Before making any purchases, buyers are doing most of their research online. They compare your company with the competition and may have made their decision without ever talking to a human. By the year 2020, customers will manage 85% of this traditional sales relationship without even talking to a person. We know that how you present your story to that buying audience is vital in getting the right information to your buyer and helping them in that decision making process. If we know they are doing their research online, make it easy for them to decide by bringing the right information to the right people while they are in the buying process research mode.
But what if your website is just a virtual brochure of what your company does?
What's missing?
Let's take a step back and talk about inbound websites.
A well-executed website tells your company story but it also will generate leads and start the sales process. Using Calls to Action (CTAs) will take your website from being a static brochure (with professionally done photos and copy) to a rocking lead generator that is worth its weight in gold.
Calls to Action, or what I like to think of as "another reason for someone not to leave your website," are the hooks that will keep your audience reading on your website and engaging with your content and offers. A well placed CTA will give you more opportunity to educate your audience and bring them down the sales funnel. Additionally, when you give your website visitors more options than just contacting you, you provide them with other opportunities to keep the sales research going before they make their decision. These other opportunities can also keep your visitors reading about the good things you do, will help continue the relationship, and get them to be on your team rather than the competition.
What's even better is that a Call to Action gives you the opportunity to provide targeted opportunities to your audience. CTAs give you an opportunity to convert site visitors into leads (which you can then nurture with emails and additional content offers). They suggest other materials for your buyer to read and direct them to things that are relevant to their sale research. And did I mention, they have to provide their information to read your additional content? This is a win win! They get to keep learning and you have the opportunity to reach out and add them to your lead nurturing emails.
So now the brochure style website is replaced by an interactive, targeted website that gets your audience where they need to go. To learn more about why your website might not be performing, check out my blog about having too much content on your site and about having bad user experience.
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