In this day and age, most businesses have websites. In fact, customers expect you to have a website if you want to be perceived as credible. The problem is not all businesses build their website with the intention of catering to the end user — this causes massive issues. After all, the purpose of many websites is to present information to the end user, so they will engage with your business.
When reviewing your website you might feel great because your site looks like you want it to and has information described in a way that you like. But that shouldn’t be what you’re considering. What you should really be evaluating on your website is, are visitors able to easily get the information they need. Which brings us to the concept of sales and marketing funnels.
This blog talks a lot about digital marketing strategies, SEO, and how to drive traffic to a site, but the other part of that equation is getting someone to achieve an outcome that benefits your organization, also known as a conversion. This might be something like making a purchase, submitting a lead form, or performing a specific action. What is the point spending money and ads and optimizing if the final destination, your website, does not provide the information the user needs to achieve the outcome you want.
The idea of a funnel is to intentionally route people to specific content to increase the likelihood they will convert or achieve an outcome you want.
Case in point, if you’re selling a car to someone, different aspects of a car will resonate with different buyers. For example, some people might be more concerned about speed and handling while others might care more about safety. By being able to provide relevant information to the respective buyer, you’ll increase your chances of making a sale. That is to say if someone comes in asking about the safety of a car and you only talk about how fast it can go, chances are they will not buy.
Tips On Ensuring Your Site Is Optimized For Conversions
Like many things in the digital marketing world there are a lot of complexity when creating funnels on your website, but here are some tips to implement the basics. Also be aware that a funnel can start on platforms other than your website and that many of the tips below are specific to website improvements.
Create Personas
Write down who you think might be visiting your site (this can change in time). Identify what you think they will be looking for, why it is important to them, and what their mindset might be. Chances are you can come up with 3-6 different personas very easily. Knowing this can help you make a conscious effort and be objective when checking to see if your site caters to their needs.
Make Sure Your Brand Is Known
Your brand is the only thing that separates you from your competitors in many cases. You need to let customers know who you are and what you stand for. This does not mean making your logo take up half the page…. Rather it means using a tone and other unique elements of your brand to communicate your message about why someone should engage with you.
Good and Relevant Content
People want to engage with experts who they feel comfortable with. If you say you’re the best at something, but don’t or can’t provide additional information, you’re not making a strong case. Spend the time to produce content that will help the prospective customer trust you. Show them you’re passionate about your industry and able to help them. This could be things like tips and tricks to very thorough, but easy to consume content about what you can provide.
Content and Flow Audit
Now that you’re aware of the various personas that might be visiting your site, do an audit. How easy is it for a specific persona to access the content relevant to them? Ideally, from the first page they land on they should be able to EASILY be able to start down a path of consuming relevant content. If they can’t find what they are looking for within a few seconds of landing on your page for the first time, they will leave and go to a competitor. Follow the route each persona will follow and remove all friction.
Mobile Friendly
A majority of website traffic for most industries is now coming from mobile devices. A very common issue is that someone will only review and audit their website from their desktop computer. This is a huge mistake because the mobile experience is critical. Spend time checking and then optimizing the mobile experience.
Site Speed
Speed is so important for websites. If your site takes more than three seconds to load customers will have a bad experience, increased chance of bouncing, and decreased chance of converting. Check out this post on some ways to help your site load faster.
Retargeting
Retargeting is an advanced concept that will be covered in other articles, but the idea is to retarget content to users who did not convert when they visited your site. For example, if someone started to make a purchase, but dropped out of the funnel, you might be able to get them to complete the purchase by showing targeted ads to them on other sites. To do this you need to setup various tracking pixels. If you’re just getting started don’t worry about this, but it is something you’ll want to reevaluate later.
Keep being great and let us know if you have any questions.