Wordpress Lead Generation

The most successful Wordpress websites do not focus only on attracting more visitors. They aim to generate leads.
The majority of businesses, however, concentrate all of their efforts on increasing traffic. And then, hope that some of those people will sign up for their email list.
The irony is that, often, to get more leads, they don’t necessarily need more visitors. They just need to optimize their sites to convert more of them.
And if you struggle to collect visitor emails too, then this post is definitely for you.
I’ll show you how to optimize your site to convert as much of your traffic into leads, as possible.
Specifically, you’ll learn how the lead generation process works, and what tools and plugins you should use to implement it on a Wordpress site.
Intrigued? Then let’s get started.

How to Generate Leads on Wordpress – the Process

You need two things to convert more visitors and collect their email addresses:
The offer – something that will entice them to sign up, and
A conversion strategy – a tool or platform to allow them to join your list.
So, let’s take a look at how each of them works, and how to use them on your site.

Part I – The Offer

No visitor, particularly, if they’re only researching potential solutions or information, will voluntarily surrender their email address.
Not anymore.
In the past, when customers weren’t bombarded with so many marketing messages, they had a different, more positive attitude towards connecting with brands.
But today, with around 4000 ads and promotions screaming for their attention each day, that positive attitude is long gone.
In fact, some customers choose not to inquire with a business to avoid further sales communication, and instead, find answers to their questions themselves.
Here’s a proof – a reply to a website survey asking why a person decided to leave the site without inquiring.

Given all this, it becomes clear that to convert visitors, you need to give them something in return – the offer (alternatively referred to as a lead magnet.)
Before I show you different types of offers to consider, let’s talk briefly about what actually makes a good lead magnet that will entice your visitors to sign up.

Characteristics of a Good Lead Magnet Offer

When you think about it, your offer has one heck of a job to do – it needs to catch a person’s attention and make a promise that will convince them to type their email address in the lead form.
To do so, it needs to meet three criteria. It must:
#1. Be of high interest to your prospects.
Your lead magnet must deliver knowledge they want but don’t have.
For example, if your target audience are beginner bloggers, then your offer must relate to real-life challenges they have with growing their new blogs.
Otherwise, you’re just not going to get their attention.
#2. It should target a specific problem.
Quite often, lead magnets focus on generic topics, like “best ways to grow a blog.”
The problem with those is, that a.) they don’t relate to any specific pain point of your audience, and b.) it’s advice they could get by simply googling it.
And most likely, they wouldn’t be inclined to sign up for it.
#3. It should provide instant gratification.
I doubt anyone would sign up for a lead magnet, if they had to wait days to avail of the advice.
Most people seek quick solutions. And so, your lead magnet must deliver knowledge they could at least start implementing into practice within minutes of obtaining it.
Types of the Best Offers or Lead Magnets:
Here are some most popular types of offers to generate leads:
Free Reports/eBooks

Email courses

Free resources

Part II – Conversion Strategy

The offer entices someone to sign up.
A conversion strategy, in turn, involves steps and plugins that are necessary to turn them from a casual visitor to a subscriber on your list.
There are two strategies you could use:

• Direct that focuses on converting a person right on the page, and
• Indirect that uses additional pages to generate a lead.

Let’s look at them in turn.

Direct Conversion Strategy

This strategy uses software or plugins that allow to promote the offer and collect email signups directly on a page. In other words, to sign up for the lead magnet, a person doesn’t have to visit additional pages.
And that’s the main benefit of this strategy – it reduces the steps necessary for conversion to the absolute minimum.
On the downside, compared to a dedicated landing page, for example, direct calls to action offer little space to communicate the benefits of your offer and convincing a person to sign up.
The two most popular direct strategies include:

Email Popup

A popup is a small window that appears on the screen with the information about your offer, and the email form to sign up for it directly.
Here’s how a typical popup looks like:

It includes a headline communicating the offer, a body copy to tell a person more about it and a form where they could sign up.
Any visitor intrigued by this offer can immediately opt-in to receive it, converting to your email list in turn.
How well email popups work?
Naturally, the strongest proof of any marketing strategy is its performance. From our experience, email popups typically convert at an astonishing rate at 5% – 7%.
And many of our customers have increased their lead generation by more than 250% after switching to popups.
Recommended Wordpress popup plugin to use: Wisepops

Under the Post Banner

The other option you have it to advertise the lead magnet at the end of every blog post or page.
On the outset, it works just like a popup, promoting the offer with a headline, body copy, and the form. The only difference is that, as the name suggests, this call to action appears at the bottom of your content.
For example:

Unlike a popup, however, the under the post banner relies on a person reaching the end of the content to notice it. And for that reason, this call to action typically performs poorer than the pop up.
Recommended Wordpress banner plugin to use: Thrive Leads

Indirect Conversion Strategy

In contrast, this strategy uses additional asset – a landing page, to convert a visitor.
In this scenario, the call to action aims to direct a person to the landing page, where they could learn more about the offer and sign up through a dedicated form.
Here’s how an indirect call to action looks like. Note that instead of the form, it features a button to download the offer.

Once clicked, the button sends a person to a dedicated landing page for the resource (note, the screenshot features only the form, but you can see the whole page here):

The landing page allows you to overcome the biggest challenge of the popup or under the post form – lack of space to make a case for downloading the resource.
Instead, you have the entire page at your disposal to convince a person to sign up.
Also, you can send traffic directly to the landing page too, further increasing your chances to generate more leads.
On the flip side, however, by including a landing page, you’re adding an extra step to the process. And typically, the shorter the process, the greater the chance for conversion.
Recommended Wordpress plugin to use for this strategy: Instapage

Closing Thoughts

Generating leads on Wordpress sites requires two things – a.) an offer to entice someone to sign up, and b.) a strategy to allow them to do so.
And hopefully, after reading this post, you have a good idea how to implement them both on your site.
Good luck.

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