What your website should do for you
When was the last time you looked at your own website? Is there any information on your website that you refer to regularly? If you can see no reason to visit your own website would buyers have a reason? Stupid question you say, I don’t read my own marketing material, I don’t need to. I would then say ‘but your website is so much more than a marketing site, It can and should do so many more jobs’.
If you want you website to really work for you consider these jobs;
Job 1: Appear when needed
Job 2: Present what the user wants, straight away
Job 3: Convert
Job 4: Empower your team
Job 1: Appear when needed
Organic search is a whole topic by itself. However, the start point is content. You can work on this without worrying about any of the myriad of factors that will dictate your ranking in a search. List all the search terms your prospective buyers and customers could put into google. The ‘how to’ questions, the best practice questions, the problem questions, and then make sure your site, be it web pages, landing pages or blogs, answers those questions.
There are lots of free tools that will let you know how many people search for keywords or queries: A good one to start with is Google ad keyword planner.
Mobile, mobile, mobile. We all look at our sites on laptops when planning. The chances are your prospective buyer will first encounter you on a mobile, it is estimated over 50% of queries relating to B2B are made on mobile. To appear when needed also means to appear and be mobile friendly.
Job 2: Present what the user wants, straight away
The organic search: How quickly do you assess a webpage? You type in a search, options come up, you click and if the page does not immediately strike you as relevant you leave. There are stats on average page time but they are so content specific they don’t really provide valuable insight. Common sense and your own experience tells you that you have seconds to grab them. So you need to make sure when they click on a search result they get what they want straight away. This is a whole lot easier if you have set up your website to do JOB 1.
The direct search: They know your name and go straight to your site. The JOB 1 principles apply here. Think of your home page as a search page: Those are the most likely things they will be looking for and are they front and centre. It is not about promoting yourself [which is 90% of homepages] it is about being genuinely useful.
Job 3: Convert
At the very least you want their name and email, which means you need to provide a reason for them to give it to you, or lots of reasons, because every visit using a different search has a different reason for being there. Again, think about what works on you. Think about the persona of the buyers you want to attract. Then work out what you need to offer for each profile of visitor to get their details. Invitations to webinars, access to helpful tools, white papers etc. Beware the straight bribe or give-away. You want quality contacts not freebie hunters.
One of the big pluses of the digital world is that specific campaigns can be planned and implemented quickly and very cost-effectively, if you have the right setup.
Job 4: Empower your team
The beauty of digital is the ability to empower people within your organisation to help grow the business. Give sales the training and the tools to set prospects on your digital journey, give them the social media content they need to leverage their networks, give everyone the tools and training to react to a prospect's interests. So if they meet someone at a BBQ or on Facebook they know what to do, and for the prospective buyer, you know they will have a great experience.
