Remington BeggWe get a lot of questions about Impulse Creative when small businesses are frustrated that their websites aren’t converting people they way they had hoped. What all of these questions boil down to is “Why aren’t my customers doing what I want?” In most cases, it’s because the new website was designed based on what someone thought looked cool or modern, instead of what would make the shopping experience less work for the website viewers. A fancy-looking website doesn’t necessarily bring about a positive ROI for your brand, so what will? Ask yourself the following questions before a website re-design to make sure you don’t waste a lot of time and money:
#1 How Do Customers See My Website?
There’s an interesting theory that say if you’re spending hours a day working on your website you’re actually the worst person to evaluate the site. Of course you know where to find everything! You’re real potential customers are giving it a few minutes, if that. They are quickly zipping through the site, with only a few elements catching their attention and ignoring the majority of the home page. If your links are too subtle, they won’t know they are there at all.
Consider using a product like Crazy Egg to see exactly where viewers are looking and clicking on your current website. This type of software is super helpful in removing your bias. If no one is clicking on what you consider a major function of your homepage, you may need to rethink its placement or look.
#2 How Are Customers Buying My Product?
Don’t worry about every conceivable user flow through your website. Worry instead about the most common paths to conversion. What’s your top traffic source? Top entry page? Top product page? Even if you don’t directly sell your products via an ecommerce site, you still need to learn how people are progressing through the different stages. If you have a hugely popular product that everyone is searching for, why not allow them to skip the home page altogether? Get customers from the search result to your shopping cart as quickly as possible by employing a specialized SEO strategy, making it easier for people to find it right away and lowering the chances they get frustrated and leave your site.
#3 Which Customer Behaviors Should I Target?
Here’s where the real development of your inbound strategy and buyer personas starts. Now that you’re seeing your website through your customers’ eyes, how can you optimize that flow specifically for them? Your website should be designed to help your visitors solve their problems and answer their questions. If you do this, they will appreciate your brand, be more likely to buy your product, and rave about their experience all because you went out of your way to tailor your website for them instead of yourself.
Instead of having them do all the work, do the work for them and you’ll start to see amazing results. Going out of your way to help people find your brand and to provide them with a remarkable experience is exactly what inbound marketing is all about. For more tips and expert advice, download our free eBook The Beginner’s Guide to Inbound Marketing.
