Although being in lock down has brought a lot of families closer together by allowing more intimate family time, it has certainly had its challenges. Life has changed for most of us and continues to do so rapidly. One of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in day to day life is that many South Africans have embraced a more digital lifestyle, preferring to work remotely and shop online wherever possible. Having an online presence is more important than ever for the average small to medium size business.
A website can be one of your most powerful sales and marketing tools, during and beyond this time of physical distancing. It gives you a powerful platform to tell your business’ story to the world, showcase your strengths, collect leads and hopefully convert more of them into customers.
Here are 10 successful steps how to use your digital presence to grow your business and maximise sales:
1. Build a modern, mobile-optimised website
2. Optimize for search engines (SEO)
3. Create an impactful landing page
4. Take your visitors on a buying journey
5. Highlight your visitor’s pain and solve their problems
6. Add compelling Testimonials
7. Start blogging
8. Continuously improve
9. Collect email addresses with lead magnets
10. Hire the right guys!
Let’s go through the tips in more detail.
1. Build a modern, mobile-optimized website
While social media accounts give you somewhat of a digital presence, your own website gives you more control over your branding and customer experience and shows that you’re running a credible business. It is a place where people can learn more about you and contact your business, engaging customers and inspiring confidence.
However, an outdated website or one that looks bad on mobile phones can damage your image. So, the right place to start is by building a website if you don’t yet have one or modernising and updating it if your existing site’s look feel or content is out of date. There are many website building platforms out there but for one of the easiest and fastest we recommend is Elite Funnels. You can use a selection of templates to build a slick, attractive, customisable website within hours. It goes without saying - your website should look slick and aesthetically appealing. So if you lack the basic design skills, better to hire a web designer. And even better, one that also knows how to build sales funnels, so your website can make you money. Check out www.elitefunnels.com.
2. Optimise its SEO
It doesn’t really help to have a website if people don’t know it’s there. Search engine optimisation (SEO)is about ensuring that your future customers can find you via Google, Bing or Yahoo. By optimising your site with SEO keywords, you help the search engines to categorise your site and display it in relevant search results.
Getting the keywords right is just part of it. Optimising for mobile, ensuring the website loads quickly, using SSL encryption (https encryption with the lock symbol), and cleaning up broken links can all help improve your SEO ranking. These steps will also improve the user experience on your website.
Make a note to do your Google My Business profile. It shows up when people search for you on Google or Google Maps, and is essential for attracting local customers. Use it to offer a snapshot of the most important info about your business, such as your phone number, directions, hours, reviews and pictures of your products or services. Its free, so you may as well take advantage of this great service.
3. Create an impactful landing page
If you’re using Google Ads search, Linked In, emails or social media ads to bring leads to your website, consider building a special landing or sales funnel page. This landing page or funnel doesn’t specifically have to be used for sales; you can also use it to drive a call-to-action such as signing up to your email newsletter, registering for a webinar, emailing you to get a quote, or scheduling an online consult. By making it easy for the client to see only the relevant info they need to make a decision, they are much more likely to take action, rather than being confused by all the clutter a website usually has, causing them to leave the site.
4. Take your visitor on a buying journey
Develop a clear brand narrative that focusses on your customer rather on yourself and makes him/her the hero. You need to be crystal clear about what you offer and what problem you solve. Don’t use ambiguous phrases or try to be too clever with your language. Your visitor will just be confused and leave.
5. Highlight your visitor’s pain and solve their problems
Include a section where you highlight the customers problem and pain points, and then empathise with them. Explain how you know how it feels to be feeling the pain, frustration, anxiety or whatever other emotion they may have due to their problem they need solved. Only then you can go on to show them how your product or service is going to help them so they can feel whole again. Show them how the process works in 3-4 easy steps. Transform them into the hero by solving their problem. Remind them what’s at stake if they don’t buy the solution from you.
6. Add compelling Testimonials
Your site visitor will most likely have doubts whether to trust you, and therefore, whether to buy from you or not. That’s where testimonials come in to save the day. Testimonials, or referrals, as some like to call it, are great tools that can hammer in the nail of the sale. They need to be credible but specific, however. Testimonials that just say, “so and so is a great guy”, or “they provide a reasonably priced service”, or “do a good job” etc. simply won’t do the trick! Their words need to demonstrate how you solved their problem, relieved their burden and transformed their lives for the better. Using pictures of your customers, or at very least a phone numbers, brings even more credibility to their testimony. You may need to get their permission for this though, but if they’re not keen, their logos can be a good substitute. Video testimonials are even better, if you can get them done easily enough and not at huge cost. They are more compelling than quoted words.
7. Start blogging
More and more, websites are including blog pages (articles that testify to you being an authority on your product or in your field). Another reason to blog is to create relevant content that brings visitors to your site from social media or search results. That, in turn, can help you to build awareness and perhaps even attract relevant leads from customers seeking products and advice in your industry.
But equally important, blogging is a way to build an ongoing conversation with prospects and customers. It’s one way to show your human side – remember, people still like to buy from people – and to showcase your expertise. Relevant and insightful content can improve your credibility and position your business as the go-to-place in your sector. In time, blogging can help to drive sales for you.
Pro-tip: Create an editorial calendar and aim to produce regular content for your readers. Inspiration can come from company milestones, important external dates and events for your business (Promos, special dates or holidays etc), industry news and developments. Some topics may include news about your business, new launches or products you’re highlighting, special seasonal offers or Q&As about your company.
8. Continuously improve and optimise
Once you’ve built your website, that’s not the end of the road. It needs to be regularly maintained, updated and improved if it is to perform at its full potential. Your website should be changed to reflect any modifications to your business, from new opening times or a change of address to the addition of extra services and products.
But beyond that, you should monitor your website to see how it’s performing for you. How much traffic do you get? Are people reading your blog posts or are they ‘bouncing’ away? Do people sign up for your email newsletters and click through links on your site to find new content? And are customers who email or phone you indicating that they found you on the web?
The answers to these questions can help you make tweaks to your website that help you get more leads and customers – for example:
• Are your product and service descriptions clear and compelling enough?
• Are your search terms bringing the right people to your website?
• Could your blog posts be punchier or should you be writing about different topics?
• Is the website loading too slow – should you optimise images, for instance?
9. Collect email addresses with lead magnets
Email is a tried-and-tested way of engaging customers, collecting leads and driving sales. You can add a simple signup form to your website to gather email addresses from visitors. Anyone who signs up will automatically receive your next email. People who sign up will most likely be interested in what you have to say (and hopefully in what you sell).
Once you have an email database going, you can track the performance of your emails - how many were opened, which ones got the most clicks and more. You can use these insights to learn what works and make each email more successful than the last. Email is versatile – you can use it for seasonal or special promotions and as a way to keep customers informed about your latest news.
The best way to collect email addresses and phone numbers is by creating a lead magnet. For more info on what lead magnets are, see Blog post: 7 Lead Magnets Ideas.
10. Hire the right agency to create your optimised working website
You may be thinking, “Wow! This is a lot of information and tactics to consider - how am I going to pull this off?”
In truth some tech-savvy people, even if they’re novices at web and design, manage to pull it off, but they’re probably few. If you feel you’re not one of them and you’d rather keep your eye on the ball of managing your business rather than trying to get all these elements right, then give us a call so we can assess your business and your needs. Let us do all the hard work – tech and design for you, so you can put your mind at ease.
Reach out to us: www.thundermount-dig.co.za or email trevor@thundermount-dig.co.za and we’ll be happy to learn how we can assist you.
Based on an article by Selina Bieber Jul 1, 2020 - Godaddy