In this two part series I will be taking a look at how you can turn your website into your biggest digital marketing asset. How you can turn your website into a virtual sales person that will generate you leads and sales for many years to come and at a much reduced cost.
Most businesses are beginning to understand that their website is the underused salesman of the modern age. If they just knew how to release its potential then they would value it more.
I am here to tell you how to do just that.
One of the mistakes I see businesses make all the time is they spend thousands of pounds on PPC, search engine optimisation and social media advertising thinking that this will generate them more leads and sales.
When this is not working as they go ahead and increase the budget thinking this is what the issue is.
However this is not the issue, if you do not have the sales engine on your website then this traffic will always convert poorly for you. By creating a sales engine this will not only increase the conversions of your current traffic but any future traffic you add into the mix will convert at a higher rate, meaning any paid advertising you do will have a higher ROI attached to it.
This section talks about what you will need to build your sales engine.
Calls to action
Think of a call to action as a little advert that is highly relevant to what the prospect is reading on your website. By using calls to actions on your blog posts they will move your prospects through your sales funnel and help them become a known lead.
Calls to actions should be on every page of your website, it could be something as simple as contact us. You need to give your prospects direction and show them what the next steps are.
The reason that they are so powerful is that they are so relevant to what the prospect has just read and it advertises helpful content.
For example, a blog post on Litchfield website, a builder contractor talks about 3 Important Home Remodelling Questions you’re Not Asking and on this page they have the call to action to the right. It is very relevant to the content and is very helpful to a prospect doing research. This is all part of the inbound marketing methodology.
Image form Litchfield builders
Landing Pages
Does your website have landing pages? Every marketing campaign needs to have landing pages so they are focused to what you are offering. Your website should have many landing pages each designed to nurture your prospects into your sales funnel. Companies with 30 or more landing pages see 7x mores leads than ones that have fewer than 10.
Landing pages are the gateway to your premium content (premium content is discussed in the next section). 48% of marketers build a new landing page for every new marketing campaign as they know how important they are to marketing success. They can also be optimised for higher conversion rates which also means they help reduce your cost per lead.
Once someone has clicked a call to action they should be brought to a landing page that helps them decide whether they should progress.
For B2B companies landing pages will have a form, this form (depending on what stage of the sales funnel it matches) will have different fields that the prospect needs to fill in to receive your premium content. These fields are typically their name and email. This means these unknown prospects are now a known lead. We call these leads information qualified.
Premium Content
Landing pages are the gateway to your premium content and your premium content is usually longer content that comes in the form of whitepapers, guides and Ebooks. The goal of these premium pieces of content is to be helpful to your prospect and move them through your sales funnel. Inbound marketing is all about giving people the right kind of content when they need it.
When your prospects are at the top of your sales funnel the kind of content they need is guides, eBooks and whitepapers. As these prospects are in research mode they are researching products or services that they need or solve their problem.
This content should not be sales orientated and should not talk about your products or services specifically but about how services or products like you can help.
When your leads are what we call information qualified, which means they have requested information on a particular subject, you then need to move them down your sales funnel to become marketing qualified.
This is where you need to create premium content that introduces your unique positioning. A guide on what it is like to work with you for example. Once your leads are marketing qualified you then need to create content to turn them into sales qualified so you can then reach out to them. Create a landing page for a free quote, free consultation or demo to turn them into sales qualified.
What specific kind of content do you use? Let’s take a look at ACME backup, a cloud back up company. Here are premium pieces of content that match each sales qualified section.
Information qualified
- The complete guide to more efficient enterprise data back ups
- The complete guide to outsourcing data backups
- The guide to choosing a cloud data backup provider
Marketing qualified
- What to expect when working with ACME Cloud backup
Sales qualified
- Request a free demo of ACME Cloud backup
- Free data backup audit
Conclusion
By creating calls-to-actions to entice your audience to download your expert advice and guides, these people will become a known lead to your business. Also by creating landing pages that promote your premium offers your website will soon become your biggest digital marketing asset. Look out for part two soon.
Now it’s your turn
What part does your website play in your digital marketing strategy?