5 Easy Things You Can Do to Improve Your Website in 2018
by Grayson Lafrenz •
As we wrap up Q1 of 2018, your team – as with most businesses – have aggressive plans in place to acquire more clients, scale revenue, and grow profits. The internet continues to solidify its presence as a resource to shoppers in offering places to shop and a way to evaluate services or partners. The opportunity is greater than ever before to use this as a key driver of your growth. However, your company is not the only one coming to this realization; the internet landscape is more competitive now than ever before, making it even more critical to have a detailed, specific, and up-to-date strategy and digital marketing plan in order to stand out from your competitors.
So, here are five quick things you can address to give your brand a better chance to win more online recognition and customer traffic. Most marketers underestimate the importance of these things and it holds them back when it comes to digital marketing.
Security
With a string of huge companies recently suffering data leaks due to lack of security, internet security in regards to people’s private information is in the spotlight. Incorporating SSL (secure sockets layer) is a huge step your website can take to protect against these type of data breaches. It will not only give your customers a sense of security when making a purchase and entering personal information, but Google also scrutinizes security practices and prioritizes those sites who have it.
Mobile First
Mobile optimization has been talked about by many for a while now. But, as we wrap up the first quarter, we are seeing a lot more website traffic from mobile devices as opposed to desktops. This trend is only going to increase as mobile devices become faster and easier for consumers to view content, do research, and shop. But, as we comb through the analytics across many industries, we typically find that conversion rates from mobile customers are only a fraction compared to those originating from desktops.
Why the discretion? Some would say it is due to shoppers researching more on the go and then making the final transaction from a desktop. However, when we dove deeper into multi-touch attribution models, we found that scenario was the case some of the time, but a huge barrier to mobile conversions is actually due to a poor mobile experience.
To improve the experience of your mobile site, evaluate two things: speed and navigation. Site speed creates frustration for consumers, especially on mobile devices when they might have a slower internet connection to begin with. Make sure you are doing all you can to improve what is within your control. In regards to navigation, consider that every step a consumer needs to take to complete a purchase results in at least a 25% drop in conversions. Take 20 minutes and navigate through your mobile site. Move through your site and check with a product or submit a lead form while asking yourself, is this process smooth? Can I easily navigate from page to page? Or, how many steps did it take to complete check out? These are barriers that you need to simplify and remove so your customers can convert quickly.
Remarketing Program
Multiple studies show that internet users are becoming more sophisticated and it takes numerous touches to ultimately convert someone to a purchase or to become a lead. The problem with this is that if your website is the first or second touch in someone’s consumer research process, there is a high probability that you won’t be the fourth or fifth touch where they convert and purchase. Unfortunately, that conversion will probably go to one of your competitors instead. The solution? A really simple but well thought out remarketing strategy.
Remarketing is a targeting option offered by nearly every ad network, from display to search to Facebook and YouTube. Remarketing leverages a pixel to “mark” a visitor, allowing you to follow them around and nurture them with advertisements in a very efficient and effective way. If you don’t have a remarketing program in place, you need to get one now. If you do have one already, it may need improvement.
When using remarketing, you need to have a very customized approach to your messaging so you’re not repetitive and slamming a consumer with the same message over and over again. Instead, provide compelling content and imagery in your ads to foster a connection with them and speak to their core value propositions during your various interactions with them.
Headline Messaging
Another critical component when it comes to ensuring people come to your website in the first place is being able to hit an emotional trigger within them, express your product fit, and show them how you solve a major problem they have. Headline messaging is usually the difference between someone bouncing off your page or continuing further down the page and digesting your content.
When crafting your messaging, be sure it resonates with your target audience’s problems while expressing your value and your proposition in a very short, concise sentence or two. We have found that brands typically struggle to do this effectively because they are so close to their product, service, or industry resulting in language and terminology which doesn’t connect with a typical prospect. Fixing this on your site will increase your results, no doubt about it.
Bonus tip: Visit your analytics account and filter by your top 20 most highly trafficked pages. Evaluate your headline messaging on those pages and be honest in your assessment. Improving those 20 pages is a sniper’s approach to improving the way your website resonates with prospects.
An email database is a major asset for any and all brands. However, for your email list to be an effective tool, you must do three things:
- Build a database which captures high quality prospect information and emails,
- Segment this information so that you have clear data points on which products or services those prospects had an interest in and other differentiators that will allow you to truly customize your messaging to different lists, and
- Have a detailed and intelligent email program so you are providing tremendous value to the people rather than constantly taking from them or pushing them to buy. They should feel lucky to be on your list, not annoyed.
Creating this scenario is not easy, but can be accomplished with smart processes and automation which allows you to setup a scalable system, minimizing the ongoing work. You will then be free to focus on nurturing previous customers, finding new business, creating more referral partners, and converting prospects that are not ready to buy onto your list, so you can have more interactions with them, similar to remarketing, and control the buying process.
Addressing these five aspects of your marketing strategy will make a huge impact on your consumer’s overall experience with your brand. And with an improved experience, comes more trust and increased probability of conversion. You should be able to evaluate each thing on this list in a matter of minutes, but the results will be long-lasting.