Nice Website, Now What?

So you got someone or several people to your website maybe through organic search or from a referring site, you might have just met someone and they went to your site to check out your company.

Great job. Now what?

I was a participant on a marketing panel last night. All of us were business owners, each in a different aspect of marketing. It was a great approach to the broad spectrum of what marketing is today. I was asked to answer the question “what makes an effective website?”

How do you answer the question?

My first suggestion was to make sure your website is answering ‘the question’.

The question is what brought the prospect to your site in the first place. They had a need or an issue to solve and your site needs to answer that question. There are two quick ways to find out what the questions were. One way is to check the keywords in your website’s analytics to see what keywords and keyword phrases were used to bring in the visitor. The second way, one that for some reason I get a lot of resistance when I suggest, is ask your current customers. Why?

We are so caught up in our own industry and marketing jargon that it may not be representative of the language and terms used by our customers and prospects. A quick survey should provide you some insight and a few phone calls wouldn’t hurt either.

Then what?

After the question is answered, then what? Your website should be an extension to your company’s team 24/7. Your sales and marketing team, your customer service team, your assistant and more if you have the funds for the technology should all be serving on your site (even if you don’t have all these people you certainly have to be performing these duties).

There are several ways to accomplish this. One way is to offer free information to download for the price of their contact information. Be gracious and helpful as I always say the humble and helpful rule!

Supporting documents

No matter what services or products you offer, there are questions that accompany them. You hear questions all of the time or are aware of the problems surrounding what your product or service solves. Why not add value to what you have to offer and share your knowledge through tips, case studies, white papers, guides, and any other accumulation of knowledge? Once someone downloads these documents, you have accomplished a few things. The visitor has left you their contact information for you to follow up with them. The other is that they have a take-away that carries your message and brand long after they have left your site.

Blog/Newsletter

Ask them if they would like to subscribe to the company blog or newsletter and don’t forget to tell them why they should. You need to offer the benefits of the type of information you will be sharing. You can also mention that you offer specials and discounts on an occasion to subscribers but be careful not to promote this as a “spitter” - that is what I call a spam letter – hocking your stuff relentlessly.

FAQ

How about an FAQ section? If you can organize your questions and answers in a clean, logical and easily searchable fashion – this might be a gold mine. You can also set up a WIKI and invite them to contribute related information and make them feel a part of a community. And on that note – you might want to think about a bulletin board or some other community platform that encourages visitors to get involved. This is a great way to generate loyalty!

Contact information

How do they contact you? Give them the opportunity to contact you by phone and email. Don’t make it hard for them to know what number to call – your phone number should be on every page. If you have a lot of departments then have a page dedicated to a directory of what numbers to call for what needs.

Social media

Also encourage them to join you in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or where ever you are engaging. You might even set up a Skype account that is monitored by staff so that they can IM you right on the spot!

These suggestions are just a beginning of a long discussion on what makes a website good or great. There are other usability topics such as structure and navigation, aesthetics and readability. I could go on and on and just might in another post but for now, go check out your web site and see if it answers the questions and engages your visitors. Chances are you invested serious time and money into your web site – make sure it pays serious dividends.