Do you know the purpose of your web presence? There are really two reasons for having your business online. The reasons aren’t necessarily exclusive in that they are an either or situation and oftentimes it is a happy medium.

1. Educate and/or inform visitors about your company’s services or products.

2. Convert interested visitors into customers.

My personal belief is that the converted visitors are then classified into paying customers as the ultimate goals. Isn’t that what marketing and advertising attempts to do? Obviously with paying customers you increase revenue and hopefully increase profits.

Lead Generation Websites are a growing trend in web development, especially as online advertising dollars are shrinking. Sites used to be completely focused on Point 1 above in informing and educating visitors. It was about pushing information out like buckshot from a shotgun blast. Now we look at ways that we can drive visitors that know what they’re looking for and are closer to the point of making a decision about your specific product or service.

A contact form in your site is only one strategy to help generate leads. There are many, many other strategies that the Visual Blaze creative team can bring to the table. But the bottom line is, if your web presence does not have any dedicated components like contact forms, Twitter feeds, blogs, interactive info-graphics, surveys, etc. then those people are actively looking for that information somewhere. Can you afford to have that be your competition?