Your website is the heart of your business communications. To make it work for you, it needs to be able to engage web visitors with your business, pull them closer to you, gain their trust, inspire them to spread the word about you, and buy from you when the time is right.
We’ve put together a list of ten valuable tips (extracted from our new book), outlining the key priorities for creating a lead generating site for your business.
- Create your website for your customer, not for you. Engage with their issues using wording they recognise. Your homepage should make people feel understood, looked after and in the right place.
- Send a clear message. Set the scene from the start. Give a clear picture of who you work with, what your company stands for and what you can do.
- Provide valuable content. Fill your website full of the type of content that your buyers actually want to read and share.‘When it comes to getting leads from your website the trick is to get the quality vs. quantity balance right with your content. A quantity of any old content won’t do. It has to be relevant, helpful and compelling to the people you want to do business with.’ (Paul Marsden, Payplus)
- Plan. People frequently design a website first, and then tack all the content on as an afterthought. The words are seen as filler to replace the lorem ipsum text. Spend as much time planning your new website, its function and its content as you do building it. Crucial.
- Optimise the site for search. If you want to maximise your investment in your new site, think about search engines too. Use keywords you and your customers care about, learn to label and link and get all that content found.
- Invite action. Give the visitor clear calls to action and a bit of choice. Ready to get started? Here’s how to get in touch. Want to learn more? Download this, it’s useful. Stay in touch? Sign up to our newsletter. Make it easy.
- Link your pages. No page should be a dead end; every page should open a door to further relevant, useful and engaging content. Guide your visitor with ‘related content’.
- Choose a web designer with an active blog and Twitter feed. By hiring a web designer/developer who creates valuable content for his/her own business you can be sure that they understand how to get your site right.
- Case studies and testimonials. These are important for building credibility. At the end of every assignment or sale ask your client for their feedback. What did they really think? Why did they hire you? What were the real benefits of your involvement? What did they appreciate and what could you do better next time?
- Free resources / blog. Providing fresh, engaging and helpful content will be a hit with your customers and search engines alike. Invest in design that makes this part of your website look interesting, welcoming, and the kind of place people want to spend some time.
Have we missed anything? What works well for your website?
Related articles:
We are hugely grateful to all those who contributed their ideas and stories for the Valuable Content Marketing book. More valuable tips from the book coming soon.
Illustration by the very talented Lizzie Everard © www.lizzieeverard.com.
(Visited 176 times, 1 visits today)
I continue to be challenged and inspired by your tips, knowing if I’m to be that designer you mention in #8 I have a way to go yet. It all makes so much sense – my style over content radar is tuning up all the time!
And about that illustration – if anyone wants a ‘before and after’ testimonial, I still have your biro sketch on lined A4 pinned over my desk. Hm, maybe that could be an interesting blog post….
Cheers Lizzie.
Can’t wait to read your blog when it comes.
Content with style is the way to go, and you certainly help to give us that. Thank you!
(And my drawing is dire as that sketch clearly shows!)
Sonja
I just love the first one. Create a website for your custumer, not for you. That is so true. Some people just won’t understand their audiences. The tend to create complicated website.