Businesses in Lichfield face the same challenges that many businesses, do both on and off the high street. Declining footfall, higher business rates and higher national insurance and tax costs, all squeezing margins. On top of that, some marketing methods can prove to be expensive.
As a result businesses are turning online to reduce their expenses and increase sales via their websites and/or apps.
But here is the problem: the golden promise, of simply launching a website and expecting the leads to form an orderly queue isn't just a failing strategy, it's one that cannot be relied upon long term. Your website might look stunning and be the best in Lichfield, but if it doesn't get seen or isn't converting those visitors into customers, then it is a very expensive marketing tool.
Hey everyone, Robert Haylor here, Managing Director at Boost Digital Media. In this blog post, I'm going to walk you through some of the methods you can use to turn your website into a lead generating machine for your business.
Let's take a back step,
Why isn't your website performing
One of the main complaints I’ve heard these past six months is:
I have a website online, but it’s not really doing anything. If anything I am thinking of closing it down and relying on my social media channel.
If this is you, please don’t do this, grab yourself a FREE website audit before you make any decision.
One of the reasons your website might not be doing anything is because it isn’t being found in search.
That can be down to a variety of factors including:
- Your content not being indexed,
- No sitemap,
- Poor website speed,
- Weak keyword strategy
- Or perhaps you’re just not updating your website enough.
Equally, when a visitor comes to your website, if it is unclear from the off, who you are, what you do and how you can help the visitor solve their problem, then they are going to go elsewhere.
Are you shouting out about your website, on your socials, in your brochures, on your business cards. Your website is your digital piece of real estate, use it as such.
Finally, weak call to actions and slow load times have a major impact on the visitor experience and will result in the visitor simply looking at your competition and going with them for their services or products.
So how do we solve this?
5 actions to get more customers from your website
Below are five simple actions that you can take on your website today to begin increasing customer conversions:
1. Give a clear offer in 5 seconds
Your website needs to load in 3 seconds or less. Then you have just 5 seconds to showcase what you can do to help your customer. Your website isn’t about you, sorry about that, it’s about how you can help your customer.
So what do you do? Who do you do it for? How will the customer benefit from using your services.
2. Local SEO matters in Lichfield
If you want to be found in the local area of Lichfield and Staffordshire then ensure you include those keywords strategically throughout your content. This does not mean you repeat the location over and over, don’t stuff your web page full of keywords.
Write your content like it's for a person, with your chosen keywords placed strategically throughout.
Example titles, headings, meta descriptions and body text.
3. Call to action
Look, what do you want your customer to do? Complete a form? Sign-up for your webinar? Buy your product?
One web page should only ever have one call to action. If your web pages have multiple calls to action you run the risk of confusing your customer and inaction.
Keep it simple and keep it clear.
4. Compulsory mobile
Your website needs to be mobile friendly, it isn't nice to have any more, it is an essential part for your business. If it isn’t mobile friendly you are alienating some 75% of all Internet traffic and losing customers as a result.
5. Build trust
Ensure your website is teeming with testimonials, reviews, real photos especially if they are from local clients. The more you can show real work and real feedback from your customers the more trust you are likely to build.
Not sure where to start?
Now you might be reading this and thinking, I have some of these elements but not all of them, or perhaps, you’re unsure what is on your website. That’s not a problem, we offer a free website audit for Lichfield businesses with no strings attached, alternatively download our FREE website health checklist.
Let’s work together to make your website your 24/7 sales tool.