Website for Marketing and Sales

The Importance Of A Website For marketing and Sales

In the world of marketing, websites are pretty much the one-stop-space for all product, service, technical information, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) and a primary method to connect with your customers. A well designed website for marketing and sale is a fundamental business tool.

From the main home page to the ‘About Us’ pages describing business owners, approaches and their history, your website should communicate everything that makes up your business. Your website should capture your brand personality and intention, as well as attracting the most visitors / search traffic.

Website Elements To Consider

There are a lot of elements to consider in website marketing but don’t let them intimidate you. In this article we will cover some strategic steps you can take to optimise your content on landing pages and news / blog posts focussing on

• What is a Website for Marketing
• Why your website is your best marketing tool
• Ways to promote your website
• How to create an effective website marketing strategy

Ways to promote your website

Website promotion can either seem like a daunting task to the uninitiated or something super simple (until you try and compete with others)

With an estimated 1.7billion registered websites in 2021 and more than 5 billion active internet users, standing out and getting found seems like an impossible task.

The good or positive news is that there’s nothing impossible about it, though it may take a large amount of effort. When you understand what your target customer is looking for and how search engines (Google) identify quality websites, winning is possible with the internet.

1. SEO

SEO is the set of methodologies used to make websites both accessible to search engines and appealing to readers.

Most people will find your website via a search engine, so it’s best to start with this channel. As the name implies, SEO is the set of methodologies used to make websites both accessible to search engines and appealing to readers.

Modern ranking algorithms like those used by Google are designed to sniff out dozens of signals that make websites useful and trustworthy.

Moz ( a great SEO resource that we use) have a great way of explaining the hierarchy of SEO needs. Working from the top to the bottom on elements essential to rankings that improve competitiveness

• Snippet and Schema markup to stand out in SERPS
• Title, URL and description to draw high click through rate in the rankings
• Shareworthy content  that earns links, citations and amplification
• Great user experience which includes fast load speed, ease of use and compelling UI on any device (mobile responsiveness)
• Optimised keyword to attract searchers and search engines
• Crawl accessibility so engines can reach and index your content

If you need a comparison to traditional marketing strategies, then for those of you who can remember think of SEO like supercharged business listing in the Yellow Pages telephone book. Rather than having to paying for a large ad to be prominently featured. SEO tactics  help your business listing appear at the top of the page where its easier for interested customers to see your information.

Today when customers have a need, one of the first things they do is turn to a search engine, think how so many people say “just Google it”. SEO ensures that your business is featured well in search engines, providing traffic flow to your website.

2. Backlinks

The web is a network, and movement between network nodes (websites) is crucial to digital marketing, and the whole modern global economy.

When you think about the reputation of your website it makes sense that you would want to receive endorsements from reputable sources. Equally you wouldn’t want to be linked with disreputable / dodgy providers Historically any back link had value, but with todays internet essentially, you don’t want traffic from irrelevant or disreputable sources.

Backlinks – which drive traffic from another site to your own – are extremely important promotional tools. Credible backlinks signal to search engines that your content is trustworthy and relevant.

3. Social Media

Social media platforms are so numerous nowadays with seemingly more appearing every week, meaning that marketers have their pick of strategies. From a brand’s LinkedIn page to a company Instagram, publishing content on other sites is a powerful way to get customers clicking back to your website.

There are processes for lead generation on these sites, ranging from case studies to memes. Whilst it may seem that as a business you need to do social media ( because everyone else is doing it) its worthwhile identifying if it is actually providing a return on their marketing investment.

4. Email Signatures

The average worker receives over 100 emails per day so put those outgoing messages to work promoting your website?

Any email that comes from your brand’s domain name should include a link back to your website. That way, any reader who is interested in learning more about your offerings can easily get to your site without any extra steps. It could be that you don’t want to send them to the “Home” page you actually want to send them to a specific landing page

5. Quality Authoritative and Unique Content

There has always been a place for unique, authoritative, quality content and in the todays digital marketing world, content marketing is more relevant than ever.

Good quality content provides site visitors with immediate value in the form of new knowledge and insights. For many visitors, it’s the sole reason to view your site i.e. they have a question, they type it in search and they read articles expecting to find an answer i.e. they want to know about website security on WordPress.

Great content on its own though is wasted, if the web page on which it appears looks a mess. Web design plays an important role here, great content surrounded by an unappealing user interface (UI) could cause potential customers to head back to the search results page before they can get to know your business

If you want people to stay on your site long enough to absorb your messages, you need highly engaging content that reads well and looks good.

How to create an effective website marketing strategy

Marketing your website effectively requires a deep understanding of multiple disciplines, including

• Modern mobile technology trends – from responsive designs through to mobile usage
• Human psychology – how people research, compare and finally make selection and purchase
• Inbound ( inbound marketing is the process of helping potential customers find your company) and outbound ( outbound marketing refers to any kind of marketing where a company initiates the conservation and sends its message out to an audience) methodologies,
• Analytics, for your website this would be Google Analytics, for your email campaigns this could be through your email delivery system e.g. Mailerlite

Step 1. Analyse your website

Everything you do to increase the amount of traffic coming to your site should be measured. It’s the only way to know how effective your strategies are and the only way you’ll be able to identify new opportunities to attract more visitors. As with all marketing, if its working do more and if your marketing isn’t working – question why not

For example, if you implement a content marketing strategy, you’ll want to measure traffic coming to your news / blog articles, the number of click-throughs each one produces, the amount of time visitors spend reading the content and more.

Every website should have Google Analytics connected in order to capture important important website data. By setting up a Google Analytics account for your website and running monthly reports, you will be ahead of many of your competitors.

Step 2. Consider Mobile Optimisation

With the advent of smartphones, the internet is quickly becoming a mobile-first environment.

More people are conducting searches, reading content and doing business from their smartphones every day. Data from Stat Counter shows that mobile and desktop search usage are almost equal.

Google began to use the mobile version of webpages for indexing and ranking way back in 2018.

To rank highly, webpages must be able to load fast on mobile devices and display their content in a manner that is mobile friendly. That means image optimisation and dynamic site markup are essential for SEO moving forward.

Managed properly, search marketing can increase web traffic significantly without raising costs exponentially.

Step 3. Map the User Journey

With Google Analytics set up on your website you can

• Identify how users move through your website ( where they enter, pages visited and exit)
• Establish how they find you – is it through organic search, referral, direct, specific pages or through an optimised blog post?
• See how long they spend on your webpages when they arrive on your site from your social media pages? We have seen many examples where social media to website results in low time on page and high bounce rates

Asking these and similar questions will inform your website design and help you develop a user experience that encourages visitors to stay longer and read more.

Your Google Analytics dashboard can show you where users are currently leaving your site so you can optimize those pages. You may want to consider developing multiple user journeys for distinct buyer personas.

Conducting keyword research will help you understand how potential customers seek out information related to your offerings. This step is crucial for getting your website to rank highly in SERPs. You may be surprised to find that your customers use different words and phrases than your sales team.

For example – the following are UK monthly search volumes

• Business Telephone System                  240
• Business Telephone Systems UK           15
• Business Telephone System Providers   1
• Telephone System for Small Business    181
• VOIP Telephone Systems                        21
• HiHi phone system                                 62
• Office Telephone Systems                     130

Understanding the nuances and fundamental differences allows you to create engaging content. If your main goal is conversion optimisation, you’ll need to ensure you’re hitting the right keywords at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Step 4. Develop Email Campaigns

Email marketing is still one of the most powerful and useful forms of web marketing currently available.

From enterprise organisations to small businesses email lists are the lifeblood of sales. A good list help’s you pull in returning visitors with engaging content, special promotions, insightful content and more.

Cold emails – messages sent to prospects with whom you have no prior relationship ( make sure you are complying with all GDPR requirements)  require personalisation to fully engage your target audience. Most importantly your subject lines should be eye-catching and succinct. The best strategies use content to capture visitor emails, then reinforce that relationship with additional, more relevant content.

Here are some email subject lines that have been tested and proven to get responses

• Essential resources to help you with < issue faced / challenge >
• Have you solved your < issue / challenge > yet?
• Lets talk about < topic / idea >
• Are you prepared to overcome < specific challenge / issue>
• <name>, looking forward to seeing you at < event >!

Step 5. Leverage PPC

Pay-per-click ads can be an effective way to drive more traffic to your site, but they require a more substantial investment.

As the name implies, businesses only pay when someone clicks on the ad.

We find PPC is most effective when used in tandem with another effort like content marketing, because visitors need more information than can fit in an ad before they make a purchase decision.

Consider targeting different audiences with unique appeals, such as calling out unique value propositions or promoting blog posts that address different audience needs.