We are constantly tasking ourselves —and our teams — with goals, roles and responsibilities. It’s the only way we can ensure that we get everything done and measure our output accordingly. It’s especially true in the role of sales. Goals are clearly defined, entire teams, if not departments, work in support of that sales function and systems and processes are in place to monitor and evaluate success. Why then would we treat the company website as anything other than a much deeper, broader version of those sales and support roles?
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If you still think of your website as a window to the world then you are missing out on some major growth opportunities. There are three stages in a buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration and decision. Your company website plays a critical role in each of these stages and has five key opportunities to impact the buying decision in your favor, as it attempts to exert influence over prospective buyers.
- Discovery
If your website lives in a vacuum you will eventually die a certain death. Your website supports the sales function, whether the sale is ultimately conducted there or not. Unless it can be found by prospective users/buyers you will struggle to grow awareness and revenue. Social media shares some of that burden of discovery today, as many brands are exclusively or heavily promoted and discovered on social channels. So, the need for Search Engine Optimization to increase your odds of discovery applies to your social channels of choice too .
- Create Trust
If a prospective buyer lands on your website, they are there for a reason. Most of the time it is to determine if your product/service can help solve their problem. This is your opportunity to be emphatic to that buyer’s needs by highlighting two things: you understand their problem and you can offer the solution. Engage with the visitor to prove that you understand the problem and the need that they have and showcase your solution. Speak to the buyer in direct, jargon-free language and present a compelling case for your offering.
- Educate/Engage
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As mentioned above there are three stages to the customer journey and unless the buyer is already in the decision stage, they are not yet ready to commit to your product or service. The consideration phase is the opportunity for the buyer to weigh the benefits of each competing product. Your website’s responsibility is to educate the buyer with engaging, factual, or inspirational information that highlights the unique benefits that your product or service can offer. The more convincing your material (supported by customer testimonials, informational video etc.) the better your chances will be of rising to the top of the buyer’s shortlist.
- Create A Community
The ability to continue to communicate with prospective and new customers is becoming more of a privilege every day. Users are becoming more discerning about sharing their email address, so you need to make sure you are offering something of real value for the exchange. Is there a digital download for sharing an email address? Do you have a newsletter/blog that addresses the problem that your prospective customer has and that will offer information of value on an ongoing basis? Whatever you offer, ensure that you are properly highlighting the benefits of signing up and joining your digital community. The reverse is also true in that your website should offer clear paths to your other digital channels. If social channels play a critical role in your business strategy then make sure that those social icons are not buried in the deep.
- Convert
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The holy grail of any business: sales. Arguably the most critical role your website will play is to convert prospective buyers to actual buyers. The conversion process should take the prospective buyer through the stages listed above so that there is absolute confidence in the purchase decision when the time is right. The role of your website is to ensure that the user journey is clear and uncluttered so that when they are ready to purchase there are no obstacles in their way.
The five opportunities that your website has to impact sales can be condensed down to two overarching tenets: find the person with the problem and convince them that yours is the best solution. Once you realize that your website can and should be charged with goals and deliverables it becomes a lot easier to measure its results. Ultimately it’s about ensuring that your website is working at peak efficiency for your business in support of the rest of the company — and who doesn’t want that?