Business owners can no longer ignore the need to have a user-friendly, optimised website, and quality content – at least, not if they want to convert website visitors into customers and remain competitive.

Yet every year we hear about startups failing to gain traction despite an innovative product and strong financial backing. And major corporations aren’t immune either. After failing to leverage the power of e-commerce in its early days, it was only last year that stuttering Toys ‘R’ Us announced a plan to revamp its website – part of a $100 million e-commerce strategy. But you might remember how that panned out.

For many businesses, the website is often the first interaction a prospective client has with the brand. And it doesn’t matter what you sell – B2B or B2C, products or services – your ultimate goal is to convert the ‘potentials’ visiting your website into customers.

If you aren’t converting visitors into customers, or views to sales, asking why should be a priority.

Could it be something as simple as…

You’re attracting (or targeting) the wrong audience

This could be for any number of reasons. Does your website address issues more likely to interest small business, when your ideal clients are medium and large businesses? Are you building a young Instagram and Snapchat audience when your offering is more attractive to baby boomers?

Setting up Google Analytics properly can provide valuable insights on your website visitors – their age, location, how they found your site, how long they stayed, the number of pages they visited. From there you can tweak your content or reconsider publishing platforms to better reach the right audience.

Your website is unprofessional

Nothing turns off a customer more than a dodgy website. When was the last time you updated yours? A few years? More than a decade? But it’s not only visual issues that will turn up a nose. Poorly written content makes you look untrustworthy – not just to visitors, but to Google’s algorithm as well.

Invest some of those hard-earned dollars into revamping your website (and remember to optimise it for mobile browsing) and you could reap the benefits of more conversions and higher search rankings.

You don’t know your market or competitors

If you didn’t conduct some serious market research before starting your business, you’re not alone, but you are at a disadvantage. You need to know your competition. Are you competing against a single company that has a monopoly on the market, or are hundreds of similar businesses struggling to survive in a flooded industry?

If your competitors offer the same product or service as you but for less, customers will need a very compelling reasons to choose you instead. And if your competitor has a flashy website with quality testimonials, a strong following on social media, and plenty of content prospective clients find useful, you’ll have to work hard (or be more strategic) to stake your place in the market.

Bottom line: if you haven’t reviewed what your competitors are doing, you may never know where you’ve gone wrong.

No lead capture for converting visitors into leads

When converting visitors into customers is vital for survival, is this something you should leave to chance? Only a percentage of those who visit your website on any give day will be ready to buy immediately. Others are still researching options or comparing suppliers. Once they leave your website, there’s no guarantee they’ll remember you when they are ready…or is there? You may not be able to convert these visitors into customers right now, but you can turn them into leads.

Employing a lead-capture strategy allows you to connect with the prospective customer and create the opportunity for further engagement. Here are some lead-capture strategies you might recognise:

• Quote – get a quote now!
• Free ebooks – register to download!
• Educational webinars – register to join!
• Newsletters – subscribe to receive updates!
• Forums and groups – register to join the discussion!

Not all forms of lead capture will be suitable for your business, so consider what type of information is important to your visitors and how you can deliver it.

Lead capture provides you with an opportunity to connect with prospective customers at an early stage of the buying journey. It means that even if they’re not ready to buy now, you can stay front of mind and be their first thought when they are ready.

You have no content strategy

Many businesses create content without any defined content marketing strategy at all. The result is often content that doesn’t resonate with the intended audience. Guessing which topics will work might result in the occasional winner, but for the most part it will be a waste of resources.

A good content strategy begins with gaining a thorough understanding of the buyers you want to attract – their challenges and motivations, channels and platforms they use online, and their typical buying cycle and/or ‘buyer journey’. It also requires an understanding your own business. What problems are you solving? Why should people choose you over competitors? What are the key messages you want to impart to potential customers?

The process doesn’t stop there. You’ll need to consider the content formats preferred by your prospective buyers, and the type of information they typically search for online. And you’ll want to know what type of content your competitors are producing, and how it’s performing. Only then, can you strategically plan topics and how you will present and promote them to engage the right audience and begin turning website visitors into customers.

Converting visitors into customers isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are countless reasons a website might be under-performing, but until you figure out why then those potential customers will continue to fall by the wayside.

There is a lot the digital savvy business owner or marketing manager can do to improve performance and conversions. If you’re planning to DIY, you might like to read Neil Patel’s 9 Effective Ways post on this topic.

If you don’t have the expertise (or time) to review your website and develop a content strategy that will increase your conversions, a content strategist can assist. Call us today, or request our Content Strategy Review Information Pack.