January 12, 2017

Crush Your Competitors By Developing a Successful Website

Maybe your small business launched a new website within the last several years, but maintenance on that space has been minimal. As such, leads coming in have dropped off considerably. You’re feeling helpless and unsure of what steps to take in developing a successful website that generates leads, boosts brand awareness, and gives your competitors a run for their money.

Yes, there are numerous elements to consider when developing a successful website that will crush your competitors and increase sales. However, this challenge is much easier to overcome if you educate yourself on the most effective process for developing a successful website.

What’s Going On?

To gauge future success, you have to understand what your website is and is not accomplishing. Maybe you’ve contracted a marketing company to publish new content on your blog regularly, so you have leads coming in through that channel. Possibly you have a great landing page connected to your social media profiles that are driving traffic to your site.

A conversion audit provides invaluable insight into the performance of your company’s website. During this audit process, you will examine the following components:

  • Design and layout for both desktop and mobile platforms
  • Content
  • Search and social optimization
  • Product pages
  • Analytics
  • Digital checkout process (if applicable)

After a thorough audit, you and your marketing team will clearly see what errors need correcting and where to invest resources to improve the existing site.

What You Need

Conducting a conversion audit of your small business website also gives you the opportunity to take an inventory of what you make available to potential leads. For example, if you have a contact page on your website, is the information up-to-date? Are there new methods leads can use to contact you, such as live chat or social channels?

Developing a successful website that is a lead generation machine for your business means including:

  • Contact forms on every page
  • A working phone number
  • Genuine customer testimonials
  • Engaging videos
  • High-quality graphics
  • Action-inspiring words
  • Recognizable trust signals

Also, depending on when your website was first built and how long is has been since it was updated, it is crucial to consider the user experience. You might have really fantastic videos about the products you sell, but if a person can’t find them on your site, those marketing assets are wasted. Ask outsiders, like friends or family, to visit your site and provide feedback on their experience with it.

Test It

As you implement updated pieces of your website, it is imperative that you test each change so you can tweak as necessary to optimize for lead generation. Running an A/B test provides a glimpse into how users behave once they’ve clicked through to your site so you can improve the conversion path they take. For instance, minimizing the steps to contact your business is one way to make the conversion path easier for users to follow.

Additionally, testing provides you with an unambiguous plan for how to continue to developing a successful website. Testing gives you hard data that clearly communicates exactly what is and what is not working on your website. Something as small as the color of a “Buy Now” button can be tested so you can decide which color is attracting more sales.

Nurture Leads

As mentioned earlier, your new website includes plenty of contact forms. As users begin filling out these forms, your email list will grow. It is your responsibility to put those new email contacts to good use.

A sale isn’t going to happen on its own. You have to communicate with leads, provide them with the information they need, and demonstrate your company’s dedication to customer service if you want to convert them. For instance, a user visits your website, looks at your service page, fills out a contact form, and leaves. Now that you have that person’s email address, you can send them additional information about your services, share any special offers available, and ask them if you can help them in any way.

“Running your own business is no easy task, and your to-do-list is guaranteed to never end. This said, you shouldn’t use this as an excuse to take shortcuts when it comes to having online visibility,” explained Forbes contributor Nicole Leinbach-Reyhle. “Beginning with your website, it’s vital to position yourself online with a strong, professional destination that gives customers the impression you mean business and the motivation to want to engage more with your business.”

Does developing a successful website demand a lot of time and effort? Certainly. Will your triple your profits in the first week? Probably not. Is it worth the investment? Absolutely!

The digital marketing experts you need are a click away. We can help you with building a website, maintaining it, or creating graphics and content for it. Let’s get to work developing a successful website for your small business.