You shouldn’t have a website just for the sake of having a website. There should be a strategic plan outlining why it’s there and what functions it should perform for you.
- Are you trying to showcase a new product?
- Are you trying to attract new customers?
- Are your products or services available to your users to be bought online through an e-commerce website?
These are many questions you should be asking yourself before designing your website.
Why? Having a purpose and goal in mind will help you shape your new website so that it helps you achieve those goals.
We also have to remember that your website is a reflection of your business. It’s your online storefront really.
Whatever the purpose of your website, it should be clear and concise. Most people are interested in getting something from your website, whether it’s a quote, product information, or they might be looking for a phone number to contact.
When you spend your hard-earned dollars on advertising or marketing you need a place to drive potential customers to and that place is your website. The biggest mistake we see people make with their website is they think about how to get people to the website but, don’t think about what they want those customers to do specifically when they get there. The clearer you are in telling your visitors to take action and how to take action, the more your sales will increase. You’ve heard that saying before you can take a horse to water but, you can’t make them drink. We like to rephrase it to you can lead a horse to water, and if you encourage them to drink, they just might.
REMEMBER: Your website might be the first thing a customer sees in terms of your business. It should reflect who you are and what you stand for, from the colour of your site to the content inside, it all matters — Make sure everything you put out there matches the personality of your brand! Having a powerful, engaging, and authentic website is key to telling your story and building trust with customers.
Now that, that is out of the way let’s talk a little more about the little things you can do to turn more of your website visitors into well-paying customers.
1. Determine what you want people to do when they get to your website.
I know we just mentioned this but, it’s important enough to repeat. Your goal can be anything from buying a specific product to having a potential lead download a piece of content. Once you have your goals outlined, think through what steps a potential customer would have to take to complete the things needed for you to achieve your goal. We like to call this goal mapping. It’s sort of like coming up with a playbook that they would use on the basketball court. Once you have a specific play for each of your goals, it becomes a repeatable process you can master. Once you are tracking your goals and plays it will be easier to look at the overall picture and know what you might need to change to achieve those goals faster as you optimize your campaigns and strategies.
2. Analyze the results against your goals and your website traffic data.
Determine where your customers’ buying journey starts and ends and create a map outlining all the pages on your site they would have to visit before making a purchase. With the right analytics tools in place, you can track your website visitor’s paths’ to see where people fall off the wagon if you will. Over time you might notice that there is a specific page that they leave your site from. Or you might notice that there is a specific page that people skip over when you thought it would be crucial for them to visit. Pinpoint the places along your map where customers get lost in the buying process and then work to improve those areas of your website. As you make changes whether big or small you should be able to tell which changes had the biggest impact on your sales when you look at all the data together.
3. Create a unique advertising strategy for each product or service you sell
Your customers will all be buying things for different reasons and they are likely from different walks of life too. If you are a hardware store for example the person that buys a snow shovel is different than a person who buys a bird feeder. One is looking to remove snow, the other is looking to attract birds. Therefore the imagery and messaging for each of those ads need to be different in order to best attract each of them. Once you have unique messaging for each product or even each category of products you can test which combinations of words and text convert the best which then becomes another piece of your marketing strategy puzzle.
Whether you’re building a new website or already have one, we can help create and achieve your website goals.
A website can be a powerful business tool, but if it doesn’t have the right foundation, it’s not likely to help you grow your business. Let’s define your customer + their buying journey, and then design a website that captures the essence of your brand. Along the way, we will build in strategic features like contact forms, online shopping portals if needed, and all the tools you need to map, track, and optimize your website to increase your sales in a systematic way. Book a free no-obligation consultation with us online, or give us a call at 705-242-8964 or 647-250-1494 to get started today!
