In 2008, Roman Ray wrote, The Best Salesperson: Your Website, in Entrepreneur Magazine explaining how an business's best sales person is actually their website.
Websites play a central role in the customer acquisition process. A brand's website engages more prospects on a daily basis than a sales team possibly could.
Today, buyers use the web to research, compare and buy products. Information is available freely to internet-connected buyers, and buyers shift from mobile phones and tablets to desktops throughout their research process--day and night. Purchase decisions can be made on impulse or over the course of days and weeks, but access to information is a constant in the world today.
The internet contains a wealth of information and tools that support the customer buying journey. In today's marketplace, the customer is in control.
Search, social, email, texting, blogs, websites and web-connected tools act as digital centers of influence. According to data from HubSpot, a marketing and analytics software company, 78% of users conduct product research online. This research behavior also greatly impacts eCommerce and online transactions with 64% of smartphone owners using their mobile devices to shop online (Source: eDigitalResearch ). According to a report by Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, 46.1% of people say a website's design is the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the company.
A brand's website is central to the sales process--both online and off. A website needs to be more than what Ramon Ray described of many business websites: a "glorified brochure." They need to express the personality of the brand, provide information for each phase of the sales process, and be integrated into marketing and sales meaningfully.
Websites are tools that influence all parts of the marketing to sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, websites attract prospects and introduce your brand to new potential buyers. Further down the funnel, websites reinforce a sale by providing trust-factors, field the due diligence of buyers, remove doubt and reinforce the value proposition of your brand and of your brand's offering.
Your website talks to way more people than your average salesperson does every day. -- Pete Caputa, VP, Sales @ HubSpot
Websites need to be attractive, easy, useful, but also informative. Below is a graph from another Hubspot study on what users are looking for in a brand's website.
Websites must evolve beyond brochureware. A brand's website is often the first introduction a potential customer will have with a company. Positive first impressions lead to higher satisfaction.
A website does not perform well as a tool in isolation however. Websites are typically touch points that live at the center of a broad range of marketing activities, including advertising, social media marketing, search marketing, blogging and other methods of gaining brand visibility.
Here are a couple of considerations in order to improve the conversion rate of your brand's website:
SOURCES:
“Google: Local Searches Lead 50% of Mobile Users to Visit Stores.” 2014. Searchenginewatch.com
“Understanding Consumers’ Local Search Behavior.” 2014. Thinkwithgoogle.com
“Going Local: How Advertisers Can Extend Their Relevance With Search.” 2014. Thinkwithgoogle.com
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