How to Turn Your Website

Into a Lead Generation Machine

Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Section 1: Identify solutions that will achieve your goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Worksheet: Is your website working for you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Section 2: Craft website visits inspired by storytelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Section 3: Forms play a major part in website storytelling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Section 4: The story continues beyond the form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Checklist: Website Lead Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Introduction
If you’re a B2B marketer, the brand you work for almost certainly has a website. At this
point, having a website is non-negotiable, but not all websites are created equal.

While there’s no doubt that your brand has a website, how well is it really working for
you? Are visitors actively engaging with it? Is it generating leads?

The truth is, great websites are indispensable for lead generation. In a world where
70% of buyer journeys occur before leads ever talk to sales teams, websites are still
the primary way potential customers learn about brands. The recipe for a great website
includes three main ingredients: essential information, engaging content, and effective
conversion points.

Information and content are the main attractions; they’re the real reason people visit
your website in the first place. But forms are important too; they’re how you capture
and qualify leads. It’s important to build your website to meet the needs of your users —
educate them with information, drive their experiences with content, and make it easy
for them to convert with forms.

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Also, unlike other platforms, your website is your own channel: So, what’s the secret recipe for website lead generation success?
a virtual sandbox of your own that you can build and customize Here’s a hint: your website content should be so good and so
to fully reflect your brand’s personality, voice, and design. No helpful that your visitors don’t mind filling out a brief form in
other digital channel allows brands to showcase what they’re all order to access it. Compelling content and concise forms are key
about quite like an official website. As your home and hub on to lead generation, and websites are where they live.
the web, your website will always be the ultimate destination for
people who want to learn about and engage with your brand — i.e.
potential leads.

Great marketers know that generating a lead is like making a new

friend. In both cases, you’ve got to show you can provide real
value to someone at the right place and right time. For brands
looking to generate leads, a website is the right place... and in our
always-on, highly connected world, it’s always the right time.

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SECTION 1

Identify Solutions that will Achieve Your Goals

Realizing that a website is entirely yours to own, design, create,
and edit can be daunting. How do you decide what you’re going
to share with the world — and, most importantly, with all those
potential leads out there?

The possibilities for expressing your brand

on a website are endless, but for starters, you
should remember that the most compelling
websites are always those that authentically
represent what the brand is all about and tell
a resonant story.

For example, you can do this through intuitive navigation that

allows users to explore easily, interactive features and videos that
tell brand and product stories, and free, ungated information that
draws audiences in and inspires them to download content.

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To make meaningful decisions about website content and design, Try to think like a lead. In fact, try to think like a few different kinds
marketers need to reflect upon themselves, their brands, and of leads — from someone who’s familiar with your company, to a
what they need their websites to accomplish. What does website prospect who might have heard of you once or twice, to someone
success look like to you? Maybe it’s increased traffic, a higher who’s totally new to your brand. What’s the ideal path, or most
SEO rank, more clicks and engagement, better page-to-page successful website visit scenario, for each of these different kinds
conversion rate, or more completed forms and downloaded of people? Ultimately, each of them should feel enthusiastic
content. Before you design or redesign your website, start by about filling out a form, downloading content, and engaging
clearly defining what you need the site to do for your brand. further with your brand. Think about what you can change about
your website to achieve that result for each of the different
customer journeys these leads may take.

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WORKSHEET

Is Your Website Working For You?

If you’re redesigning your website, it’s important to be critical about what might not be
working with it currently. You can share this worksheet with your company’s website
stakeholders to source ideas about how your website can be improved.

What’s the one thing, above all else, that you’d like to improve How much is there to do on your website, and what different
about your website? kinds of content do you have (blog posts, videos, interactive,
etc.)? Is anything missing?

Is there anything you’ve seen on competitors’ websites that’s

missing from your site? Are the CTAs on your website clearly linked to your company’s
Key Performance Indicators? Which KPIs are most important
to address?

How easy to use is your website’s main navigation? How

cluttered is it? How can this be improved?

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SECTION 2

Craft Website Visits Inspired

by Storytelling
Each customer journey is also a customer Visitors to your website should feel like When a potential lead is browsing your
story in the making. You know this not only they’re in the middle of their own story, website, they’re probably doing so in
from your work as a marketer, but from your being swept along intuitively by your an effort to answer some of their own
own experiences as a customer! content and design. A website with questions. They might be asking:
compelling content and a sparse feature set •• What can you do for me?
The standard customer journey mirrors is always better than a feature-rich website •• How much do your products/
the plot outline of a standard story. There’s that under-delivers on real value. Visitors services cost?
a beginning when you decide you need should arrive at that content through your •• How should I use your
something, a rising action when you search to CTAs, which you should display prominently products/services?
find something, a climax when you purchase at relevant points throughout each user’s •• Why should I choose you over
something, and a falling action when your journey on your site. your competitors?
purchase fulfills your original need. •• Who are you, really?

Storytelling is essential to
building websites that deliver
great customer experiences.

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In the story of a potential lead’s customer journey, their visit to
your website is the rising action. In this case, the optimal climax
for their story would be filling out a form and downloading
content before they leave your website.

For that to happen, you need to answer their questions with clear
and engaging content that doesn’t confuse or bore them. Fit your
calls to action into the story, and deliver real value with every click.
You should even consider giving away some content for free.

Keep in mind that you should always give

visitors somewhere to go, and something to
do on your website – make sure there are no
dead ends.

After browsing your website, the only question a potential lead

should have is “Wow, how can I get in contact with this brand!?”
That’s where the form comes in.

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SECTION 3

Forms Play a Major Part in Website Storytelling

Website forms are almost magical. They convert unknown visitors You likely submitted a form to Pardot in order to read this
into qualifiable leads, allowing brand-customer relationships to very e-book. The form you submitted was part of a Pardot
blossom and products or services to be delivered. As marketers, website redesign that generated 12% more traffic, 15% more
we’re always very excited about forms because we’re acutely conversions, and 29% more pipeline. To be candid with you,
aware of their magical quality. Our challenge is to make potential our initial instinct was that the form was too long. However, the
leads just as enthusiastic about filling out forms and downloading results have shown that it’s the perfect size for what we need to
content as we are about analyzing forms and transferring qualified accomplish. This is because each of the content fields we ask for
leads to our sales teams. helps us qualify leads and make sure they are properly routed.

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To start off, we ask for usual basic information: a first name, last
name, email address, and phone number. You’ll find these fields
on just about every website form ever written. But our form isn’t
just any website form — Pardot is a B2B SaaS company, and our
form is designed to start building a relationship with B2B buyer
leads. That’s why we also ask for business information: a job
title, company name, company size, and country location. These
details help us narrow down our search and create meaningful
points of connection with potential leads.

You should take a similar approach with your website forms.

Ask for exactly what you need to qualify a lead

— nothing more, and nothing less.

If you’ve created a compelling website experience, visitors who

want to engage with you won’t mind a long form with a number
of content fields — as long as those fields provide value. Their
website visit is a quest, and their goal is to access content and
receive value from your products or services. The form is the
gateway to all of that.

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SECTION 4

The Story Continues Beyond the Form

Now for the storytelling falling action, which is really about the start While those processes occur immediately within your internal
of a new story. After all, the customer journey doesn’t end when a systems after a form is submitted, you should also be thinking
website visitor submits a form… in many ways, it’s just beginning! about what the website visitor is doing in those moments. Give
them opportunities to keep learning and converting, and be sure
The key to the successful closing chapter of a website visitor’s story to have cookies remember them so they don’t have to submit
lies in making sure that they’re now given what they want. They another long form to access additional content. You can also
filled out your form for a reason, and at this point, it’s critical for create customized nurture paths for visitors that will automatically
your marketing and sales teams to deliver. The potential lead’s suggest new and relevant content based on everything they’ve
information should be routed quickly and correctly, and you should already accessed.
have standardized, automated systems in place for qualifying their
lead potential. If the website visitor is a qualified lead, you should have an
established plan for sales to reach out to them with a relevant,
personalized greeting. If everything goes according to plan, you
may indeed have a bona-fide new customer relationship and
story in the making... all thanks to the value provided by your
revitalized website.

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CHECKLIST

Website Lead Generation Checklist

Display important Always give users Map CTAs and lead
CTAs prominently something to do generation opportunities
to KPIs
Dig into your data to discover your Don’t leave visitors wondering what to
most valuable CTAs. Then, display do next; keep engaging visual content Your website should help you achieve
them prominently within your and relevant links nearby. as many business goals as possible;
website story and make them easy make sure it’s built in alignment with
for users to access. EXAMPLE your company’s success metrics.

Always make sure a user has

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE
somewhere to go on each page —

Give users the opportunity to there should always be a next step. Set realistic goals for your website
convert on offers that correspond to Consider adding a contextual CTA so you can track its success over
their buyer journeys. Don’t expect a to the end of each page or section time. Some examples of these goals
user to fill out a Contact Sales form of your website. might be: visits, form views, form
as the first CTA on your homepage! completes, pipeline generated, or
deals closed.

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 Track every metric that Make sure your Give users more to do
matters to you navigation is uncluttered after they convert
Web visitors (even anonymous Make website exploration simple, and Offer relevant new content and
ones) create a wealth of measurable make sure that your navigation tells information paths to users after
information. Use web analytics tools to a story that makes sense — think of it they’ve submitted a form or
track SEO, SEM, site browsing behavior, as a table of contents that answers downloaded content. Make sure there
and more — and use that data to inform common user questions. are no dead ends.
your website updates.
EXAMPLE EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE
Make sure every part of your Consider including additional
Most websites have Google navigation ties into the story CTAs after a user takes an action,
Analytics installed, and you should you’re telling. If there are too like filling out a form or watching
set aside the time to really dig into many navigation items, users may a video. Good examples might
this data. Try setting up events become overwhelmed and feel include thought leadership content
to track form views and form confused about where to go. or customer stories.
completes to discover which CTAs
convert most often.

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 Create helpful content Follow-up with sales about Develop an ‘ideal path’
your audience is asking for leads from your website and direct users through it
Research what your target market really Alignment with your company’s sales How would your ‘dream lead’ navigate
wants — from content and information team is essential to developing a your website? What actions would they
to experiences — and build your website that truly converts visitors. take, and what content would they access?
website to clearly deliver that to them Connect with sales to develop a plan Make that path easy for users to take.
and answer those questions. for every stage of the buyer journey.
EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE EXAMPLE Look at your top closed deals, and

examine the path taken by leads on
If you want to build your SEO rank, Develop strategies for what
your website as they journeyed to
try creating informative pages with should happen as leads become
become customers. You’ll likely see
popular search terms as the page increasingly qualified. Consider
key actions taken that you can use to
title. Our Pardot page “What is planning email journeys for when
guide future leads along a similar path.
marketing automation?” employs this sales reps first reach out, and give
tactic, and has achieved great results! sales a playbook for leads coming
from your website. Give away content and
information for free
Be sure to leave some content
ungated, to deliver initial value to users
and inspire them to explore further.

EXAMPLE

By giving users some content up

front, you can deliver initial value
that’ll help them decide whether it’s
worthwhile for them to convert.

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Marketing automation is an important
part of turning your website into a
lead generation machine!
Pardot is B2B Marketing Automation on the World’s #1
CRM–a powerful solution for driving conversions and
personalizing experiences on your website.

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