Let’s talk about your website…
The BIGGEST misconception that business owners have about their website is thinking it’s a be-all, end-all solution to their lead generation problems.
They have too many other things on their plate and haven’t had the time to research and understand what the actual role of your website needs to be in their business.
You see, a website is actually a marketing tool, and without understanding how to use that tool and how to combine it with other marketing tools properly, things start to fall over.
You wouldn’t use a hammer to chop a piece of wood in half or spread mortar onto a brick, you have different tools for different needs. But when they all work together in the capacity they were designed for, you really can achieve your goal.
A website is a great source of information for your potential customers, explaining to them what you do, how you can help and how to engage with you. But, right now, what it probably doesn’t do is attract a substantial amount of new visitors or build trust with the visitors you get. It doesn’t have any way to follow up with people who have shown interest in your service, and it doesn’t have a compelling offer or value proposition that evokes action from your visitors.
The reality is when people are looking for someone, like your business, to help solve their problem, they are going to look at 3, 4, 5 and even more different companies. If you can’t be found, or haven’t built the trust needed for people to believe you are their best option, you the customer chooses someone else. If you don’t have any way of following up red hot potential customers that are on the edge of purchasing, you will lose that business.
So how does a website fit into my business?
You can think of your website at the heart of your business. It is connected to every area of your marketing strategy and channels, but there are other organs just as important to keeping your business alive, such are traffic generation, having a clear and concise message and offer, customer persona research and customer nurturing. The heart sits in the middle of it all, but by itself, it will fail.
How do I use other tools with my website to grow my business?
There are a few steps in order that is needed to understand your marketing strategy and how they fit in and around your website:
- Customer Persona: Who your ideal customers are, where their attention is (for traffic generation) and what their biggest pain points/problems are in relation to the solution you provide.
- Clear and Concise Message and Offer: Directly solve the problem identified above, explain how (in layman’s terms), show proof to build trust (testimonials of past clients and case studies) and make a strong offer/call-to-action.
- Website: Put these elements on your website home page or on a specific landing page and include a valuable free download in exchange for an email address. (start growing an email list of potential customers)
- Traffic Generation: Run advertisements where your ideal customer’s attention is (social media, search engines, influencers, etc) and send traffic to your clear and concise website.
- Customer Nurturing: For the 98% of customers not yet ready to buy, position yourself as the best choice via different messaging at different touchpoints using remarketing to bring them BACK to your website. (Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google Display Network, YouTube ads, LinkedIn ads and email follow up)
Following this formula, you can see how the website is the heart of the marketing strategy: hosting the content, being the destination of traffic and being the destination of nurturing and remarketing. Ensuring your website is set up to work on conjunction with these other tools is essential for success.
I challenge you, spend just 3 minutes right now to look at your website and see if it contains the above elements to generate and convert traffic. If it’s missing a piece, you’ve just found the area you need to focus on fixing.
Not sure how to fix it? Shoot me a message and I can help by pointing you in the right direction.
