Today, it’s not enough to simply have a website, although it’s a fantastic first start. Your website may do a tremendous job of describing your products and services and presenting your brand as the natural solution for your target audience’s needs, but what if no one sees it?
Or if they do see it and not impressed enough to care?
It’s a 2020 version of the old catch-22: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In this article, we’ll show you how to market your website in ways that get you heard (seen?), loud and clear.
Make the best possible first impression on visitors80% of retail professionals
There are a lot of ways that customers can find your website: through search engines, social media, or that unsolicited business card you keep handing out. When they do visit, you can bet that they’re going to decide whether to stay or go.
Online, first impressions are everything. A 2018 poll suggested that 40% of Internet users will click off a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load, so you might want to lay off of ‘e-bling’ like auto-playing videos and ultra-high res images—there’s no quicker way to send business to your competition than a website that’s slow-loading or plays an ED commercial at the worst time.
Let’s assume that your site was designed according to best practices. You then have only 15 seconds to convince visitors to stay, so make sure that the site:
- Is mobile-friendly
- Has engaging and relevant content
- A clear CTA
Don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board as many times as you need to get an ideal result. Remember: it’s all about first impressions.
Reflect your brand image on your website
A consistent brand identity is a vital part of convincing people that your business is reliable and trustworthy. This means that your website should be an accurate representation of what your company stands for and sells.
On the cosmetic side, this means:
- Using a consistent colour scheme
- Central logo positioning
- Product photos or images that accurately reflect your service type
Content-wise, the tone should match your business scope and personality. For example, if you manufacture aerospace parts, you’ll want to be scientific and precise. With a vintage clothing business, the goal will be an equal balance of trendy and nostalgic. Any inconsistencies will have people wondering if you’re for real, and not in a good way.
Note: with a somewhat edgy marketing agency like ours, all bets are off. Some industries, like digital marketing, have a little more liberty and freedom to be cheeky. Who you callin’ daddy??!!?
Email marketing, the right way
In 2019, there were an estimated 3.9 billion worldwide email users. This figure has definitely grown since then and is projected to increase to over 4.48 billion users in 2024.
What does that mean for your website? A growing audience!
Although spam has created a love-hate relationship with unsolicited emails, email marketing is far from dead. Recent studies suggest that 49% of customers are still interested in getting promotional emails from their favourite brands, and 80% of retail professionals still find email marketing to be one of their biggest customer acquisition and retention sources.
The key is to make sure that the emails you send out contain information that’s of value to the recipients. This includes:
- Virtual coupons
- Upcoming sales
- Tips for making the most of their purchases
Wish does a great job of this by providing multiple call-to-actions in a single email outreach. Note: they aren’t applying the ‘how about this?’ approach. In fact, all the calls speak to the same individual.
Robust email marketing tools can give your messages even more relevance. The best ones arrange recipients into groups, such as customers who haven’t bought in a while or those who purchased a specific product type, so you can send customized emails that are more likely to inspire action.
Bonus: CoreFactors Teleduce is a great List Manager for a wide variety of marketing campaigns.
Use data to drive your marketing strategy
By this point, you probably know a lot about your customers, but the more you learn, the more effectively you can market to them. Direct interactions, survey results, and newsletter signups are all ways you can collect information about your target audience and answer the following questions:
- How old are they?
- Are they male or female?
- What do they do for a living?
Your website analytics should also yield the following insights:
- How many visits your website had each day
- How long each visitor remained on your website?
- Where your audience is located
- How they got your website (search engine, direct access)
- What actions they took after landing on your home page
A great solution to measure activity on your site is the Heatmaps tool from Hotjar. In the below example we can clearly see which FAQs are clicked on most. This helps us to understand the most sought after answers and enquiries we have.
Audience demographics and site visitor activity should both be used to inform your marketing strategy. For best results, revisit this strategy regularly to make sure that you’re always using the best approach.
Be active on social media
An estimated 90% of business owners have stated that being active on social media has drawn traffic to their website. On the consumer side, about 67% use Facebook and Twitter to contact businesses for customer service purposes. Nearly eight million messages are exchanged between companies and consumers every month.
Social media marketing is one of the most profitable and cost-effective digital marketing techniques for your website. By spending only a few hours every week, you can:
- Enjoy a two-way communication with your customers that can translate into better marketing decisions and increased sales.
- Inspire more loyalty for your brand thanks to improved customer experience.
- Cultivate more brand authority via regular posting and customer engagement.
- Increase traffic to your website by giving people compelling reasons to click through.
- Benefit from better SEO: businesses that regularly share content on social media are perceived as relevant by the search engines.
Conclusion
Your website can look the best in its field, but you still have to market it. When you implement a user-friendly design, post relevant content, and make smart email and social media marketing decisions, your site won’t wander undiscovered through cyberspace.
When you have a sale, launch a new product, or even knock over a tree in the woods, all of your customers will hear and know.
Related reading: take a look at our Ultimate Guide for Website Design for a more comprehensive guide to web layout and design.
