Website Marketing - Is Your Website Generating New Business For You?

Is your website your primary marketing channel?

If so ask yourself this question "Is it delivering new leads and enquiries on a regular basis?"

There are two key elements involved here.
1. Is your website being found by customers looking for what you sell.
2. Is your website converting those visitors into enquiries?

If you don't know the answer to this second question, a quick look at your Google Analytics should answer the question.

You do have Google Analytics installed don't you?

If your website is generating traffic but not converting, whoever created your website may not have thought sufficiently about the content and may have been more concerned with the appearance.

This process is flawed.

The design of your website should be the last stage in the process. You should start by asking a number of key questions.

1. Who is your website aimed at - who are they, what are they like and what style of website will they react best to?
2. What are your objectives - do you want your visitors to pick up the phone or email you, or do you want them to leave their contact details. Perhaps your website is primarily there to give your business credibility.
3. Having visited your site what action do you want visitors to take - because whatever it is you will need to tell them.
4. What is your strategy - what is your strategy for turning visitors into database contacts or sales leads? Are you using testimonials effectively? What about video?

Having asked these basic questions, you should then go on to look at the proposition you are making to your visitors.

Remember you have about 8 seconds to grab your visitors' attention otherwise they'll click away.

They're not interested in you

Also remember they're not interested in you or your business.
The only thing they are interested in is what you can do for them. Can you solve their problem?

So your first line of text had better tell them what you do and not just from your point of view but more importantly from theirs.
For example if you were a servicing garage, your first line might say:

"We service, repair and provide MOTs for all makes of car".

But what the customer really wants you to provide is the security and peace of mind that their car is roadworthy and won't break down on them.

So your second sentence had better tell them that.

It's all about taking action

We will then look at the kind of points that will make your visitors take action.

What makes you stand out from your competitors - what is there that makes you the right choice for me?Do you offer a guarantee and so remove the risk for me to trade with you?Do you offer a free taster so that I can trial what you offer without it costing me anything?What benefits do you offer me that your competitors don't?

Only when you've answered all these questions and have a genuinely compelling proposition should you start planning what pages your website should have and how the navigation should work.
Following that you're finally ready to put pen to paper and start writing the words.

But we're not going to write great screeds to text. People don't consume websites in that way.

They skim.

For this reason you need short, sharp sentences, bulleted lists and clearly differentiated sections. Large blocks of text will have them clicking away faster than a fast thing.

So if you take all these points on board you should have website content that will appeal to your target audience and copy that will motivate them to take action.

Mike Jennings runs Business Development Advisors - a marketing consultancy based near Guildford in England. BDA does companies' marketing for them in order to grow the business and win new customers. Please find more information at http://www.bda.me.uk/

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