Increase sales leads on your website by creating content your visitors love.
When you hang a shingle with your company’s website, defining your brand and perfecting your site design is your first concern. The next focus: getting visitors to your site.
Once you have traffic...then what?
For most small businesses, a website is a virtual storefront with the primary goal of selling a product or service. However, most potential customers aren’t inclined to pull out their credit card to the first website they visit; they want information first.
To stand out to your site visitors, you have to tell them how your products solve their problems — whether that’s a hotel room for the curious traveler, a massage for the weary worker or an e-gift card for the last-minute shopper.
In marketing terms, this first step in the sales process is known as the “awareness” phase (you can read more about it
here), and its purposes are to give information (“What do you offer?”), create brand awareness (“How are you different?”) and generate sales leads (“Here’s my contact information”).
Here are some marketing strategies to inform and engage your customers as you move them toward choosing your product or service.
1. Start (and maintain!) a company blog
Blogging is still one of the most popular business marketing strategies around. Your articles not only inform and entertain, but they also show that you’re an active thought leader in your industry. Bonus: Good blog posts will be shareable and grow your site’s organic traffic.
Don’t just blog for blogging’s sake, however. Your content needs to be useful and unique. Some topics that can generate a number of engaging posts:
- Elaborate on specific products or services.
- Create a case study by interviewing a happy customer.
- Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- Discuss current trends in your industry.
- Debunk common myths in your industry.
You don’t have to blog daily, but you do have to blog regularly. It can send the wrong impression if the last time you’ve updated your blog was 10 months ago, so commit to your blog writing as a regular practice. Write a few blogs at a time and then schedule them out in advance.
If you’re not sure how to get started, we can help you set up a blog on a new or existing website.
Related: The Non-writer’s Guide to Writing for the Web
2. Get active on social media
It’s undeniable: Social media is a must for businesses. Sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are perfect for short updates and photos, which takes the pressure off long-form writing.
Your customers are on social media and if they’re looking at your profile, it means they’re engaging with you by choice. That’s great news! Like blogging, however, having a social media presence means posting regularly. Luckily, platforms such as Hootsuite and Buffer let you schedule in advance and post to multiple social accounts at the same time.
A word to the wise: Resist the temptation to plug a sales pitch on every post. Keep 90 percent of your updates informational, lighthearted and personalized, and people will come back for more.
Related: 3 Ways to Curate Content for Your Social Media Channels
3. Create an informational video . . .
A short, informational video on your website’s homepage is an excellent way to educate customers about your services. Online viewers love them and video is shown to have an excellent return on investment:
- 76 percent of businesses said video helped increase site traffic.
- Using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19 percent.
- 73 percent of consumers say they’re more likely to make a purchase after watching an informational video.
A poorly produced video can actually have a negative impact on sales, so a professionally filmed clip is worth budgeting for. What’s the ideal product video length? Videos under a minute have the highest view rates on both desktop computers and mobile devices.
4. . . . Or go live on social media
Live social media videos (such as Facebook Live) can be an interesting option when you simply don’t have the budget for a professional production.
If you’re deathly afraid of going live, consider this: 82 percent of social media viewers would rather watch a brand’s live video than read an update, and 64 percent say that a live social video influenced their purchasing decision.
Still have stage fright? Try these instead.
- Have someone film you “in your element” (styling hair, cooking, performing a chiropractic adjustment).
- Ask a bolder employee to be your supporting actor.
- Show behind-the-scenes clips.
- Record your surroundings at an event or in your office while you narrate off-camera.
5. Design an infographic
Infographics display interesting information in graphic form. With eye-catching colors, shapes, and fonts, infographics are easy for your website visitors to consume and share.
If you have how-to information (“Common Uses for Essential Oils”), numbered-list posts (“6 Easy Styles for Short Hair”) or statistics your customers might find helpful (“Healthcare Trends for 2019”), an infographic is a great option for creating providing customers with useful information.
A few hints:
- Always add your website and company name to an infographic. Viewers can trace it back to your company, potentially leading to a call, email or sale.
- If you’re tech-savvy, use an infographic-creation platform like Canva to make your own. If not, hire a freelance graphic designer to produce a professional image while keeping costs down.
- Infographics are easy to repurpose and share. Post it on your social media profiles and add it to your newsletter, then use the information to write out a long-form blog article.
6. Offer free ebooks, manuals or buying guides
Though some marketers believe that free written content is less effective than it used to be, it’s still an option for capturing leads and engaging customers. Most companies require a website visitor to supply their email address to access the document, thus increasing their mailing list at the same time.
Written manuals such as ebooks, checklists and buying guides are easy enough to produce if you’re using some of the above-mentioned marketing techniques. Compile your written content and images into Google Docs or a Word document, export it to a PDF and upload the file to your website’s server (contact us if you need help with this step).
Not much of a wordsmith? Hire a copywriter to pull it all together.
Want more ways to engage your customers?
Getting results from your website is more than just having a great design. Each industry and company has a unique consumer profile, which often requires a custom sales process. Then, there are variables such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, and paid advertising. Integritive works will businesses of all sizes (check out some of our clients here) to create strategic online marketing plans that get results. Contact us for a free consultation to get started.