Online lead generation and sales conversion differs in many ways to the traditional 'Push Marketing' methods such as Radio, TV, Press etc as the potential customer is already searching for your products and services! If a search is performed on a search engine for example your potential customer knows what they want and they are most likely in 1 of 2 'buying modes';

1. Researching a product or service - the internet is a great way of finding out more information and researching comments, pricing, features etc. Consumers that are in 'Research' mode are not quite ready to buy but if the right information is presented to them they could buy from your website if you give them what they want! They will typically search with a 'broad match keyword' such as 'Carpet Cleaners' and be presented with a multitude of results loosely based on their search.
2. Buying Mode - the consumers have carried out their research and made a decision on the product or service they wish to buy, typically they will most likely have refined their search term from a 'keyword' to a 'keyphrase' or 'long tailed keyword'. An example of this could be 'Professional Carpet Cleaning Loganholme', not the consumer has made a decision that they want a ;Professional' company and they are looking for a Carpet Cleaner who covers 'Loganholme'. The 'Keyphrase' that they have used should return results that show a map based result as well as 'Organic' results and if your website has been optimised for Geographical terms as well as Primary and Secondary keywords then you may have a chance of presenting your business to that consumer who is ready to buy now!

This type of Marketing is 'Pull' Marketing and is reliant on the consumer looking for the products and services that you offer, this type of customer is much warmer as they are in the driving seat asking the questions, if your website can answer their questions you have a good chance of converting them into a lead and ultimately a sale!

To achieve this you must offer them alternative ways of contacting you such as enquiry forms, Telephone, email, callbacks etc, remember not every customer is the same some will prefer to call you direct and others would prefer the 'softer' approach where they will complete a form for a 'Quote'. Remember also that by offering a last minute 'Special Offer' or 'Reward' you may convert more leads, this is where you need to 'Test and measure' to see what works on your website.

It is proven that a website needs to be 'Living and Breathing' Consultant for your business, keep content up to date, add content, change special offers and above all test your offers and change as required to ensure that all your hard work is not going to waste!