So your website’s probably fine right? It’s there. It does a job. It looks okay. Great. Next.
But you should ask yourself, what exactly is it doing for your business? Are you tracking its performance? Is it helping you generate new business? Ultimately, could it be doing more?
As with most businesses, the reality is, your website could and should be doing more.
Nowadays, things quickly grow out of date, and it’s not always worth the hassle of updating your website until it really needs it.
However, thinking this way can lead you to miss many opportunities to improve your business, leaving you far behind the competition.
Here’s what you need to do…
Instead of leaving your website to grow stagnant, then pay a large sum to get it looking okay, then every two years rinse and repeat, you should create an ‘inbound website’.
An ‘inbound website’ model is an ideal partner for inbound marketing strategy. It is a new, dynamic, and ever evolving sales platform for your business, serving as a tool to welcome and then nurture prospects into and along the buyers’ journey. All day, and all night.
So how does it work?
Great question.
It works by embedding your inbound marketing strategy and marketing funnel into the structure of your website. Then, with an assigned team, you can regularly monitor performance, track KPIs, stay on top of trends, adapt features and functionality accordingly, all the time driving the growth of your website and your business in line with the needs and habits of your audience.
Here are some key advantages of redesigning your website for inbound marketing:
1) Establish a 24/7 marketing funnel, driving conversions round-the-clock
Your website and marketing strategy shouldn’t be distinct concerns, starting from now, they should be a unified entity. The result, a 24/7 marketing funnel that will drive business growth, with your website serving as the hub where your marketing and sales strategy play out. This combines to create a highly-optimised lead generation platform that is always at work.
Think about it. When you attract attention online, traffic is driven to your website. Your blogs, content offers, landing pages, forms, and every other aspect of your lead conversion process, are all part of your website.
It’s all there already, so you need to make your website work with this in mind. Its structure, page layout, and wording, all need to embody the inbound marketing methodology, naturally taking visitors through the buyers’ journey with clear user pathways.
From the top down, your inbound website funnel should contain:
A blog and search engine optimised pages that will attract visitors to your site
Corresponding landing pages and calls-to-action to turn visitors into leads
Optimised forms to collect information that will let you properly nurture leads, and turn them into customers
Tailored features and content that speaks to your audience, keeping them engaged and delighted with your business
Ultimately, each page needs to know it’s place in the journey, serving a specific function that will help guide your leads through your website, ever closer to becoming a customer.
2) Appear early in the buying cycle, driving (more and more) conversions
Way before a sales call takes place, consumers are already scouring the internet for the information and answers they need. Your website needs to match this trend.
Most successful companies appear in the first half of the buyers’ journey, serving as a place where consumers can find helpful and interesting content that offers real solutions to real problems.
The earlier you reach your audience, the more leads you will attract, resulting in a higher conversion rate for your business.
3) Adaptability – meaning, consistent audience focused improvements across performance, design, and user experience
If you keep letting your website get behind the times, it’s probably losing you business.
Time left between redesigns is time wasted. The growth-driven model of an inbound website fixes this.
Just as you wouldn’t ignore your marketing tactics for an entire year, the same applies to your website, it requires constant rejuvenation to stay up to date and working at its best.
4) Long-term value & functionality > One-off cost for a nice look
Having a nice-looking website is, well… it’s nice, but having a high functioning website is way better. Now don’t get me wrong, aesthetic is a big part of functionality as it what attracts users in, but getting the rest right is just as important in making your website a success.
Without an inbuilt strategy, and without measuring key performance metrics, you’re simply committing money to something without knowing what you’re getting in return. This can be costly, in a number of ways.
Investing a little, month-by-month, on incremental changes is far more effective, and by doing so you’re able to control and prove your ROI. Which can be hugely beneficial for your business.
5) You’ll be left with a complete and automatic lead nurturing platform
It’s well known that the more a lead trusts and understands your business, the more they are willing to invest in your products or services. Meaning, the more you nurture a lead with relevant and timely content, the more they will ultimately spend.
If you’re still manually moving people in and out of a plethora of lists and email groups trying to figure out where each belongs – there is a better way.
If you aren’t nurturing leads in at all, still relying on umbrella content to capture stragglers – there is a better way.
You guessed it, it’s an inbound website. How astute of you.
When set up correctly, your inbound website will automatically take leads through the awareness, consideration and decision stages of the process. Nurturing them at every step through highly optimised user pathways. You’ll gain a full picture of what type of lead they are based on their activity, allowing you to correctly qualify them before you move to sales
Here’s a quick recap of what your inbound website should be…
- A 24/7 marketing funnel/lead generation machine
- An automatic lead nurturing platform
- A smooth and complete buyers’ journey
And what it needs to be great?
- A dedicated team to monitor and implement incremental performance-based changes
- A great hosting platform, that makes it all a breeze