1. Keep it simple.
Studies today show, you only have 8 seconds to convince a prospect how you can help. Does your website describe your product or service in a concise, compelling and visual fashion in that timeframe?
With millions of Google hits for a given search term, prospects are looking for exactly what they’ve typed in or they move on to the next search result.
2. Value First, Brand Second
Don’t make the mistake of dragging your business value behind you by leading with the brand name of your product, service or company. Push your business value out in front of you and set yourself above the competition by using “Value Forward” methodology!
3. Call to Action
Once you’ve got their attention you must have calls to action like an offer of a free white paper, webinar, or newsletter to harvest prospect contact information.
4. Easy Navigation
Your website must be easy to navigate with less than 7 navigation buttons on the home page.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Make sure your site appears high on search engines’ results pages. By including the right keywords and phrases, your site will appear higher up on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines. The key to keywording is translating what your product or service does into appropriate “Value Forward” keywords and phrases that will turn your visitors into qualified sales leads.
6. Pay Per Click (PPC)
Your sponsored or PPC listing on a search engine results page (SERP) must call out to the person reading it. If you’re not appealing directly to the person who is reading your ad, you risk them seeing it without realizing how it relates to them. In many situations it may even be necessary to develop new landing pages to help increase site level conversion.
7. Podcasting and YouTube
Podcasting and YouTube are new and simple technologies that you may want to take a look at. All you need to get started is a decent microphone, a digital audio or video recorder and editing software.This is a great strategy for many small businesses for several reasons. A voice, or video reference or testimonial rather than words on a website can convey conviction, credibility and personality.
Are you interested in insuring your solutions, products and services are conveyed in a compelling fashion on your website? Yes, your web designer will provide the actual website design and artwork, BUT it’s up to you to know what the content should be. Most importantly, you need to supply content that will trigger search engine hits and drive qualified traffic to your website.
When you’re not experienced or don’t have the budget to have web strategy, marketing, sales or systems people on staff, or simply don’t have the bandwidth, get help! Smart business owners surround themselves with consultants that are strong where they are weak.
8. Track Your Customer Conversation Ratio.
It is not how many unique visitors come to your website that is important. It is how many you can identify as prospects. Most companies today spend large amounts of marketing dollars on tradeshows, advertising, email marketing, direct mail and corporate branding; driving thousands of potential buyers to their website . . . yet they don’t know who is there and don’t have engagement devices to capture their name. To generate more leads, track your Customer Conversation Ratio, through your daily audit logs as well as the names of those who sign up for your free information.
Filed under: Business Development Practice
