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Most small business websites suck. That means clients think the business sucks too.
A DIY, low-cost website that isn’t built to convert won’t convert. Showcasing your work is fine and dandy if you want to spend all your time hunting down leads and responding to RFPs.
You know you’re interested in having a website that does some of that work for you — who wouldn’t be. So, here are 5 ways to improve your site and your operations in 2021.
Take your customer service seriously
Important content might be buried 12 items deep on an FAQ page. Or you’re one of those businesses who didn’t think it was necessary to include your phone number. Whatever the reason, it stops the lead from becoming a buyer.
It’s a terrible, outdated customer service model.
Get with what’s new. Don’t add another 20 pages to your site. Instead, adopt responsive customer support software. Chatbots are leading this revolution. They’re an affordable 24/7 option even for freelancers and small businesses.
Today’s bots do more than just list your hours or contact information. They can engage your leads to provide service descriptions. Link to specific pages. Exchange an eBook for an email. And many can track follow-up visits.
Your site is now answering questions and providing services in ways customers guide. They can get chatbots to answer simple questions. Or, they’ll ask the chatbot how to report an issue and use the tools it suggests. They’ll find it easy and valuable.
That’s true for Millennials and Baby Boomers alike. More than half see these types of interactions as benefits.
Live chat and chatbots offer a second, precious benefit to your business: qualifying leads. Turn interest and customer service requests into leads all within the same window.
The conversational nature of these bots is your secret weapon. Leads are most valuable when they take an action you want.
Bots can be set to ask a variety of simple questions that adapt the offer or request to the individual. Something as simple as asking for a name and email address to send a chat recap can get someone in your system. Questions about specific products can determine coupons or package offers.
For example, route planning software Track-POD offers to book directly a demo through their chatbot or an online meeting.
If your site detects a repeat visitor, the chatbot prompt can change its greeting. Try promoting a free consultation. You’re able to judge if someone is getting ready to buy. (Even the visitor shutting down the chatbot window is useful because it can mean they aren’t prepared to buy yet.)
Chatbots also let you get a little creative in your problem-solving. Say someone looks like a significant lead by meeting predefined criteria. But, they ask a question your chatbot can’t answer. Tweak its response to note how valuable of a visitor they are and that they deserve an answer right away. The background process can be the same standard outreach, but you get a boost in perception.
Make your video worth a million words
Every marketing-focused list today discusses how to boost sales and traffic with video. The medium is growing faster than most of us can understand, and it’s proven itself as a sales and service tool.
Companies that drive traffic with video content are, right now, growing 49% faster than those who don’t.
Video is everywhere, and you can use it everywhere too. Add video throughout your marketing funnel. This includes email pitches, where you could increase the number of discovery meetings you book by up to 500%.
The video you make can also follow traditional marketing goals:
- Welcome visitors and highlight services.
- Turn a case study into a look at your processes.
- Showcase your people and tech
- Offer a personalized “thank you” message when someone takes action on your site
Showcase your personality and company culture. Create a connection and invite people to join you, not just buy from you.
Remember, posture, body language, the sincerity in your voice can all come across in the video. It’s entirely unlike anything else on your website. Being trustworthy helps create intimacy right away, especially if the video feels like you’re talking directly to the viewer, which vaults you significantly far beyond the cold, distant copy on your site.
Best of all, a strong response to a video means you’ve got a compelling piece of content and take on the video topic. Turn that into a blog post or a landing page to reach customers who don’t click on a video link the first time. Then share it on your social channels. And add them to the profiles you make for your business on services like Upwork.
Bonus tip: If you advertise on Facebook, you might be interested to know that 85% of video views on the service happen with the sound turned off.
Create content that speaks like your client
Most visitors aren’t going to land on your homepage without a direct link. They’re going to find your landing pages, blogs, or other content through organic search. Search still drives about 43% of all traffic on the Internet.
Image via Wolfgang Digital
The rise in smartphone assistants and voice-enabled technology means we’ll likely see questions, asked in plain language, drive a growing amount of this traffic.
You want to capitalize on the traffic and trend in your content, especially blogs. Achieve this by asking and answering the questions that your customers ask. Don’t look for a “secret” or “magical” way to stuff keywords or game the system. Focus on delivering high-quality answers from the start. This plan will put you on the right path to providing relevant content your audience demands. If you need inspiration to create content that speaks to your clients, you can use a content generator.
Remember that Google rewards you for addressing the intent of your audience. Grow beyond just keyword matching. Using the phrases they use — in questions and answers —keeps content relevant. When the answers you provide are correct, traffic will grow. Then you’ll see a lift in search-result location over time.
Image via Giphy
The hard part can be to do all creatively and engagingly to help you stand out from the crowd.
That unique perspective doesn’t have to come from you alone. Remember, your content is one piece of your marketing. That means it can be smarter to invest in high-quality professionals and get the support you need. Are you comfortable hiring someone to do your AdWords? Then think of this as a similar investment for your content.
Giving your brand a voice also means speaking to your customers through their preferred channels. This can mean creating videos, writing blog posts, or even hosting your own podcasts. Whatever medium you choose, make sure it’s the right one for your clients.
For a last little tip, circle back to the talk-like-a-person approach.
How many times do you ask your phone the same question? If more than once, do you ask it in different ways? Or are there second and third follow-up questions that build on the first?
Follow that pattern for what customers will ask about you. That’s the perfect way to build a content calendar and plan out a successful content run.
Build smarter CTAs by keeping your audience in mind
How much more would you like this article if it was written specifically for you and your business? What if it called you by name or used samples particular to your audience?
We’d like that, and you would too.
Everything else in our lives is created and curated just for us. Google finishes search queries. Netflix creates custom categories around viewing habits. Amazon shows what products go with the things already in a cart. Services like Pandora even take it a step further by turning a single choice into a continuous stream of suggestions.
Your business, no matter how large or small, can do that too. Best of all, you can achieve this level of customization with only a little effort and no AI investment.
All you have to do is target the most vital element of your content: the call-to-action (CTA).
Image via Giphy
Customizing CTAs can either be a big or small venture, or a mix. Significant efforts involve creating whole pages and strategies for each segment. Small operations may only create alternate pop-ups for your site. Changes to test include:
- Button position
- Button color
- CTA text color
- Popup vs. on-page element
- Using testimonials or social proof
- Guarantees under buttons (i.e. “We promise no spam!”)
- The text of your CTA itself
It’s easy to know what you can change in the first six. Finding the right CTA color and text contrast can be a mix of audience and industry. Available plugins can make it easy to test different options. Look for support on overlays, guarantees, locations, colors, and more.
It gets a little trickier with the CTA text.
Some best practices demand a sense of urgency, while others say customers want more info. If you need a little help, consider adopting services like Grammarly. It can recommend call-to-action copy for different audiences based on your goals.
HubSpot notes that personalized CTAs — adjusted to persona, location, browser language, traffic source, and more — convert 202% better than a generic CTA you show everyone.
That’s 202 reasons you should spend a little time on your CTA today.
Give a useful gift when you ask for anything
Boil everything down, and you get one simple truth: if you’re not valuable for your customer, they won’t be your customer anymore.
Your business survives on its ability to be useful. If you fail to, or you take too long to deliver value, your customers are gone. That’s the big reason so many businesses provide something useful with no costs. At most, they’re asking for your email.
Image via Giphy
Pay close attention to the lead magnets. These freebies are a low-barrier way to grab basic visitor info. Reports, videos, newsletters, or infographics are all you need to collect that email.
What you’ll notice about successful lead magnets of any type is that they target precise uses or value. An eBook might explain a particular business process challenge or risk. A webinar could be a demo for a software trick. Blogs might have embedded images or videos that walk a client through a process. They also serve as a guide they can come back to at any point.
Check out how this website offers a free eBook on a highly technical topic – data center infrastructure management – to generate leads:
All provide a useful service and can be traded when you want to ask someone for something. The trade starts the relationship off on the right foot. You’re providing immediate value at no cost. Then, follow up with a low-dollar offer that cements the relationship. The customer trades minimal risk for considerable potential.
Your smart goal is to make the first purchase as painless as possible to encourage a second. Repeat customers often are a primary revenue driver. Each time a customer buys from you, they’re more likely to return and buy again.
Lead magnets are the free way to get this process started. Improve your chance of success here by tailoring to your specific audience’s style and needs. Personalization is an essential part of your sales process.
Conclusion
Websites suck when they don’t help us accomplish the goals of our visit. A site can make it too hard to get support. Bury the useful tidbits too deep or behind paywalls. Or, we might miss what’s important because it doesn’t sound like we need it.
If your website is doing any of that, you’re losing business right now. Stop being a pain. And, capture quality leads by being proactive about customer service. Start with chat support, and then add engaging video.
Match your content to your audience and what they see as valuable. Then, review your entire site. Make sure you’re targeting people accurately with the right message and right freebies.
That’s just a little bit of work to turn a bland site into a helpful one that customers want to come back to again and again.
