Your website is the online hub for your marketing and communication efforts, and not just as the landing page for your digital ads and social media posts. Your traditional media – including billboards, vehicle wraps, yard signs, electronic ads and print ads – give your website URL as the follow up location for prospects to find more information.
Ads also include your phone number, but even then, people want to check you out online before they invest their energy in making an actual phone call. Surveys say that the majority of buyers want to research unassisted – with the option to make a phone call as the need arises.
Given your website’s critical role in your success, the development of this online welcome mat deserves more than a quick solution from the cheapest option. And the place where the first attention should go is your home page.
Get your hub ready. A home page should have several essential features, such as a logo/tagline, navigation menus, site search feature and contact information. And they should be displayed in clean, easy-to-navigate design. Don’t overwhelm site visitors with a lot of clutter.
Position counts. Keep your most important information at the top before you lose them with a “scroll down.” Include call to action buttons that are larger and easy to click, and keep the button wording short and clear.
Also, forget the clipart. Use high-resolution, attractive images. There are several free photo sites where you can find images you can use for low cost or even free. A few is enough – don’t go overboard.
As part of your design, use a color scheme and background that work well with your logo and branding elements. Consistency is important in marketing. Ideally, people should be able to identify your brand at a glance, whether it’s a yard sign or a website page.
Be responsive. Your site must be able to be viewed on any size device – smartphones, tablets, laptops or a large desktop monitor. This is essential, not optional. With more and more people accessing the web via their handheld device, you risk losing the majority of your visitors if they land on unreadable content.
Generate traffic. Lay the foundation for website activity with Search Engine Optimization. This includes keyword strategies that are appropriate for your contracting field and the services and products you sell. Put keywords in your page titles and page headers. Continue to publish content that incorporates these keywords. Include keywords in the titles of your blog posts, as well as the content itself.
Using internal links – which means linking different sections of content to other pages on your site – also improves SEO. In addition, search engine marketing and other online and social media advertising will bolster your non-paid strategies and work together to keep traffic flowing.
Give them a reason to engage. There are two types of visitors: new and returning. You want both. New visitors need to be able to determine who you are and how you can solve their problem. Returning visitors need a reason to come back. Keep the content pipelines filled and share on social media, linking back to your site. Also, email marketing to your list links to pages on your site.
Between 80 to 90 percent of consumers do online research before making a purchase. Your website and your content updates will provide the valuable information they need to choose you and your solution. With the help of your site, you can educate your leads through the sales funnel, and your continued social and email connections will assist them into your customer retention program.