Make your website sell.
Advertising is one of the world’s oldest occupation. While modern advertising agencies started and developed into a recognised profession in the 19th century, the practice of advertising is deeply rooted in human history. It has remained and will always remain an integral part of business longevity and success.
When we build a website for a business which also utilises us for marketing and advertising, that website becomes one of our client’s most reliable source of enquiries and leads. Conversion is up to the interaction between the business that we represent and its potential new customer.
Website Traffic Analysis:
Analysing the number of website visitors between two clients in the same industry: one without marketing and the other with marketing, already tells the story. People are not idle; with ample free time to decide to satisfy their light reading passion by visiting random websites. The reason why people visit a website and spend a few minutes reading about an organisation is because they intend to do a business with that entity. The degree of engagement from that visitor will depend on:
(a) the advertising content that ‘linked’ them to the website that they landed on. The more enticing and the more informative the advertisement is, the more qualified that visitor has become, just before landing on your website
(b) if that visitor came from SEO – (activities that make your website rank higher than all of most of your competitors), your ranking pages need to have content that is compelling enough to lead into a qualified phone call; or, a contact form enquiry; an email; a booked appointment; or an online purchase, should you have products / services that you are selling, online.
Can you rely on your website as an ongoing source of enquiries and sales?
There are those who perceive their “website” as a necessary business presence on the Internet and it must somewhat look good… and that is the extent of why they have a website; then there are:
…those who decide that their website needs to be an asset to their business… and it needs to be an ongoing, valuable source of leads, for their business.
How does your Website become an important asset for your business?
- your website needs to be providing your business with reqular inbound enquiries
- for that to happen, it needs to rank at the very least, towards the top half of Page 1 of the major search engines for at least 3 core services / products that you sell
- your website needs to have the current / latest – at the very least, up-to-date information about your business
- invest in your website just as you would, with an employee… and aim for your website, to bring you more revenue than what you are spending on it: ROI… and hence, advertising – where your amounts of conversions bring back more than your expense
What are the most cost-effective ways of achieving the above?
- regular inbound enquiries from your website comes from being prominent online. This also happens when your advertising & marketing, points to your website for either
(a) more information than your advertisement could fit – (remember: your advertisement should be a short, sharp temptation that urges the consumer to want to know more)
(b) or for the purchase of your products and/or services that can be purchased online
(c) your address if your products can be purchased from your physical shop. That’s how your website enquiries contribute towards paying for your commercial office expenses
(d) your phone number or a booking tool, if an appointment is required - your website ranking at a competitive level, will depend on whom you have assigned for your website-related activities – if you can afford the services of a marketing and advertising expert, you are more than 75% there! A you-tube trained individual, no matter how advanced the course proclaims to be, can get you better ranking than not having SEO / GEO or AEO done for ranking your website; if you want your website to rank competitively, a trained SEO person will always out-rank a once-in-a-while SEO person; because things continuously change with SEO
- not having a dedicated person to keep your website up to date, means that often, you will realise that your information is out-dated when you are asked for a product that you no longer sell; or for a service that you no longer provide…
- how to achieve continuous return on investment from your website?
– ‘allocate’ your website, a realistic set task to achieve (e.g. 10 in-bound enquiries per day)
– setting a ‘target’ for your website (just like for a salesperson) means that you need to properly promote your products and services – “advertising”
– just like a salesperson, the more professionally your products and services are promoted, the better the quality of your enquiries / leads; and the more consistent the volume is
– MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE!... and keep the assessment realistically achievable. If you do not see enough daily traffic to your website, do not expect enough leads converted. Leads do not equate to 100% conversion!
– some leads are initially curious; do not ever see an interested enquiry as a time waster; be grateful that they made contact; based on your interaction, a cold lead can eventually become a customer
– depending on the quality of your promotion / advertisement, some leads will want exactly what you have on offer. The more you offer = the higher the probability to sell enough to keep the business revenue at an acceptable level
The day that you decide that your website is a serious additional lead source for your business, is the day that you will really appreciate striving for:
- Top rankings for Organic Searches – SEO
- Top quality advertising from affordable media – e.g. Social Media
– just because Social Media is still very affordable, should not mean that your business advertisements can be amateur…
your ‘Posts’ or ‘Professionally Designed Ads’ represent your business… the consumers who expect quality, will not respond to a post that looks unprofessional and has no structure.
Consumers are now already noticing the familiarity of Ai-designed ads… some advertisements unfortunately look like very familiar “short-cuts”… they have a very similar and recognisable look.
In many industries, your quality clientele do not want to deal with a business that uses short-cuts. There was an ad recently for a local pizza shop that very obviously looked Ai-designed, and the comments underneath the ‘post’, clearly highlighted the negative impact of a non-advertising individual, dabbling into the world of advertising - Make website enquiries analysis an important part of your regular performance meetings with your sales team:
(a) analyse overall number of visitors to your website e.g. fornightly – if you have fornightly performance meetings… monthly, if you meetings are monthly etc.
(b) discuss the effectiveness of the latest advertisements…
a great ad minimises the additional number for low-level questions; and maximises the interested-to-purchase type of questions.
Refine the content of the advertsements, as a team, during performance meetings, in order to increase their effectiveness. Leave the design aspect to the designer.
(c) develop a close, regular relationship with your professional, marketing team… choosing a proven, local marketing team, ensures local availability; local market knowledge… and, may even mean that your network is mutually beneficial for each other