Lead generation is a common challenge for most businesses, especially today when the online audience’s needs and wants are in a constant flux. This does not leave your website an exception, especially when you’re starting to build it.
Gone are the days when ‘above the fold’ elements were all that mattered. Unlike the traditional way of adopting newspaper practices to websites, we now have come to accept that there’s no such thing as ‘fold’ anymore.
Or is there?
In a study published by a data analytics provider Chartbeat, 66% of 2 billion web visits are spent below the fold.
While much recognition should be given to the Nielsen Norman Group for revealing that 57% of people surveyed spent most of their time on the upper fold, it can be culled that web users are increasingly inclined to scroll through the web, going further down to your page’s lower fold.
This raises the importance of your page footers.
What is the value of page footers, anyway?
Although page footers are located at the bottom of your website, it doesn’t mean that it’s less prioritized by your readers.
Sometimes, page visitors keep scrolling down the page as it loads, making them miss the juicy parts at the body section. This portion may include your sitemap, company terms, and conditions, privacy policy, contact details, or even links to your social media accounts.
This section is important because:
- This is where all legal information may be found.
- This is where you can put all relevant links to your social media pages.
- It’s one of the best places to add credibility to your website and to your brand. Say more about what you do, your social causes, awards or certificates.
- It’s the most convenient place for you to put your contact information.
According to e-commerce leader Shopify, your conversion rate would depend on your industry, size, and type of your product. If your footer is optimized well, however, it can help boost engagement and eventually, conversions.
Since page footers are important in helping you generate leads better, here’s what you can do:
1. Focus on key actions
This is a good chance for you to engage with your page visitors. Since your readers have nowhere else to go after reaching the end of it, make sure that you have enough call to actions to keep them on your page.
What you have to do is focus on key action items that you want them to do after reaching your page footer, but be careful in placing too many links. While it is also helpful to use keywords, remember that Google is filtering them all out so do not overdo it.
Source: Writers Theatre
Focus on your priority actions—make it clear to the users where you want them to go or what you want them to do next—and keep them hooked there.
2. Be straightforward with your CTAs
Since you already know what page footers are for, it’s now time to identify your business goals. Remember that it’s not all about selling; some companies optimize the website for better brand awareness while others want to focus on their CSR activities.
Source: Girls Who Code
No matter what your campaign is, create content and your call to actions based on your objectives. Make sure that your CTAs are universal enough for your general audience—this could be in the form of signing up to a newsletter, a download link to your e-book, schedule a meeting, etc.
3. Don’t forget to put your main services
Some readers may have a hard time scrolling up on your web page, especially when they’ve reached your footer section. Help them browse through your services again by putting all relevant links to your services down below to keep them exploring within your website.
Also, constantly reminding your readers about the roster of services you have will help them remember what you can offer them in case they will need your help in the future.
Source: YMCA-NSW
4. Let your footer mirror your landing page’s menu
You may not notice it yet, but most successful websites redo their landing page’s menu on the footer section. One creative way to do this is to group your menu items logically.
Source: Instapage
An example of doing so is making sure you categorize your action items into problems and down below it, put a link to the different solutions. Make sure, however, that these solutions are your products or services then link them properly.
5. Leave a section for sign-up and contact form
It makes a lot of sense to include a sign-up or contact form section to the footer page because more often than not, page visitors would want to keep in touch with you in case they have questions or urgent inquiries.
Make this easy for your potential customers. Require only the minimum number of fields to fill in and make sure that it stands out from the rest of your footer elements. Signing up a can be a pain for users if you’re requiring them to include unnecessary information. Note that the footer section is a great way for you to beef up your e-mail marketing initiatives so make sure you don’t miss this out.
Source: Tessemae’s
6. Don’t forget your social media links
One way to stay connected with your customers is by making sure they also follow you on all your social media accounts. And what better way to make this possible than by adding your social buttons to your footer section?
Source: Soho Hotel
The best way to do this is to align all your social media buttons horizontally on your footer and make sure they are all hyperlinked to their respective pages.
Of course, make sure that your social media content are published on the best time of day, so you can reach your customers’ screens at the time they are browsing through their feeds. This will help you boost engagement.
7. One last thing: include your company’s mission
We all want to know what brands are looking forward to and what they believe in. We want to know how aspirational the brands we follow can be, so it’s best to put your company’s mission on the footer section where they can find it easily.
Give potential customers an overview of what your company does, what you love, and how you can help them through your products or services. Just make sure to make this one sound personal to catch their attention.
Source: HeForShe
If you think that this section is too small to contain everything you want to share, you can create a separate page and put everything there, then add a link in your footer to find:
- Company history
- Our members
- Upcoming events
- Company CSR
Takeaway
The website’s footer page is often overlooked given the assumption that most people don’t have the luxury of time and patience to read everything on the website. However, you should make this one a priority just as how you are giving importance to your header.
After all, this will serve as a reward to you should customers actually stay in your page and read through all your content in the landing page. How are you optimizing your footer for better conversions today? Let us know in the comments below!
Sources:
https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2018/07/tackling-challenges-in-sales-lead-generation.html
http://www.mytemplatestorage.com/blog/optimizing-your-page-footer-for-faster-lead-conversions/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-lead-generation-form-optimization/
https://kickofflabs.com/blog/use-footer-convert/
https://neilpatel.com/blog/why-the-fold-is-a-myth/
https://www.abtasty.com/blog/above-the-fold/
https://medium.com/rareview/the-above-the-fold-myth-f0f93b1b9875
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/
https://www.optimizely.com/optimization-glossary/below-the-fold/
https://blog.resellerclub.com/does-the-website-footer-really-matter/
https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/speed-up-your-website/
https://www.sweor.com/uxandconversion
https://en.support.wordpress.com/add-social-media-buttons-to-your-sidebar-or-footer/
https://blog.sharelov.com/best-times-to-post-on-facebook/
http://www.mytemplatestorage.com/blog/optimizing-your-page-footer-for-faster-lead-conversions/
Naida Alabata is a content marketing specialist at Avaris.io and Grit.ph, and an entrepreneur. She writes mostly about business development, e-commerce, web design development, and content/digital marketing. Follow her on twitter @alabatanaida