So you built an awesome website. Can I ask you personal question about your site's marketing message?
Are there cobwebs creeping in?
Building a website is a daunting task, just to get the information up and looking great. If it's been a while since you've taken a good hard look at your site, I encourage you to get out your virtual vacuum cleaner (a.k.a. your delete button), and do some tidying up.
Here's a handy checklist on how to get crystal clear on your website marketing message.
Website Marketing Message on Home Page
Your home page is one of the most important message areas of you website. In one glance, your home page should communicate your marketing message:
- Your company name (who you are) and what you do
- Who you serve (your quintessential client)
- What benefits you provide your quintessential client (this is the why someone uses your products/services)
Make it crystal clear, in short easy-to-read sentences. Bullet points are your friend, when it comes to writing web copy. This is because people scroll and scan websites. They aren't up to reading a novel, and they won't visit each and every single page. You've got to be concise, trustworthy, and friendly. Yeah, I know that's not easy–that's what keeps copywriters in business, my friend.
Your Call To Action
One call to action per page, please. In the world of web design, people like to be led. Tell me where or what to do next, but don't give me too many choices. Create a call to action that supports your website marketing message.
Your call to action should be in alignment with your marketing goals. For example:
- List building & lead capture – ask visitor to complete a form to join your email marketing list
- Sell a product – tease on the home page and link to the product buy page (for informational product – send them to your sales landing page)
- Get more direct leads – Contact Us for more information, get pricing, etc.
Make your Call to Action area stand out, use the same colors as your brand, and make it easy for visitors to do.
Trim the Fat
I think Google Analytics is one of the greatest tools for business owners–especially when it comes to your website. Hopefully, you've implemented Google Analytics on your site and you've got some good data to analyze. What areas of your site are not being seen? What pages are just sitting there, not being clicked.
I'd encourage you to take a good, hard look at those pages. If they aren't really necessary or it's redundant information that's better placed on another page–delete the page. Or if that's just too scary, edit the page content to make it scannable. Delete any unnecessary paragraphs. Be ruthless.
Review Your Marketing Plan
While you're in Google Analytics, it's a great time to see where you're getting the most bang for your marketing buck. For instance, my business strategy was to leverage YouTube this year to drive leads back to my site, and gain more newsletter subscribers. Looking at my data, it's helping, but I'm still getting more hits from Google searches. So knowing that, I might add a Google AdWords campaign to my strategy and test it for a few months, driving traffic to a specific page.
It's All About Testing
Marketing is trial and error, rinse and repeat. It may feel like throwing a box full of darts at a dartboard, without taking them out of the box.
The key to successful marketing is surveying, measuring, analysis, and adjustments. If you're not measuring what you are doing right now, how will you know it's effectiveness? How will you know what to change?
You've got to probe your customers to find out what they really need, fulfill that need, and tell them that your fulfill that need in a way that they understand and are receptive to hearing. It's a process that takes time. Don't beat yourself up if you're not getting desired results. Try a new tactic–one that can be measured through behavior tracking, and analyzed against the time/money/resources put into that campaign. Once you hit a good, solid strategy–create a variation and repeat.