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Why a High-Quality Website is an Absolute Must!
More and more people are turning to the internet to get information on the products and services they need. Websites are becoming the most important touchpoint you can have with potential customers. Your site should not just measure up to the competition’s, it should be a well-organized, information-packed, lead-generating machine.
13 things you need to know to make your site more effective.
1. First Impressions – Your Brand
Potential clients form their initial opinion of a company based on its website. A professional look, relevant content and ease of use are essential. Is the site up-to-date with the latest news and info? Is the company attentive to detail? Bad grammar, typos and broken links raise questions of quality. Is the company up to my standards? If it's not they are gone in 15 seconds or LESS. After a prospect forms a general opinion of the quality of a company they continue on to decide whether the company's offerings fit their needs (assuming they have not dismissed the company based on a bad first impression). This is where your branding, strategy and USP reel them in.
2. Offline and Online Marketing
All of your print ads, direct mail pieces and promotions should be driving prospects to your site. They should contain a compelling Call-to-Action directing them to your site for more details, etc. You should go a step further by using a unique web address or landing page for each campaign. It helps you measure the effectiveness of each ad or mailer and actually raises success rates for campaigns. Techniques like this will help you refine your marketing efforts, making them more profitable.
3. Relevance
Now that your offline marketing is driving qualified prospects to your site, your core message and content must be seen, found relevant and remembered! You know from your own research on the web that you'll visit several sites to gather information, but there's always that one that you keep going back to that seems to address all your questions in a well organized and attractive manner. That's the kind of site you want to have.
4. Lead Generation
Determine who the primary visitor to your website is and make sure they can quickly and easily get what they want. When a consumer goes to your site you want them to take action. This may include signing up for a free newsletter, a consultation, registering for an event, requesting a brochure or inquiring about a purchase itself. A well written and designed website will help elicit these actions and is a necessary step to convert someone from a website visitor into a live prospect. Talk to your sales force. Find out what your prospect's typical preliminary questions and obstacles to buying are. Your site should address these to help pre-qualify leads and help convert visitors into buyers. Raising your conversion rate from just 1 to 2 percent is the same as doubling your website traffic, and it is almost always easier and cheaper to do.
5. Don't just Regurgitate your Brochure onto the Web
Visitors will expect a greater benefit if they take the time to check out your website. A good website uses compelling and succinct text, interactivity, intuitive navigation systems, etc. Everything on an entry page must be designed and written to entice a visitor to click. Use active words such as "Learn", "Ask", "Browse", "Sign up". Use "you" and "your"; avoid "we" and "our". Keep copy short and to the point with links to pages containing deeper information. Remember, you just want them to make that first click and start down the path.
Use effective headlines to help both your website and your advertising-specific landing pages. People read text on websites very differently than they do text on a page. In fact they rarely read at all, they scan. Headlines are one piece of copy that users will actually scan when deciding if your site is what they are looking for. So, writing headlines that engage users is going to be an important part of your landing page optimization plan.
Include keywords your prospects are likely to use in internet searches right in the headline and put the keyword as close to the beginning of the headline as you can. Putting the keyword in the headline provides split-second assurance to visitors that they are in the right place. It will make them relax a bit and be more receptive to your message.
Try not to sound like an ad. Highlight benefits rather than features. Talk about how your product solves problems and make an emotional connection with the prospect. Make your headlines easy to read. For example, instead of "Brand X delivers unprecedented storage density, industry-leading scalability and unrivaled performance!" try "Three easy steps to truly secure data!" Try testing different headlines to see which ones minimize bounce rates and result in the most clickthroughs to actual sales.
Don't forget subheads. They are another easy way to quickly offer more information about
your product. Similar to headlines, they're a piece of text users are likely to scan. Bullet points
and captions are also popular with scanners.
6. Images are Great but don't forget the Website Copy
Many businesses put a great deal of emphasis on website graphics and on creating a visually interesting site, but many sites don't have enough text. Although on an initial visit people will just scan headlines and subheads, informative text is reassuring to visitors and it gives search engines something to crawl (see Search Engine Marketing). Once you've succeeded in capturing their interest, satisfy their need to know. People often use the web to do basic research, only later going back to buy on the site or contact you to do business. How well you anticipate and answer their questions will determine whether you earn their trust and loyalty. Ask yourself, "What would I need to know if I were in the market for this product or service"? Thinking like a customer looking for information will change the way you write and organize your content.
To help your visitors see how your service could benefit them, consider adding one or more case studies to your site describing how a customer was able to solve a problem and overcome challenges with the help of your service or product. You might also add a "Frequently Asked Questions" page. A FAQ page can be a powerful marketing tool. Use it to address the questions you think customers might or should ask about your product category.
Writing articles and white papers related to your business and publishing them on your site can put you in the enviable situation of being perceived as an authority. It’s also a way to add relevant content to your site on a regular basis. Consider asking visitors for their email address in return for access to these articles. If you don't want to require registration for free downloads like white papers, try sending an automated thank-you email with a sign-up form for further updates and offers.
Sometimes, just by raising an issue and providing information, you will be able to establish a point of difference. As visitors research other sites, they may look for more information on issues, benefits, and features that they learned about on your site. If a competitor's site doesn't adequately address something that they have become interested in, you will have gained a bit of an edge.
7. Fear of Fraud
Although experts say using your credit card over the internet poses no greater risk of fraud than using it at a store or restaurant, customers’ fear of fraud on the internet is still an issue that needs to be addressed. Smart marketers counter these fears by placing third-party endorsements such as "VeriSign secured" or "BizRate.com customer certified" on their pages to give visitors the confidence to buy. Testimonials from previous customers also help to decrease these fears of fraud.
8. We're All a Little Lazy
Few visitors will scroll down your web page to find what they are looking for, so your marketing message should be short and sweet and above the fold.
You should also keep your registration forms short. Limit your page to six or seven fields and don't require too much personal information like phone numbers. Be sure to include e-mail privacy information so the visitor knows that you won't share their information with other companies.
9. Newsletter Subscriptions – Stay in Touch
Visitor conversions don't always happen right away. Keep your visitors coming back by having an easy email newsletter or special promotion sign-up on your landing page. If customers like your site or products enough to opt-in to these regular communications they are telling you they are a prospect. A newsletter is a great vehicle for staying connected and continuing customer interest. Some suggestions for making newsletters engaging include:
• Offering big discounts during slow periods for your business.
• Sharing information that only you have; if your site is an information or professional services site, use abstracts of papers or other special data that
may pique your customers’ interest and bring them back to your site.
You're more likely to keep your customers converting when you build a relationship with them by sending various offers, news and discounts directly to their in-box. This also works for continued sales to existing clients and cross-selling other products to your customer base.
10. Search Engine Marketing...Increase your Visibility
When people look for information on the internet, and that's where they are looking today, they usually start by entering a topic or keyword into a search engine like Yahoo® or Google®. You’ll want your site to be in the top results of that search. This is achieved through a process called Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
SEM is the practice of setting up and running a successful web presence while gaining maximum search engine visibility, i.e. the position of your site in the search engine results for certain keywords or key phrases people type in the search box to obtain information on products and services. Everything depends on how deep you are listed in these results. If you appear on the first or second page of results it's very likely such visibility will bring you many visitors from Google. If you are the 556th result it's unlikely that anyone will stumble across you.
SEM programs usually consist of three main strategies: Search Engine Optimization, Paid Inclusion/Paid Advertising and Web Analytics.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of changing the content and HTML code of your pages as well as the structure of your site to make them more compatible with the robots (spiders) search engines will send to read and rank them. The content of your website must include the keywords that your prospects will use to search for your offering. They must be used in such a way that the search robot will consider your keyword-focused content as relevant and not as spam.
Paid Inclusion is different. You pay the search engine and it guarantees the inclusion of your site in the index. Many search engines also offer advanced pay-for-performance programs like the "sponsored results" that you often see at the top of your results page, and sponsored links or ads next to the organic results (pay-per-click ads).
A very important part of any SEM program is Web Analytics – tracking and analyzing visitor behavior on your site. Find out the bounce rate for your landing pages – people who arrive at your landing page but leave almost immediately. Find out what’s working and what isn’t. Test different headlines and offers. Use this information to make improvements and raise visitor and conversion rates so that your site becomes a money maker, not just a business expense. Most website hosting companies offer these analytics programs as an upgrade to your hosting plan; take advantage of them.
See the section titled: Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization... Don't Leave Home without Them for more information on this very important topic.
11. Automated Emails
Use auto-responders to trigger an automatic email message for people who came to your site but didn't buy, abandoned a shopping cart, downloaded a white paper or filled out a survey. Contacting them when your site is still fresh in their mind with content specific to their area of interest may convert them into customers.
12. Multiple Landing Pages
Create specific landing pages for every ad and paid search term you use. Custom landing pages are so important for pay-per-click advertising because you are creating consistency from keyword to ad to landing page. Many campaigns fall short of their goals due to an overly general landing page which does not meet the customer's expectations of relevancy. Just make sure you include some branding elements that will help consumers understand who you are and what you offer.
13. Set up a Follow-Up Program to Act on Leads and Track Website Performance
Once you’ve developed your lead-generating website you’ll need a systematic way to follow up on these prospects. You can start with auto-respond emails to any inquiries letting prospects know that you received their inquiry and will be following up appropriately. There are lead capture programs than can import information gathered from forms on your website and add them to your database. You must assign someone to either follow up on these new leads in a timely fashion or distribute them to your sales force. Don't let these valuable leads get cold.
The website visit is a critical component of the overall impression a potential client forms about your company. You not only need to be online but you also need to be doing the right things online for the right reasons; in other words – strategy. An effectively planned site can outperform its well-funded competitors that are less focused and strategic in their online branding efforts. That's a competitive advantage you can't pass up.
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