Websites are cool, right? Many business owners are notorious for having slick websites and we like to show them off to family and friends. Getting those compliments is great and there is nothing wrong with being proud of your site.
However, there really is only one reason that we even have a website and that is to generate sales leads for our business. If we can get qualified prospects contacting us and asking about our services on a consistent basis, half the battle is won.
For most small businesses a lead takes the one of two forms. Either a phone call which is ideal for most businesses or a completed form that is then received via email.
Both are great but there is always a group of people that are not ready to pick up the phone or share their email. I like to call these “soft” leads. They definitely have some interest in buying what we have to offer but they aren’t ready to speak to us just yet.
A great way to reach this group is by utilizing an onsite chat tool. These come in various forms but what I like to use is something that is somewhat automated. That way, we don’t have to worry about staff having to monitor the chat nor having a prospective customer not getting a reply on live chat.
The only problem with a lot of these chat tools is that they’re often hidden in the corner of a website and visitors don’t realize that they’re there.
For this reason, I really like to use a video to explain to visitors that the chat is there and if they use it they won’t have to speak to a live person unless they want to. The video adds a whole new level of professionalism to the site and nobody can miss it.
More importantly though, this simple solution dramatically increases the usage of our chat widget as well as the number of sales leads generated through it.
You can see examples of how I’m using such technology throughout my site.
