What Is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of capturing names and information of people interested in something. For our purposes, lead generation often means someone provides a unit with information (name, email, address, etc.) and in turn expects something from the university. For example, when a student signs up to receive more information or registers to attend an event, they submit information and expect to hear more about what a unit can offer them.
These leads then become actionable. For every name, email, and address entered into Slate, a person can be contacted by units relevant to them. This is what makes lead generation and data entry into Slate so important. For every lead generated, relevant and quality content can be sent to the student and their family from any area of interest.
It is critical for all units to generate leads. The more leads your unit generates, the more students your unit can contact directly.
How Do We Generate Leads?
The best way to generate leads is to make it as easy as possible for someone to provide their information. The fewer fields you can manage to require on your inquiry forms, the more people will provide their information. Through testing on the Admissions website, we discovered that removing even one or two fields led to exponentially better form-fill rates.
This testing led to the development of an email-only inquiry form on the Admissions website. Introducing an email-only form required some changes to our communication plans, since we’re used to having more data on an individual aside from only an email address. However, this change led to tens of thousands of new inquiries because of how easy it is for users to complete the form.
Integrating low-effort conversion opportunities throughout your website, and working to drive traffic to those pages is the best way to generate leads. Make sure to keep any contact forms, event sign-up forms, or email list sign-up forms as minimal as possible. This will help your unit generate the most leads possible.