Creating Your Website for Users, Social Media; Conversions

The internet becomes more and more complex by the day with new social platforms, SEO techniques and search engine algorithm updates being deployed constantly. It takes focused determination to ingest, analyze and ultimately decide what to implement and what not to. There’s another way. Get back to the basics. Focus on what built your business…… your customers! Look at your website through their eyes and make changes and updates accordingly rather than trying to trick the algorithm or jumping on the latest trends.

Structuring Your Site for Users

Creating a great looking User Interface is only one step in the battle to having a great site. You also want the experience for your visitors to be seamless making it easy to find what they’re looking for. Structure your site to offer Users easy navigation to your most important content. This is most effectively done by identifying their needs or questions and providing content that answers it.

Too many sites do a great job of attracting visitors through great product offerings but when the User lands on the page they find something different. The most common example I see is when you land on Agency websites who do a great job of answering the User’s questions and concerns then offer a “Pricing” link in the top navigation only to render a Contact Form on that page. This is an awful User Experience that can be perceived as a sales trick. This can turn your potential customers away. Don’t try and trick your target audience into contacting you or converting in some other way. If you offer custom service packages then tell your audience that. Instead of telling the visitors they can see “Pricing,” your call to action should say something like, “Contact Us for a Free Consultation.”

Social Interaction is Good for Your Website

New customers generated from referrals are the cornerstone of most businesses. It’s also most likely your most inexpensive marketing channel. That is what social media is all about. If you can think of your social media audience as potential referral points then you can start to develop an effective social media marketing campaign. It all starts with creating amazing content on your website. The kind of content that is in depth and sharable throughout social media. The kind of content that you would share with you friends. The kind of content that positions you as an industry leader, provides people with the information they need and ultimately generates you business.

When you are writing and publishing content to your website, make it easy for people to share that content with their friends and followers. One great way to do that is to add social media like buttons. These buttons allow the reader to instantly Like, Tweet or +1 the content sharing it with their social media audience. It’s like an instantaneous referral for your content, webpage and brand.

Once you have positioned your brand as an industry leader by creating great content and sharing that content in social media channels it’s time to harness the power of your content and brand by cultivating a community who are all interested in your product or service. Pyure Brands is a great example of an organic health conscience brand that is focused on bringing likeminded people together around their stevia sweetener products through social media. They actively reach out to influential health brands and their following of fans to promote a healthier way of living. This community approach to growing their brand has made Pyure a leader in its space.

Conversions is the Name of the Game

Creating a beautiful site that attracts tons of visitors from different channels is only as good as your ability to convert them into business. Conversions come in all shapes and sizes. A conversion for your site may be a Newsletter signup, contact form submission, product purchase or all of the above. For a conversion friendly site you want to create as many touch points as possible. Allow your visitors to sign up for your Newsletter, submit a contact form, or download an eBook in the simplest way possible. Sites that convert visitors at a high rate make it as easy and seamless as possible to make a digital exchange whether that be information or money for a product or service.

The best example of this is found on conversion friendly checkout pages from Ecommerce sites. While it’s becoming increasingly regular for people to purchase things online, there is still a fundamental road block that you have to hurdle to convert a visitor through a digital channel. This is because of trust. The visitor can’t see you (the merchant or business) and can’t see the product, like in a traditional brick and mortar store. Your brand and the checkout process has to invoke trust with the customer in order for them to convert. Use clear messaging, guarantees (where applicable) and “trust logos” from your merchant processing or business affiliations (i.e. BBB, PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.).

Marketing your brand online starts with positioning yourself in the way you want your target market to see you. Your website is an extension of your business and needs to be structured as such. Look at your site and your brand through your customers eyes and create your digital brand to answer their needs. Make it easy for them to convert into customers and refer you to their friends. Get back to the basics and focus on your customer’s experience with your brand online.