Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions: Rethinking the Marketing Funnel

/in , , , , /by

In order to continue attracting your target audience, it’s crucial to firstly understand “what is a consumer need?” Then, must keep up with the wants and needs of customers. Consumer behavior is influenced by many things, such as price, product features, brand image, and recommendations from friends or family. These all playing a vital role in what people decide to purchase. This can be a real challenge if you don’t understand the factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions. Those factors are a lot different than what they used to be. This means that the customer journey has changed a lot as well. This updated journey is referred to by many as the consumer decision journey (CDJ). What makes the CDJ so different than traditional marketing funnels is that each consumer’s CDJ is unique. Keeping that in mind, the following are three of the biggest factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions in today’s digital age:

Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

Product/Service Reviews

social media likes

Very few consumers are going to blindly buy a product or service based on the content they’ve come across on your website. It doesn’t matter how effective you say it is, how clear your demonstration videos are, or what kind of accolades you’ve received. Customers are going to look up reviews first. Many consumers aren’t going to feel comfortable buying a product or service unless it has good reviews. Fortunately, online reviews are easy to find.

There are tons of different websites where customers leave reviews. In fact, a company having reviews on their website has now become so commonplace that not having the option to leave or see reviews can leave a bad taste in consumers’ mouths. Reviews are not always only about one specific product or service. Angi, Yelp, and Amazon all allow customers to leave feedback on products and services, as well as overall customer experiences. Reviews come in many forms. Gone are the days of a simple, written review. Now, many companies give consumers the option to upload pictures and even videos with their review.

In addition to consumer reviews, consumers also seek out professional reviews. For example, Consumer Reports provides professional reviews of certain products. They offer comparisons between different products as well.

Encouraging customers, as well as professionals, to review your products and services can be hugely beneficial. Doing so (as long as the reviews are mostly positive) can help improve your reputation and build trust with consumers who are in the evaluation stage of their journey.

Download Our White Paper Guide To Learn How To Perfect Buyer Personas For Your Business

Peer Recommendations

More often than not, consumers will initially become aware of brands or their products and services through peer recommendations. They may ask someone in person for a recommendation or ask online, via social media, online chat, or email. It’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to continue targeting existing customers. The journey doesn’t end when someone makes a purchase. You want to continue marketing to those customers to turn them into repeat customers. This allows you to build brand loyalty, which will turn them into brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors will recommend your products or services to their peers.

two people looking at a smartphone and smiling

Social Media

Having a social media presence is incredibly important because so many consumers will turn to social media as a way to do research. They’ll look up brands, ask them direct questions, and ask their social groups about their thoughts on your products or services. They also look at your social interactions in general. This means that they will look at how you engage with your followers, as well as with users in general, to get a sense of how you carry yourself. They also do this to see if they can relate to you. A brand with no social presence is not going to make as good of an impression on consumers. Nor will one that doesn’t regularly engage with the community.

It’s important not to become over-reliant on the traditional marketing funnel. Consumers have so much power when it comes to doing their own research about different brands and their products and services, that it’s important to understand how unique the CDJ is. These are three very important factors that influence consumer purchasing decisions in this day and age that you need to make sure you address.

25 Website Must Haves For Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales
how to have a successful blog

How to Have a Successful Blog (Expert Tips)

/in , , , /by

Blogging has become a great way for companies to write about content that relates to what they do. This can include tips and advice on anything the company is an authority on. Topics for blogging can range from “What a Good Landing Page Looks Like” to “How to Start Your Own Business in 10 Easy Steps.” Blogs can also strengthen online marketing efforts.

You might be wondering, how can my company have a successful blog? Here are 7 expert tips to help you out.

blog written out on colorful popsicle sticks

Tips for creating a successful blog

1. Choose a Topic People Care About

The first step to having a successful blog is to write about a topic that people want to read about. Make the topic interesting, and something worth reading. Once you choose a topic, research it to make sure you are providing reliable information to your readers. Then you can begin writing your blog.

2. Make the Formatting Easy To Read

When formatting your blog, it is better to have many short paragraphs rather than a few long paragraphs. A blog is something that people want to be able to read easily. Short paragraphs are more easily digestible than long paragraphs. An additional benefit of shorter paragraphs is a visually appealing layout. Long blocks of text may scare readers off, but shorter paragraphs break it up, making your blog look more approachable.

3. Have an Attention Grabbing Title

As you are reviewing your blog, go back to the title. The title is important and needs to be clear and specific. It has to tell readers the topic of your blog article. Most importantly, the title needs to be attention grabbing. Titles should be between 50 and 60 characters. If it goes over 60, the end of the title will be cut off in the search engine results. Speaking of search engines, remember to enhance the potential for search engine optimization by using keywords that are relevant to your blog’s topic.

4. Pictures Are Fun to Look At

A blog without pictures can be boring. Add a picture or two to your blog to make it more visually appealing. Adding pictures to your blog will also break up the text, which makes the content easier to read. These pictures can be relevant to your topic, and they can also just be a part of your blog as long as they fit. For example, if your blog is directed towards an audience of readers who are business people, you could include a picture of someone wearing a suit. Adding pictures to your blog is a great way to make it more visually appealing and break up text, therefore enhancing readability. Do not forget to cite the pictures you use if they are not yours.

three camera icons

There are many reasons a successful blog includes links to other relevant articles. One of these reasons is that it boosts search engine optimization. Successful blogs also include a CTA (call-to-action). Your CTA tells readers what action to take. This can be downloading a resource like an ebook, checklist, or template. Whatever it is, your CTA should be related to the topic of your blog post.

Also Read: 50 Most Powerful Call-to-Action Phrases

6. Share on Social Media

Once you have written your blog, you must ensure that it reaches a wide audience. Effectively sharing your blog is crucial to maximizing its visibility. You can share your blog through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. You can also send out emails to showcase blog articles.

7. Be Consistent and Frequent

The most important things to remember are consistency and frequency. Consistency establishes reliability and trust with your audience. It also shows your audience that they can expect regular blog updates, making them more likely to return and engage with your blog content. Frequent blog posting ensures that your blog stays relevant, and increases the chances of your blog being found by new readers. Remember, blogging is more than one post. Instead, it is multiple consistent posts over time. When you are in charge of blogging for your company, it is best to post a minimum of two blogs a week.

Blogging can be fun. Follow the 7 tips listed above to create a successful blog for your company.

Integrating Social Media & SEO Efforts For Enhanced Search Engine Results

buyer personas

Why Are Buyer Personas So Important?

/in , , /by

Creating buyer personas is an important part of an effective inbound marketing strategy. This is because buyer personas help you define your target audience and then help you tailor your advertising towards that audience. When developing content, consistently referring back to the attributes of the buyer persona will help ensure that the content resonates with that audience. Buyer personas are an important part to attraction marketing.

Establishing a buyer persona can be a creative process as well, as it encourages marketers to think back to their childhood mindset and generate imaginary people. Of course these imaginary thoughts are far more sophisticated now, and are used to create an individual that represents your target audience. They embody the behaviors, characteristics, and needs of your target audience.

Read more

long form video1

6 Reasons You Should Leverage Long Form Video Marketing

/in , , , , /by

Video marketing has long been accepted as one of the most effective forms of content marketing. Video content is easy for people to consume on any device. It’s also arguably the best way to deliver a message in an engaging way and to establish an emotional connection. However, there’s been a misconception that short-form video content is the best way to go. After all, people generally have shorter attention spans these days. Not to mention that many social platforms, such as Snapchat and TikTok, encourage shorter video content. Yet there should also be a place for long-form video content in your video marketing strategy.

Let’s understand first what is long for video content?

Long-form video content offers a deeper and more extensive exploration of the topic, providing a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter.

watch video video marketing

6 Reasons To Leverage Long Form Video Marketing

The following are six reasons why you should be using long-form video marketing:

1. Deliver More Value

There’s very little time to provide useful information to viewers in a 30-second to two-minute clip. You basically have just enough time to deliver a simple message. As such, there’s not a whole lot of value in short-form videos. The only thing you can really achieve is to generate brand awareness. Long-form videos are much more effective when it comes to trying to provide value to your audience. For example, it’s difficult to create a how-to video that’s less than a couple minutes long. However, you can create a detailed, step-by-step how-to video in the long-form format.

2. Create A More Engaging Experience

Although more short-form videos are consumed than long-form videos, long-form videos drive more engagement. A video marketing study published in 2017 revealed that although 80 percent of videos are under five minutes, those videos drove less than 33 percent of overall video engagement. On top of that, 8 percent of the videos that were over 15 minutes long drove half of all audience engagement.  As long as the quality of your video content is high, a long-form video is going to be more engaging. After all, it’s going to keep viewers on your site (or social channel) much longer than a 30-second video would. Not to mention that the actual content you’re delivering will be more engaging since you’re able to provide more information that’s useful to your audience.

MAXIMIZING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

3. Improve Your SEO

Short-form videos may get shares on social media, especially if they go viral due to their humor. However, short-form videos don’t tend to earn many backlinks. Websites are more likely to link back to your videos if they provide exceptional value, which they are more likely to do if they are on the longer side. By earning more backlinks, your long-form videos will help boost your SEO.

Similar Article: Six Types of Real Estate Video Marketing Ideas For Homebuilders

4. YouTube Favors Longer Videos

YouTube is the major video platform. Not only is it the top video hosting platform, but it’s also the second biggest search engine behind Google as well as a social media platform in itself. Long-form videos do much better on YouTube than short-form videos. There’s a reason for this: YouTube’s algorithm is built around favoring long-form content. The reason why they built their algorithm this way is that longer videos allow more room for ads. Videos have to be at least 10 minutes long before ads can be run in the middle of the video, which is why many YouTube creators do everything they can to reach that 10-minute mark.

5. Build Your Brand Authoritylong form video social media

While shorter videos may get more views, they don’t generally help much in the way of building your brand authority. This is simply because shorter videos are limited in the amount of useful information they can convey. BY creating long-form videos, you can go into way more depth about a subject. The more in-depth your video subject matter is, the more you’ll be able to showcase your authority. This will help to boost your brand’s authority within your industry, which can help to build more brand trust as a direct result.

5 Types Of Marketing Videos You Should Think About Using

6. Convert More Leads

Building your brand authority is certainly going to play a part in converting leads. When viewers develop trust in your brand by watching your long-form videos, they’ll be more willing to convert. However, this isn’t the only reason why long-form videos convert more than short-form videos. The people who are watching long-form videos tend to be near the bottom of the sales funnel, while people who are watching short-form videos are probably still near the top of the funnel. As such, many long-form video viewers are already ready to convert.

Shorter videos are a good way to generate more brand awareness. However, long-form video content tends to be much more effective overall when it comes to nurturing leads and building brand authority and trust. As such, you should make sure to implement a long-form video content strategy if you haven’t done so already.

landing page lead conversion rate

5 Types of Landing Pages To Increase Your Lead Conversion Rate

/in , , , /by

Are your company website’s landing pages converting as many visitors to leads as you’d like? If you have a low lead conversion rate, one problem may be that you are not using the right kinds of landing pages. Landing pages have several purposes: to collect important information from visitors, to begin building a relationship with visitors, and, ultimately, to convert visitors to leads. Some companies only have one or two types of landing pages, and as a result, their lead conversion rates suffer.

Before exploring types of landing pages, let’s first understand what a landing page is.

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a standalone web page designed with a specific purpose in mind. The purpose is typically to convert visitors into leads or customers. Unlike a general website page, landing pages have one clear goal. There are many goals landing pages can be created to achieve, such as prompting signup for a newsletter, downloading an eBook, making a purchase, and many more.

landing page lined paper doodles

5 Types of Landing Pages To Increase Conversion Rate

Here are 5 different types of landing pages that are sure to increase your lead conversion rate.

1. Email List Opt-In Landing Page:

It’s proven that the most effective place to put your email opt-in form is on it’s own dedicated landing page. An email list opt-in landing page gives you more room to tell visitors exactly how they stand to benefit from filling out your form with their personal information. By removing pesky distractions, like navigation, a landing page urges your visitors make a decision: opt-in or miss out on quality content and offers.

2. Product Detail Landing Page:

A product detail landing page is common in the retail industry. It serves as dedicated space on the company’s website to showcase information about a specific product. Product detail landing pages are positioned within the website’s navigation. They contain information regarding the product for sale such as features and specifications. Product detail landing pages also contain customer reviews. A benefit of product detail landing pages is that there is no extra work or cost required when it comes to creating a separate page. An additional benefit of this type of landing page is that it applies to visitors who are in the awareness or the consideration stage.

Read more on Driving Website Conversions During Each Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey

3. Coming From [social network] Landing Page:

You can apply this type of landing page to every type of traffic that your website generates. Most likely, any landing pages attached to your social media accounts bring visitors to your home page. This is a start, but it’s not the best option. You should make your landing page more customized and personal. A good social network landing page addresses where the visitor is coming from. It also provides information that the visitor is probably looking for. This can be information like background about the company. It can also be information about how to get in touch with the company, such as an email address, phone number, etc.

4. Content Guide Landing Page:

Inbound marketing revolves around the creation and distribution of content. If your company actively blogs, you have the opportunity to extend the reach of your blog content by organizing it with its own landing page. While the blog page on your website is useful, it probably only shows your most recent blog content. By creating topic-specific content landing pages, you can curate your blog content and showcase your best quality work to your site’s visitors. Topic-specific content landing pages engage your audience at different stages of their journey. Structuring your content like this optimizes user engagement. Additionally, it bolster’s your brand’s authority and relevance within your industry.

landing page doodles with coffee

5. Lead Capture Landing Pages

Marketers often refer to lead capture landing pages as “squeeze” pages. The goal of squeeze pages is to capture leads without distractions. Lead capture landing pages don’t contain any exit paths or distractions such as links or navigation tools. This type of landing page should include one thing: a prominent call-to-action (CTA) button that takes visitors to a form where they are encouraged to submit their personal data. In order to coax visitors into filling out the form, you should offer an incentive. Incentives can be eBooks, whitepapers, or webinars. This strategy boosts lead generation and builds trust with potential customers. Additionally, it enhances engagement.

Use these five types of landing pages to increase your lead conversion rate.

25 Website Must Haves For Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales

Strategies for Website Redesign

Website Redesign: Key Strategies For Revitalizing Your Digital Front Door in 2024

/in , , , , , /by

Website redesign can be a pivotal step in refreshing your brand’s online presence. As you plan your redesign in 2024, keep these best practices and trends in mind to ensure your website is both modern and effective.

1. Learn from Your Current Website

Before starting a website redesign, it’s crucial not to disregard the wealth of insights your current site holds. Analyzing existing user data and feedback serves as a foundational step that uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of your website. This will effectively inform your redesign strategy. Delving into analytics to examine user interactions and behaviors is key. Metrics such as page views, bounce rates, and conversion paths shed light on what aspects of your site engage users and which areas need enhancement. Additionally, reflecting on past design decisions that may have fallen short is essential. Recognizing and learning from these mistakes ensures they are not repeated. This sets the stage for a more informed and successful redesign. This approach not only preserves valuable elements but also transforms insights into actionable strategies for improvement.

2. Understand Your Audience’s Website Needs

  • Investigate the reasons people visit your site: Understanding why users come to your site is crucial. Are they looking for information, a specific product, or service? Tailoring your redesign to meet these needs can enhance user satisfaction and engagement.
  • Ensure your redesign meets visitor needs and removes obstacles: Your redesign should focus on streamlining the user experience. Identify any existing barriers to conversion and address them. A user-friendly design encourages longer visits and more interactions.
  • Use the LIFT model: This model helps refine your website’s value proposition by focusing on clarity, reducing user anxiety, minimizing distractions, and adding urgency where appropriate. Applying these principles can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your redesign.

people walking towards target3. Focus on Customer-Centric Website Design

When designing, it’s important to prioritize the needs and preferences of your target audience over the temptation to solely highlight product features or technological capabilities. An overly product-centric approach can lead to designs that don’t fully resonate with users. To avoid overlooking crucial elements that matter to your audience, actively engage with them through surveys, interviews, and other feedback mechanisms. This direct interaction uncovers what users genuinely value and expect from your site. Incorporating insights gained from these engagements into your redesign ensures that the outcome is not only aesthetically pleasing but also functionally in tune with what your audience seeks. This user-centered approach to design makes for a more effective and satisfying user experience.

4. Integrate Copy and Design from the Start

  • Avoid a design-first approach: Integrating copywriting and design from the outset ensures coherence between your message and visual elements. This collaboration can lead to a more cohesive and compelling user experience.
  • Engage copywriters early: Involve content creators early in the redesign process to ensure the textual content aligns with design elements, enhancing the overall narrative and user journey on your site.
  • Ensure the copy is persuasive and complements the design: The right words can elevate a good design to a great one. Ensure your copy is compelling, clear, and effectively guides users toward desired actions or conversions.

5. Be Cautious with Metrics

When considering metrics, it’s essential to select those that meaningfully signify success. Instead of relying on superficial indicators like bounce rates, it’s beneficial to delve into metrics that truly mirror user engagement and satisfaction. Metrics such as conversion rates, average session duration, and user feedback are more indicative of the overall user experience. They can provide a clearer picture of how well a site meets its users’ needs. Prioritizing these metrics, which closely align with business objectives and user satisfaction, can offer valuable insights into the redesign’s effectiveness and its return on investment. This focused approach ensures that the metrics used are not just numbers but valuable tools in assessing and enhancing the website’s impact and performance.

website design SEO laptop6. Clean Up SEO and Enhance Accessibility During Your Website Redesign

  • Use the redesign as an opportunity to improve SEO and website accessibility: A redesign is the perfect time to audit and enhance your site’s SEO and accessibility. This ensures your site is discoverable and usable by a wider audience, including those with disabilities.
  • Consolidate content and use clear, keyword-rich URLs: Streamlining your content and optimizing URLs can boost your SEO efforts. It makes your site more navigable for users and search engines alike.
  • Ensure the website is accessible to all users: Compliance with accessibility standards is not only ethical but also expands your audience reach. An accessible site provides a better experience for all users, including those using assistive technologies.

7. Manage Tech Changes Carefully

If you’re thinking about making changes to both the design and underlying technology of your platform, proceed with caution. Undertaking changes in both areas simultaneously can result in user confusion or technical complications, potentially disrupting the user experience. To ensure a seamless transition, it’s important to maintain continuity in user-facing elements so they transition smoothly into the new environment. These user-facing elements include login credentials and personal preferences. To further mitigate risks, you might want to separate the implementation of design updates from changes to the backend or platform technology. This staggered approach allows for the isolation of issues, making them easier to identify and resolve, thereby minimizing the impact on users and enhancing the overall update process.

8. Prioritize User Research

Grounding your redesign in thorough user research rather than merely chasing the latest trends ensures that your website aligns with the real needs and preferences of your target audience. By letting user feedback and research insights steer your redesign efforts, you can tailor your site to meet the specific requirements of your audience. This focus on what truly resonates with your users can lead to a significant boost in engagement and satisfaction, making your site not just aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional and user-centric.

9. Avoid Overhauling Everything at Once

  • Focus on the redesign without making drastic changes to other aspects of your digital presence: A focused approach allows you to monitor the impact of your redesign more accurately without the noise of other simultaneous changes.
  • Allow time to establish a new baseline: After implementing your redesign, give it time to settle. Monitor key metrics to establish a new performance baseline, which can then inform further optimization and updates.

Elevating Your Online Presence

As you embark on redesigning your website in 2024, remember the importance of building on past insights, prioritizing your audience’s needs, and integrating content and design harmoniously. By focusing on meaningful metrics and making informed changes, you can elevate your online presence and better serve your visitors.

FREE DOWNLOAD 25 Website Must Haves  Check out our guide for driving traffic in leads and sales!   
Factors That Influence Consumer Purchasing Decisions

What Are Marketing Qualified Leads And Why Do They Matter?

/in , , , , , , /by

How are you handling your marketing qualified leads (MQLs)? Once you have a lead at the top of the sales funnel, you can’t just stop marketing and hope that initial lead turns into a sales-qualified lead (SQL). You need to keep your eye on that in-between stage where your MQLs are. You should nurture and engage with them while they are in this stage.

marketing qualified leads sales qualified leads blocks

What is a Marketing Qualified Lead?

A Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is a type of lead in which the potential customer will engage with your brand which you have provided to them through your marketing efforts.

Don’t Forget the Lead in the Middle

Prospects, also known as contacts and leads, are the consumers at the top of your sales funnel. They have an initial interest in your product or service and might provide an email address or first name, in exchange for a report or other premium offer. However, they are only at the browsing stage and are definitely not ready to make a purchase yet.

At the bottom of your sales funnel are your sales qualified leads, also known as SQLs. These leads are ready to make a purchase. This stage is when your sales people need to be in contact with them, ready to provide additional information and incentives to finalize the sale.

There is plenty of room between the prospect and the SQL. This stage of transition between browsing and making a purchase is where the marketing qualified lead (MQL) sits.

An MQL has moved beyond the browsing stage and is seriously evaluating whether your product or service meets certain criteria. The are looking for detailed information, like customer testimonials and product specifications, to aid them in making the best decision. MQLs are looking at your competition as well, assessing how you measure up. They are getting third-party opinions and reading product reviews to choose the option that best suits their needs. This is when your marketing needs to shift. Nurture your MQLs by following up with them regularly. Tailor content like whitepapers and case studies to them. This tailored content should show your MQLs how and why your product or service is best for them. MQLs need detailed information about your products and services. They also need to know how you differ from the competition. Having a strong brand identity can help set you apart. This information will help the MQL move towards the decision-making point.

Read More: How to nurture leads with email marketing

How Can You Tell if a Lead is Marketing Qualified?

To tell when a lead is moving from the prospect stage towards the MQL stage, you need to gather pertinent data from the lead and monitor his/her activity on your website. Then, compare this information to past sales opportunities to determine what direction the prospect is moving towards. Ideally, they are moving towards becoming an SQL.

  • Demographic data from the lead, such as location, industry, and business size, makes a difference. Also, how much money do they want to spend? Is your product or service within their budget needs? If it is, the lead is more likely to become an MQL.
  • What types of actions are they taking on your website? Frequent visits combined with downloading whitepapers, requesting demos, or other interactions with content is a good sign that the lead will become an MQL.
  • How similar are they to your past sales opportunities that have already transitioned from leads into MQLs? Similarities can help you predict the likelihood of the lead becoming an MQL. If your typical customers are established companies with a large budget, a start-up with a limited budget may not be a good fit. However, that doesn’t mean the start-up won’t make a purchase, it just means that it is less likely to happen.

marketing qualified leads notebook

The exact definition of what an MQL means to your company is something only you can define. But, no matter how you define MQLs, you cannot forget them in your marketing process. Forgetting them means less SQLs, which means less final sales. And that defeats the purpose of marketing in the first place. The next step is learning how to engage marketing qualified leads until they move to being an SQL.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers

How To Nurture Your Leads With Email Marketing

How To Nurture Your Leads With Email Marketing

/in , , , , /by

Despite some claims that email is dead, it is still a highly effective way for marketers to connect with consumers. It is an integral part of inbound marketing as well as attraction marketing, and is a great way to send nurture leads throughout the buying process.

Nurture Your Leads With Email Marketing

What is Lead Nurturing?

Lead nurturing is a strategic approach in marketing and sales that focuses on developing and maintaining meaningful relationships with potential customers throughout their buying journey.

Here are a few email best practices that will help nurture your leads.

Segmentation

The segmentation of your contacts database will help define your audience into categories. If you are unfamiliar with buyer personas, read about them here, as they will be extremely useful in segmenting your contacts. Segmenting be done in terms of geographic location, company type, role within that company, behavior, marketing intelligence, or any other category that could be valuable to your company. Use segmenting to your advantage by targeting those different groups with useful content based on their specific needs.

Read more

professional web design1

The Importance Of Having A Professional Web Design Service For Your Business

/in , , , , , , /by

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, you need a website. If you don’t have a website, you’re without a doubt going to lose out on a lot of potential customers. This is because simply having a website is one of the most effective ways to generate awareness of your business. However, just having a website isn’t enough. You will want to have a professionally designed website to ensure that it’s technically sound, visually appealing, and user-friendly. While you might consider building your website yourself in order to save money, the following are a few reasons why it’s worth investing in a professional web design:

Importance of Professional Website Design Service For Your Business

1. Build A Unique Website

Building a website from the ground up is something few companies have the resources to do, which means that they end up using basic website templates. A professional website design service will be able to customize your website by tailoring it to your specific needs. As a result, you will be able to provide a unique website experience to your visitors that will help your business stand out. Additionally, they will be able to create a consistent aesthetic that accurately reflects your brand, thereby helping to strengthen your branding efforts.

Website Redesign Checklist
New call-to-action

2. Prevent Technical Issues

Professional web design services know what they are doing. They have massive amounts of experience and technical expertise. As such, when they develop websites, they ensure that there are no technical issues that will cause your website to crash or to function poorly. Even minor technical issues, such as slow loading times, can hurt your marketing efforts significantly. A technically sound website reflects positively on your brand as well. Additionally, a professional service can monitor your website for potential issues and address them before they have a big effect on your visitors.

3. Ensure Site Securityprofessional web design 2

Website security is incredibly important. If you’re taking personal information from your visitors, such as their names and email addresses, then you have a responsibility to ensure that this data is secure. If you have an e-commerce page through which customers are providing their credit card information, then this is even more critical. A professional web design service will keep your website secure using all of the latest website security tools and practices, including HTTPS protocol.

4. Optimize Website For SEO

Optimizing your website for SEO (search engine optimization) involves a lot more than just throwing a few keywords in your content. A good website developer understands this and will build a site architecture that supports strong SEO. For example, they will build a site map that makes it easy for Google to crawl through your pages and to index them. Without an effective site map, search engines may miss pages when crawling through your website, which means that they won’t be ranked on their SERP (search engine results page). Additionally, proper keyword use in URLs, effective internal linking, and a lack of technical issues all contribute to good SEO.

Similar Article: 6 Web Design Principals to Increase Conversions

5. Update Your Website

New technology is continually emerging, especially when it comes to websites. A brand new website can become outdated within just a year. A professional web design service can keep your website updated and implement new features that can improve the website experience over time. For example, it wasn’t that long ago that chatbots were first developed and now it’s not uncommon for a website to have one. Trying to add new features to your website on your own can be quite difficult and can cause issues with other parts of your site, which is why it’s best to let a professional do it for you.

6. Save Time

The amount of time that it takes to create a website cannot be overstated. Whether you’re building a website to completion or implementing a growth-driven design, it’s going to require a significant amount of time to do. Not to mention that the website will need to be regularly monitored and updated as well. By letting a professional web design service take care of your website, you will be able to focus your time on growing your core business.

7. Save Money

Many companies attempt to build their websites on their own because they think that they can save money this way; however, they’re more likely to lose money in the long run. Website design requires a lot of different skillsets, which means that you would have to take on more employees. Since running a website is a long-term strategy, these employees would have to be permanent. It’s more affordable to outsource to a professional web design service.

Ultimately, your website is a reflection of your business. If it’s of poor quality or appears unprofessional, potential customers will second guess the quality of your products or services. With that in mind, it’s worth investing in a professional web design.

25 Website Must Haves
lead nurturing

Lead Nurturing During the Buyer’s Journey

/in , , , /by

Using Lead Nurturing During the Consideration Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey

The consideration stage of your buyer’s journey begins a pivotal series of events for your buyer and your brand. Once your buyer has been made aware of their problem, searched through your content, and become a lead, their true “shopping” experience begins. This is where delivering solutions in an authoritative way will start to differentiate your brand from competitors offering similar products and services.

That differentiation starts with a shift in your marketing towards your potential buyers in the form of lead nurturing: granular, tailored messages focused on the information you’ve gathered through them during the awareness stage. Email marketing and marketing automation are the primary avenues for marketing to your buyers at this point.

What is Lead Nurturing?

Lead Nurturing is a process in marketing and sales to cultivate relationships with potential customers over time. It is providing relevant information to leads at various stages of the buying journey to guide them towards making a purchase decision.

Drip Emails

Drip emails deliver content to your prospective buyers over time. With time being virtually the only factor affecting how and when messages are sent. While customizing in the sense of what content is delivered, it offers very little in the control you have of the content against the information you’ve gathered about you lead over their buying journey.

Drip emails certainly have a place early in the consideration stage for offering further education, keeping your brand present and in front of your potential buyers. They can also be very broad campaigns announcing new products, brand updates, and showcasing the highlights of your company. Drip email marketing and lead generation, however, have a mutual independency on one another for a successful marketing campaign.

Lead Nurturing Campaigns

The goal of lead nurturing as part of your buyer’s consideration process is to deliver the right information at critical points in their journey through your content. The beauty of marketing automation is that you can build the campaigns tailored to your buyer personas and design those automation steps to deliver perfectly timed content.

Through marketing automation, lead generation collects data about your buyer’s behavior and helps guide them through the buying process. The actions your buyers take on your website will trigger certain actions on behalf of your lead nurturing campaign. Attending a webinar, downloading a certain piece of content, or visiting a page a certain number of times can trigger an email.

While drip emails can be effective at points during the consideration stage and certainly keep your brand at the front of your audiences, lead nurturing campaigns are a “smarter” way to go. Lead nurturing is smart in the sense that it leverages the information your inbound marketing software collects about your leads and uses it to tailor the right content to your leads.

Drive Website Conversions Throughout the Buyer’s Journey

Re-marketing

As you probably know, marketing doesn’t necessarily always go according to plan. Sometimes a marketing qualified lead (MQL) who has already dug deep into your content, fallen into a workflow, and even triggered actions based on your lead nurturing campaigns goes cold. This is where some clever re-marketing coupled with lead nurturing can rejuvenate those once-promising leads.

Re-marketing is a multifaceted and very versatile way to bring leads back into your lead nurturing campaigns. We say multifaceted, because various avenues can be used to reinvigorate your buyer’s interest including paid social media promotions, smart CTAs, and smart lists as part of your lead nurturing. While re-marketing may seem like a last resort in your buyer’s journey it’s actually an integral part of how you keep your brand relevant to prospective buyers especially those who may have slipped through the cracks.

Core Difference Between Buyer Journey vs. Customer Journey

The Marriage of Sales and Marketing

No matter what degree of marketing your brand engages in, marketing without sales will not meet the results your company is seeking: ROI. In the inbound world, we call this “smarketing”, and it’s that partnership between your sales force and marketing department that ultimately tips a buyer in your direction. As we have moved down the funnel, hopefully you’ve seen how vital integrating sales with your marketing practices truly is.

Both the consideration stage and decision making stage of your buyer’s journey rely on that smarketing relationship and the symbiosis therein helps make that transition from a simple lead to a sales qualified lead more fluid. In our next article, we’ll discuss how the personal touch from your sales team can help your sales qualified leads turn into actual sales.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers