We are not exactly reluctant website developers, but we do it, simply because we found that when we were called in to build a marketing engine for our clients, the website proved to be a hindrance to that. For example, we found that to build proper landing pages, calls to action or individual forms for specific campaigns, we had to ask developers to create them, which took a great deal of time and cost a lot of money. Often we have to revert to an expensive Marketing Automation system to achieve some fairly simple marketing functions.
So here are our 4 top tips to ensure that your website is fit for purpose and you can easily and simply use your website to market your company, its products and services.
Tip Number 1 – Responsive Design
Most page builders like Wix, Squarespace or Elementor are pretty good at this, but even if these systems claim to be responsive, check it out on real devices – iphone, Android, mobile and tablet devices.
The major reason for ensuring all this is that Google will mark your SEO down if your site isn’t responsive, so say goodbye to page one, position one!
Tip Number 2 – Calls to Action
Make sure that you can build your own Calls To Action. There should be lots of lots of opportunities for your visitors to interact with your site even if it’s just a contact button. You need to have the ability to create these buttons but we find that lots of websites don’t allow you to create these simple but effective tools.
One powerful technique is to put a number of buttons above the so-called ‘fold’. One could be for a demo, one could be for a download. These ‘Calls to Action’ are vital to let you know if your website is having an impact.
You should be able to build these contact buttons quickly and easily and you should also be able to put links on these buttons and customise them however you like.
Tip Number 3 – Forms
Make sure that you can create separate contact forms for separate campaigns. If you’re not using a Marketing Automation system, then use something like Elementor, the well known page builder. Elementor allows you to create lots of different forms on your site, for different campaigns and the forms can be customised.
It’s not only good practice it’s really good for visitors, because they may want to interact on a specific matter, they don’t want to fill out a generic form.
Tip Number 4 – The Blog
We are adamant that one of the best ways to deliver value to customers is to create blogs. Blogs are not notifications of new products or your latest sale or anything to do with you. Blogs are about helping customers. Think about what your customers worry about and provide helpful content that helps them solve problems.
Make sure that your website allows you to create simple blogs with helpful content, add images, diagrams or even infographics to them to make them as interesting as possible.