Forget your two front teeth. A lead capturing website is so much hotter this holiday season! If there is any tool most valued by digital and inbound marketers, it is the website. We are living in a world where almost everything can be done on the web. As of September 2014, there are more than 1 billion websites. That’s a lot of web presence! By now you probably understand the importance of having a website.
Of course, a website cannot be totally vital or exciting if it does not provide your company with anything. The best websites work for both consumers and the company who maintains the website, by:
- Providing necessary information to users, such as contact information, products lists, pricing, and answers to frequently asked questions.
- Directing users to other important websites that the company is a part of, such as social media networks or affiliate websites.
- Serving as a platform for the company to post new and relevant content, such as through a blog.
- Capturing prospect contact information through landing pages and forms.
- Providing useful analytics to the company, such as most popular service pages viewed and time spent on pages.
Do a quick self-test: does your website accomplish the above? If not, your website may not be up to 2015 standards. If you have been following along with our Facebook and Twitter accounts, we have been counting down 25 of the must-haves that your website should have in order to drive traffic, convert leads, and increase your sales.
Here are the main areas of focus for a high traffic, lead-capturing, sales-machine website:
- SEO – Make sure that you are able to drive traffic to your website through SEO tactics such as link building, page titles, meta descriptions, 301 redirects, and utilizing an xml sitemap.
- Design and Usability – Your website’s design and its usability are extremely vital. If the website’s user cannot navigate your site, they cannot discover your amazing content. Make sure that your website makes a great first impression, is consistent, uses imagery in the right way and has clear navigation.
- Content – 2014 was declared the year of content marketing by many people, and I wouldn’t disagree with them. This year it became so important to develop interesting content to post on your website and engage with people. What types of content should you create? Well, for starters, educate your audience and offer value. Be clear and make your content shareable. Explore the different types of content as well – switch it up a bit with infographics, videos, images, blog posts, and downloadables.
- Conversion – Your website doesn’t begin to do sales work for you until you add conversion elements to it. Make sure that you great offers on your website, and include forms to download or grab that offer. Capture your lead information this way, and then continue to nurture those leads with newsletters, or other offers that they may find useful. Help them discover these offers with calls to action. Make your CTA’s effective by paying attention to their positioning and layout.
This holiday season, give back to yourself. Ensure that your website is set up for success now, and you will reap the rewards in 2015, by downloading “25 Website ‘Must-Haves’ for Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales.”
Have a wonderful, safe and restful holiday this year. We cannot wait to see all of those magnificent websites in 2015!
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