posted by CAPTIVATEDESIGNS.COM // May 11, 2010 // Build Your Website

Most organizations don’t focus on their target audiences or consider how their website will be used for lead generation or increasing sales. This is why most sites under-perform in these areas. You can increase website sales and website lead generation by applying some or all of the seven steps below to redesign your site and build an online marketing campaign.

1. Build a Website that Appeals to Your Target Market

Have you ever been to a website, but because of the way it looks, you immediately close out of the website or hit the back button and proceed to the next? Don’t let this happen on your website. Eighty-five percent of your website visitors will make a judgment on whether or not they should do business with your company or take the next step by the impression that they get from your website. Your website must look professional and credible and engage your visitors so they are willing to spend more time on your website getting to know more about your services and what you have to offer. To ensure that your website appeals to your target market, choose a website color that sets the appropriate tone for your business, include images that will resonate with your target market, and ensure that your website navigation is intuitive and easy to use. Most importantly, make sure that the design looks professional; try to avoid template websites, but if you don’t have a choice, make sure that the template looks professional. Websites that appeal to your target market are more likely to produce more online sales and generate more web leads.

2. Write Great Web Content

After you have set an appropriate and professional tone for your website visitors, the next step is for them to dig deeper into your website to learn more about your company and the services you provide. All websites should have the following basic pages: Home, About us, Services, Testimonials, FAQs, How We Work, Portfolio (if applicable), and a multiple ways for your website visitors to contact you. Your homepage should be an intro into what your company is all about, and it should highlight your company’s value proposition -- what makes your company stand out, or the benefits your company provides including a bulleted list of the services you offer -- plus at least one testimonial and a clear call to action. Great website content should be written with the reader in mind with a strong focus on what you can do for the reader. Get your content right and you’ll be halfway to increasing website sales and generating more new leads and business.

3. Call Your Website Visitors To Action

It’s extremely important to call your visitors to action and to do so often. A call to action is telling your website visitors what‘s the next step you would like them to take. By including a call to action, your enticing your visitors buy, learn more, or provide you with their contact information. Sites with clear calls to action often have higher conversion rates or increased website sales and lead generation per visitor than sites that do not prompt users to act. Some common calls to action include:

• Call Us Now
• Request a Free Estimate
• Download a Free Report
• Request a Free Consultation
• Chat with an Expert
• Schedule an Appointment Today

It’s also a good idea to include a promotion and create a sense of urgency in your call to action.

4. Add a Newsletter Signup to Your Website

Do you shop around before you make a final purchasing decision? Your customers most likely do. This is where having a company newsletter can not only provide valuable information to help them make a buying decision, but also can help you gain their trust. Offering a free subscription to your company newsletter is a great way to connect with someone who has visited your website, and who has an interest in your services but may not be ready to contact you. A regularly scheduled newsletter helps you to stay front of mind with these prospects. In order to increase your newsletter signup, add a privacy policy that assures your visitors you will not spam them or share their information in any way.

5. Launch a Google Adwords Campaign

Launching a web marketing campaign makes a lot of sense because it’s the first place people look when searching for products or services. The internet has literally replaced the phone book. It has the capacity to put you in front of people who are actively searching for your services at a time when they need it. Google is currently the top search engine and gets about two-thirds of all web traffic. Thus, launching a Google PPC (Pay-per-click) campaign is the fastest way to climb to the top of the search engines. Google allows you to bid on keywords that your prospects are using to search the Internet for businesses like yours; the higher your bid on a particular keyword, the more likely it is that you will show up on the first page of search results and attract targeted visitors to your site. Pushing visitors to your site through PPC can dramatically improve your website’s lead generation and increase your website sales because paid search driven traffic actively targets people who are searching for the types of products your company offers.

6. Use Emails to Close the Sale

Keep a list of emails for all customers (past, current and potential). It’s a great resource for you to inform your prospects of sales, special offers and company news. Perhaps they don’t need what you’re selling right now, but if you stay in front of them, you will be the one they think of first. In addition to sales-related emails, sending useful information and tips regarding the products or services you provide can go a long way toward building trust and credibility and helping you close the sale.

7. Track, Analyze and Refine

Marketing of any kind is a work in progress. To be successful and to maximize your return on investment, you need to continuously track and analyze what’s working for you and what’s not. Internet marketing has a great advantage over most traditional forms of marketing because it allows you the ability to easily track where your website visitors are coming from, what keywords they are using to find your website, and what keywords are converting into leads. With this type of data in hand, you can easily refine your internet marketing campaign to focus on the top lead and sale generating keywords, or perhaps focus your marketing on one site over another based on which one is giving you better results. Google Analytics is a great tool that will help you acquire all the information you need by implementing a few easy steps, and best of all it’s free.

Nicole McCullum is the founder of Captivate Designs, a web design company that provides small and mid-sized businesses with custom website design solutions including business web design, e-commerce web design, graphic design and internet marketing. Ms. McCullum has been featured on Inc.com as a Web Design Expert, and her web design tips and articles have been published in NY Enterprise Report and Strategy Magazine. For more information, visit www.CaptivateDesigns.com.

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Nicole McCullum

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