Website Marketing - 7 Ways You're Failing and What to Do About It
Posted by Patrick Hopkins on Thu, Jul 05, 2012
The old movie line “If you build it, they will come” isn’t true at all for your business’s website. Marketing your website and optimizing its effectiveness is an ongoing process – and when it’s mastered, it can bring hundreds of customers and millions of dollars in revenue.
But it isn’t easy – there are dozens of nuances that go into a successful website marketing campaign. Many companies find it helpful to hire an inbound marketing partner to keep things running smoothly and identify key areas that need to be improved.
Here are seven reasons why your website marketing might be failing, and some quick fixes that can improve your results. Whether or not you choose to work with an inbound marketing partner is up to you, but paying attention to these guidelines is essential to having a successful website.
You aren’t creating a good experience for your website visitors.
When you launch a website for your business, you have specific goals in mind. You want to gather more leads, build a reputable online presence and increase your profits. But in order to reach those goals, you have to encourage your visitors to explore your site. The design, layout and architecture of your site are essential to its effectiveness. If you have important information hidden in the backend of your website, or you don’t make it easy for mobile browsers to visit your site, you may be missing out on leads and sales. Think about your website from your visitor’s perspective. Are you giving them the information that they need?
Your website content is misdirected and unfocused.
Your website content is the only tool you have to engage and convert your visitors. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the areas that business websites struggle with the most. Typically, business website content is too general, uninteresting and untargeted to get results. In order to make your website all it can be, focus on speaking to a few key customer personas. These personas will represent your typical buyers. With your personas in mind, the content will be more targeted and more effective.
You haven’t embraced blogging.
In addition to your static website content, your blog is one of the best ways to connect with your visitors and give them information they need to make a decision. Regular blog posts can help you brand your business as an industry leader. They can increase your natural search engine traffic and social media traffic. They can also help potential customers learn important facts about the problems you solve and the issues they need to be aware of. Many companies shy away from blogging because they aren’t sure how to maintain a consistent schedule, and aren’t sure what to write about. An inbound marketing partner can help set a blogging schedule, assist with content creation and help your business maximize its blog presence.
You aren’t making use of social media.
Social media has long evolved from a passing fad to an essential for business marketing. It starts with letting website visitors know where they can reach you on social media. Be sure your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and Google+ pages are listed on your company website homepage. This will build a social media audience from your website visitors. You’ll also need to update your profiles regularly to keep the flow of information going with your fans and followers. Blogging regularly makes this easier – you can create social media updates from your blog posts, leading your fans and followers back to your website.
You aren’t using your website as a lead generation tool.
Website visitors aren’t going to leave their contact information with your company unless you ask for it. If you want your website to become a true lead generation tool for your company, you need to have a method to collect leads and connect with them. Offering a free white paper or tool in exchange for your visitors’ email addresses transforms your website into a lead generation tool. Once you’ve collected a prospect’s information with your opt in offer, you can nurture those leads with additional offers, a regular newsletter or have a salesperson contact them directly.
You haven’t optimized your website.
There have been several major search engine updates to Google, and the other popular search engines are following suit as well. If your website isn’t performing the way that it used to in the search engine results, it may be time for an SEO refresher. The biggest components in modern optimization are content, social media presence and the quality of the backlinks leading back to your site. You can get on board with a content audit, social media boost and a backlink review.
You’re not tracking your website marketing results.
Analytics and detailed reports are the only way to see how your website is truly performing. Once you’ve made these changes you can drill down and see exactly which areas of your website are most popular, how visitors are interacting with your website and how you can improve your future results. Tracking your results can help you improve your SEO, create a better user interface and
Are you missing any of these website marketing keys? Stop failing and start improving your website’s effectiveness!