How to Generate Leads: Conversion Tips for the Life Sciences [Plus Free Guide]

In 1977 earthlings sent a package into outer space onboard the Voyager spacecraft. It contained recordings of terrestrial sounds—bird songs, Beethoven and greetings in 55 languages—and pictures—a woman at supermarket, people eating, a page out of Newton’s book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, among others. If there are extraterrestrial life forms out there, we want them to find us. And we sent out this breadcrumb to help these potential visitors locate us among the potpourri of planets.

Without lead generation, your website exists like the earth, a nearly invisible spec in a vast universe.

Fortunately, you can create your own Voyager-style beacon to increase page views and create leads. It starts with having a valuable offering that benefits your potential customers. Don’t think about what you want them to have, but instead consider what they can use.

Is there a guide that you can craft for your audience to make their lives easier, or a checklist that they can use the next time they’re in the lab? This type of content may not initially strike you as standard marketing content. However, it is effective more like a magnet and less of a hammer. Instead of trying to force-feed your marketing materials, make your brand irreplaceable to your customer. This sought-after content is exactly why your website visitors will be inclined to give you their information.

Once you isolate the right content strategy, the tactics should fall into place:

Make it an offer they can’t refuse. Leverage scarcity and the bandwagon effect to catch your audience’s attention and convince them to convert in a timely fashion.
Create a compelling call-to-action. The hard work of getting their attention has already been done. Help your audience move easily through the education, consideration and purchasing process with a clear call-to-action, CTA. Make the CTA stand out on the page with a contrasting visual element as well as making it very clear what your visitor should expect once they click.
Send them to a targeted landing page. This is a situation where, when you focus on everything—you focus on nothing. Let them learn about just one offering, and don’t let them get lost in the clutter of a full capabilities presentation.
Add a form. TThe two main reasons for adding a form to your landing page is to track where these leads come from, and minimize the number of steps a visitor has to go through in order to contact you. If the CTA is as valuable as it should be, your audience will be amenable to providing a limited amount of information about themselves. Be sure to keep the form simple and straightforward; don’t overwhelm them with an inappropriate number of fields.
Help people find you. If your campaign is awesome but nobody sees it, does it even really matter? Get your campaign noticed with search engine optimization, an email campaign, ads, or any number of other tactics.

There are many ways to improve lead generation campaigns, but start with these five items and you’re on the right track. Want to see a full breakdown of our top 30 tips, tricks and ideas for converting leads? Get our free guide now.

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