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Is Your Website Working Hard Enough?

Despite significant investment, websites are possibly the most commonly misused marketing tool. Well designed and full of functionality many organisations are truly proud of the image the company website projects. So why do so many B2B websites deliver little in the way of concrete opportunities and closed business? Managing Directors, Sales Directors and Marketing Directors might be impressed when they see visitor numbers climbing. But this turns to disillusionment when the numbers do not turn into revenue.

Websites are like many things in life, it’s not what you’ve got: it’s how you use it.

If you suspect that your website could deliver more quality business opportunities, then you may need to adjust your strategy. This does not mean spending thousands of pounds on optimisation, design or PPC. But it does mean reviewing when and how customers and prospects interact with your organisation.

Point of entry?

How do you currently generate most of your leads? Cold calling, exhibitions, direct mail? And at what point of maturity are your prospects when they first look at your website? It is important to understand when potential customers first interact with your organisation and where they are in the buying cycle. Typically individuals don’t type ‘accountancy software’ into a search engine unless they are looking to evaluate options. So creating leads via search engine optimisation and pay-per-click, means getting a stream of visitors who are comparing your company/product against the competition.

If potential customers’ initial contact is via a search engine then your site has to work doubly hard: first it has to convince the buyer that they need your product/service. Then it has to convince the buyer that your product/service is better value than all your competitors (and a simple search engine trawl will deliver lots of competitors).

Hardly surprising then that large visitor numbers don’t equate to large numbers of opportunities closed.

Continuing the journey

Most business investments are made after buyers have ‘journeyed’ through a series of logical steps (from obsolecence, through solution search to purchase – the buying cycle).

Has your site been built to help buyers through a logical process that leads to purchase? Many sites simply provide a description of the company, its services and customers. How potential customers interact with your site has a significant impact on your success.

Information required by buyers who are just beginning to recognise they have a need is different to someone conducting due diligence on your organisation. Do customers who are trying to solve problems land immediately on a thought leadership and resources page? Are they immediately able to download whitepapers which help them to understand the issues and build a coherent business case? Or do they usually enter via the home page, need a degree in investigative journalism and make several ‘clicks’ before getting to the information they require?

Structuring your site so that visitors are presented with information relevant to their position in the buying cycle is a first step. The objective is to design a site that enables individuals’ to progress through a series of logical steps towards purchase.

Continually review

Could your current site be working harder for you? Even the best designed and performing sites need constant review. Copy gets tired and a ‘static site’ is not as attractive to search engines. More importantly, it is not attractive to potential clients.

Next week’s blog will provide a checklist to help you marshal your thoughts on what your website should be doing for you.

Or, if you simply can’t wait for next week then call: 01252 620206 email richard.donoghue@apmdigital.co.uk or leave a post below.

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Posted: July 28th, 2009 / 8 Comments /

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