According to DemandGen Report, 95% of buyers chose a solution provider that "provided them with ample content to help navigate through each stage of the buying process". A new approach to your website can be a total game changer for you. If you want better results you’ll have to do things differently. Reconfigure your thinking and use targeted channels to create forward momentum. The key to turning your web site into a sales tool is to anticipate your customers’ objections with the answers they need to hit the ground running. Keep all channels open and engaged with these simple and quick to implement tactics.
1: Internal Review - Validate and Communicate Across Departments and Teams
Start by making sure your website integrates consistent sales and marketing processes. Personalized messaging and branding is crucial. It should be easy for your customers, sales team and internal resources to navigate your site. They should be able to find, share and engage with the information and content, which should in turn motivate your visitors to purchase by embedding your unique value propositions and offerings.
This approach will enable you to create more relevant and powerful messages that speak directly to your audience and particular customer demographics. Your website provides an automated communications channel that increases in value as an asset for your company, sales team, and customers. Spend wisely. With the right approach, your website will be one of the most powerful sales tools you have at your disposal, and you should consistently evolve by keeping abreast of what is cutting edge.
Getting Started
Engage your sales team by putting in place an ongoing feedback process. Regularly ask your sales team to assess how effective the site is in terms of ensuring the content offers true value to your customers and helps improve sales. Keep your sales team in the loop about when and where to locate your new content so they can stay current with recent developments and determine if the posted material meets your customers’ needs and helps them with their challenges.
Making it Work
Continuously educate your sales team by sharing your content calendar, and be sure to publish responses to their commonly heard objections and concerns from the field. Regularly training and educating your sales team will ensure they understand how to utilize your website as a consistent and automated communications tool. This in turn will add social proof with your customers and prospects, resulting in increased acquisition, retention and growth.
2: Get Social - Generate Content and Delivery Strategies around Defined Workflows
We all know the potential of social media to boost brand exposure is virtually unlimited. The wide variety of mediums available provides multiple options for reaching your target markets. By using social media as a tool to broaden exposure for your brand, you will reach and engage with many more people than you would have otherwise. In fact, according to the “2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” by Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner, social media marketing has yielded significant gains in brand exposure, traffic and sales. And this is only the first step in your journey.
Getting Started
Pick one commonly heard objection that your sales team often faces and define a workflow that proactively anticipates this objection in a manner that draws in the audience. Take the reader through the various stages of a purchasing decision with calls-to-action that will engage and direct the reader through the next phase of the buying cycle. Define the objective and goal of the workflow, along with the metrics you will use to measure and qualify whether it’s a successful conversion. Explain how this supports the overall mission of your company and objective to acquire and retain customers. Your call to action can be any number of things, such as asking your audience to share information, download content, subscribe to a newsletter, register for an event, request more information, make a purchase, or ask to be contacted by a sales representative. Once you define what you CTA will be, take a look at your website and select where your target audience enters (it’s not always the home page), interacts with, and navigates this information.
Making it Work
To increase your success with social media, you must provide more opportunities for people who visit your web site to interact with your brand content and convert through calls-to-action that strategically cater to your customers’ point of view. Use your channel positioning documents and persona profiles to anticipate the internal conversations and decisions your target audience is having, and sprinkle answers to their questions throughout your content as if you are dropping breadcrumbs along a path. Although the web may be a never-ending source of information, you can still hold your audience’s attention with quality content that contains relevant information and is structured to guide them through a satisfying experience with your site.
Companies who see the best ROI on their websites define their information architecture and information delivery with a solid pillar content strategies in mind. So be sure to conduct a website audit and evaluate how well your site supports customer experience, navigation, flow and conversions.
3: Revere Content as King with a Focus on Blogging
Blogging gives you a chance to look unique, and it is one of the most powerful inbound marketing tools to increase traffic to your website and raise brand awareness. It can also be the best way to keep your website relevant, fresh and active. It’s a great idea to publish responsive and proactive content that addresses your industry’s opportunities and challenges in real-time. In addition, you should use internal and external links, and keywords are a must to rise to the top of search engine rankings. Blogging provides a platform to demonstrate how knowledgeable you are about your industry and how adept you are at tackling new challenges that may arise.
Getting Started
After completing Steps 1 and 2, choose two blog topics. The first should discuss a concern with which your sales team must frequently contend. The second should address the initial follow-up or internal conversation your customers are having, and include a call-to-action (an invitation to take the first step into your defined workflow).
Making it Work
Sharing useful information that engages your customers and sales team will help you establish trust in your market. The stronger your content is, and once you experience the increased traffic and conversions this will generate, the more confidence you will have in your services and products. The added social proof will increase the value of your blog and make it a serious asset for your overall business and sales strategy.
Engage Your Customers in the Right Place at the Right Time
Using this new approach will breed familiarity, build trust and encourage customers to buy from you. Backed with social proof of outstanding customer service, your website strategy will become a respected and highly appreciated part of your sales and service process. Always keep this thought in mind— information is the currency of business. So make sure you take the time to manage your currency properly!
