
Public Relations
Communication firm receives recognition for its work on the 2021 Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Day campaign.
WEBSITE STRATEGY
By our News Team | 2022
Your company website is not merely to showcase what the business is all about, but must enhance credibility and generate sales leads.
Where previously companies relied on one-to-one, personalised consultations with sales agents to deliver sales, buyers now expect to be able to make purchasing decisions with minimal human interaction.
This puts company websites front and centre in a revitalised marketing strategy. With that in mind, Africa-based consultancy, Duo Marketing and Communications, lists five steps to turn your website into successful a lead-generator.
Photo by Cottonbro from Pexels
1.Listen to your audience and show them what they want
Websites serve multiple stakeholders or audiences, including existing and potential customers. Understand what they’re looking for when they visit your website and make it easy for them to find it.
Show website visitors how your product or service solves their problem. Do this rather than repeating technical specifications that might not be as important for key business decision-makers.
Technology is moving at lightning speed and businesses are evolving just as fast. But you can stay agile by:
2. Be ruthless about performance
The way we consume media is changing. Users are more impatient than ever, and if your website takes too long to load or doesn’t work on mobile, they’ll simply drop off.
Grab their attention with relevant messaging upfront, or the rest of your work is futile. Users take only seconds to decide whether to click on banner ads.
Success is a sprint. Stay ahead of the pack by doing the following:
3. Show them you’re worth it
Visitors typically look at a website up to 16 times before initiating a sales conversation. Think of your website as your global shop front. It’s the primary way of communicating your brand message and product benefits, so it must resonate with website visitors.
Organisations can become over-invested in social media channels where organic reach declines over time. On the other hand, they neglect their own website where they have full control of the user experience.
This is where you can show visitors – through quality content, design and user journey – that you are a credible, trustworthy and dependable business partner with value to add. Put your best foot forward in the following ways:
4. Make it beautiful, but make it searchable too
Your website must be functional, beautiful and search-engine friendly. Too often, there’s a mismatch between company terminologies and the search terms potential customers are using. Diving into Google Analytics will help you to join the dots.
SEO, email marketing, social media and advertorials all have a role to play in generating traffic and, ultimately, potential leads to your site. Advertorial can provide an initial burst for campaigns.
Engage in remarketing for returning visitors. Integrate SEO at every step; and don’t just focus on Google Keyword Ranking. Also consider other search engines such as Bing. Additionally, consider a website audit that looks at: copy; brand image; visual language; SEO; user journey; and analytics.
5. Focus on credibility
Public relations remains essential in establishing your brand as trusted, reliable and credible. This is hard to establish via advertising and social media, and is most persuasive from a third-party source such as a media article. Establish your business as a trusted brand by:
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