September 17, 2018
There’s nothing more frustrating than starting the week with an empty sales inbox - particularly when you’ve recently had a new website designed specifically to bring in more business.
What gives? Why is the website attracting lots of visitors (according to Google Analytics) but failing to tempt them to get in touch?
Conversion rates online are generally pretty low, but if your website isn’t producing any leads at all, here’s a few things you might want to take a look at.
This is one of the simplest ways to check the effectiveness of your website as a lead generation tool, yet one that so may people overlook.
Put yourself in the mindset of a customer and use the website yourself. Pretend you know nothing about the business at all but have a passing interest in the offering. How does it feel? Are you immediately captivated by the homepage? Is it obvious what you should do next at each stage of the journey?
By thinking like a potential customer, you’ll quickly spot holes in the design of your website. It might be that the navigation is confusing, or that the call-to-action (CTA) just isn’t clear (or available at all). Make plenty of notes, and take them back to your web designer!
Calls-to-action are the beating hearts of business websites. Without them, the sites themselves are nothing more than elaborate business cards.
A CTA is usually a button that tempts visitors to do something that starts the process of committing them to your brand. It can be as direct as ‘Buy now!’, or more subtle if you simply want to gradually nurture the relationship by asking them to download your latest eBook.
You CTAs should always be front-and-centre and within the viewable area of your website without any form of scrolling.
Remember - every click of that CTA is a potential lead, so make sure it isn’t buried pages deep!
‘Brochure websites’, as they’re often referred to, certainly have a place, but unless you simply want somewhere to which you can point people you’ve already engaged, they’re pretty useless when it comes to drumming up new business.
The best way to design a website with the sole purpose of generating new leads is to think of it as a funnel. Just as water flows down mountains to reach villages, visitors need to be guided through your website to the eventual destination which results in direct contact with your business.
Chances are, you won’t get it right the first time, either, but the great thing about website analytics and a funnel design is that you can identify where people are dropping off and make changes to remove any blockages that are stopping the water from flowing.
People want to see what goes on behind-the-scenes at businesses; they want to know they’re investing in a company that cares about its products, the industry and - increasingly - the well-being of this planet and its inhabitants.
If your website is too corporate, stuffy and devoid of any human interest, visitors will quickly head elsewhere. Make sure you at least have an ‘about us’ page with photos of staff and playful tidbits about their character and write copy that speaks to customers as you would do over the phone.
We’ve only scratched the surface above, but these are some of the most common reasons websites fail to convert.
Of course, if you’re in the planning stages of your new website, make sure you invest in the services of a great web design agency to avoid falling into these traps!