Drive the conversation to identify leads

Website visits are conversations.  You, the site owner, need to drive the conversation.

Many websites have navigation in the header and even the footer, but few actually navigate the user through the site.  You don't have to know a lot about your visitors if you know what they are doing.  

Let's take ContourThis.com as an example.  The goal of this website is to generate leads; people and companies who may be interested in Conversion Rate Optimization services.

If a visitor chooses to read What is CRO? they may be interested in 6 Benefits of CRO, Case Studies, or Getting started with CRO.  But, they probably aren't interested in testimonials (at least not yet).  What is CRO? is about the industry not the company.  As a website owner, you can take this cue to continue the conversation without going too fast or pushing too hard.  Alternatively, if a visitor reads a Case Study, they may now be interested in Testimonials.  This same visitor is probably not interested in What is CRO? because he/she has already passed that point.

Give your visitors direct links to these logical next steps and encourage them to continue the conversation.

A visitor who goes from 

What is CRO?

↓

Case Studies

↓

Testimonials

↓

Services

is likely a very good lead.  If this guy doesn't convert you need to find out why.

A visitor who goes from 

What is CRO?

↓

Case Studies

↓

Tools for Successful CRO

↓

Getting started with CRO 

is more likely still learning and possibly interested in trying some experiments on his/her own.  

Using KissMetrics to track visitors can help identify high conversion paths.  Qualaroo can be used to influence behavior.   Or, you can build your own custom navigation to track and navigate your visitors.  Once you are controlling the conversation, 

• You can identify which visitors are good leads.
• Marketing can begin to be measured in the number of highly qualified leads brought in.
• And you can use conversion rate optimization to maximize the potential of those leads.

Disclosure:
*I don't have any commercial interest in mentioning KissMetrics and Qualaroo.
**ContourThis is used only as an example and does not necessarily implement this strategy on their site.  The pages referred to in this post may or may not exist or be public.