leads meant physically driving to the prospective client, picking up a dozen donuts or a half dozen sandwiches and speaking directly to the office managers and owners of the businesses you wanted to present your product to. 

As with many practices, business to business marketing has gone away from the face to face meetings you cut your teeth on to the impersonal mediums of the internet.  Instead of fliers and those three panel pamphlets, websites and home pages have become the new standard.  This is not to say it is a better means of communicating and marketing, just different.  Change brings opportunity and as you bring your business into this new age the opportunities for your company to grow are countless. 

Generating qualified sales leads via the internet can be a daunting task, but that doesn't mean it is complicated.  It takes a basic understanding of what your prospective buyers are looking for and showing them briefly how you can meet their needs.  Your company and product may be the best in the business, but if no one sees your website, they are going to settle for one of your competitors.  For this reason, the first step is to improve your website traffic and increase your exposure to your prospective clients. 

The first concept that will help you generate your much needed website traffic via online marketing is called search engine optimization (SEO).  SEO is a process that helps you organize your content based on what your prospect is likely to be searching for.  If someone were searching for a product or service like yours, what keywords are they likely to type in to their search engines?  Understanding SEO and utilizing as many of those keywords as possible on your main page will help with your leads because your product line will be more relevant to your prospective buyer. 

Social networking can be another quality medium for generating sales leads.  Almost every type of product or service has an online social media presence and often times through multiple venues.  This type of marketing has become so popular and effective that many political campaigns begin their grassroots efforts through social media.  The basic concept is that your company releases updates or product promotions through a social media outlet and your followers then share and re-post your news releases to their friends and followers and so on.  The most popular venues for this type of marketing require no financial investment for your company and tend to be a popular way of maintaining an online presence without monetary risk. 

Generating sales leads in today's marketing environment can be difficult because so much of marketing occurs online. However, this affords the company the advantage of not relying on a physical sales force to spending company time cold calling in the hope that a few of them come through.  

Getting your product in front of people is the only way they are going to see what you can do for them, and the best way to achieve that visibility is by increasing your website traffic.

Build your website with an eye on keywords that your prospects are looking for.  Begin establishing a strong social media presence. By requesting a free: "website Marketing Assessment" and following these two simple steps your company can make significant progress toward generating leads that are likely to become actual sales.