Emerging digital channels — the rise of social media, the influence of online reviews, the importance of running a blog and publishing content — all seem to demand more than most marketers can afford to give. What's sometimes lost in the shuffle is the enduring value of a good business website.
While you need a variety of digital strategies in place to increase visibility and traffic to that website, there's a lot that simple digital property can do to improve its own value. Website performance metrics aren't only a gauge of your overall digital strategy — they also illustrate the efficacy of your website's offerings and design.
Brands should think of their websites as the centerpieces and central hubs of their digital presences, especially if those websites feature a retail store or other outlets for generating leads and conversions. Too often, brands prioritize their websites below other digital channels. But building a good website sets the foundation for the success rates of any digital campaign connected to it. Here are four ways to improve your brand's website.
1. Streamline Content and Design
Websites need good content, but they also need that content to help further their ultimate goal of driving leads and conversions. To that end, brands should build websites that offer informative content that activates consumers and helps funnel them toward a specific action.
According to Smart Insights, a website's design is also important: It needs to minimize distractions, keep tight control of the visitor's focus and steer them further down the funnel. In this way, content and design can work together to facilitate a streamlined visitor experience.
2. Provide the Essentials
Too many websites fail to remember their fundamentals. Contact information is important: Business hours, address, phone number and other basic info should be readily accessible.
Any company seeking leads through its website needs a simple form to facilitate the first point of contact. But you'll also want to include links to social media accounts as part of this contact information. Not only do those accounts serve as lines of communication, but they can also provide points of connection that will carry on into the future.
3. Make Your Sales Pitch
A challenge for any website offering compelling content is the ability to deliver a quick sales pitch. Why should customers be interested in your company or what it offers? What are the benefits? The content on your site needs to answer these questions as quickly and in as few words as possible.
4. Track Your Success
Website performance metrics can speak to several aspects of your digital strategy, and you can use certain data points to shed light on how your digital campaigns are doing. Look for pages where visitors leave at a high clip — this might suggest that the page isn't doing enough to keep them moving forward.
You'll also want to track how certain landing pages perform when linked to various advertisements. And don't overlook the value of high-level insights like overall traffic, diversity of traffic sources and the average number of page visits per visitor — these can all be helpful.
With a strong website in place, you can position your company to improve results across all branded campaigns.
