Did you know that that 40% of web visitors never return to a website after a bad browsing experience? Businesses by and large have come to understand the value of creating compelling content for attracting and retaining web visitors. But it is also important to ensure that a website is designed in a way that it offers a compelling user journey.
You surely don’t want your visitors to head to the exit door of your web real estate as soon as they have entered, right? (more…)
If you have been following the Brightfire blog in recent weeks you’ll have spotted a pattern. Mobile is increasingly important.
We have reported recently on Why Businesses should Tap into Local Mobile Search - its a no-brainer when you realise that mobile search has grown by a massive 500% in the past two years.
We have also spoken about how responsive web design supports content marketing. Responsive is the practice of designing one site for many platforms such as desktop, mobile, tablet, iPhone, iPad, etc, rather than having a one version of your site for desktop computers and another for mobile devices. Ease of development and maintenance of sites for mobile devices is going to be massively important in the future.
And Brightfire CEO John Hornell wrote recently in The Drum about why businesses should stop playing catch-up and get to grips with mobile.
Do you need another reminder about why you need to have a mobile-friendly website? We present just ten reasons…
Perhaps you know the term “responsive design.” Maybe you don’t. Many people think it just refers to the technical aspects of web design, but that’s not the case. Responsive design has a major impact on the way your content is presented online
What is responsive design?
Responsive design is the practice of having one website that adapts to the device it is being viewed upon. Or simply: one website for all screens.
Brightfire CEO’s guest article for The DRUM attracted the largest number of online readers than any post published on the website over the weekend.
John Hornell’s piece ‘Thinking of Rebuilding Your Website? Don’t Bother!’ appeared in the Digital section of The DRUM on Sunday and quickly caught on fire, prompting nearly 90 shares and retweets to date.
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Creating content of value to your audience on a website and promoting it on third-party domains such as social media sites will help drive website traffic. Those traffic-driving strategies will not necessarily engage and convert prospects into potential customers. To achieve this goal a website needs to be conversion-optimized—that is, it needs to offer clear opportunities for prospects to willingly provide their contact information and thus become leads. Converting prospects into leads and subsequently nurturing leads into potential customers are key indicators of online marketing success.
In order for prospects to take action and convert into leads, it is essential to create a series of campaign specific call-to-actions and accompanying landing pages.
1. What is the purpose of a ‘call-to-action’ and what stages of the sales cycle can it serve?
A call to action serves to trigger prospects’ interest in a company’s offer and subsequently further engagement with the company. Call-to-action buttons can serve multiple sales cycle stages, but the balance of giveaways in return for prospect information will vary depending on the sales cycle stage of the prospect. The less engaged prospects are (i.e. the earlier the stage), the more a company needs to give to provide incentives for engagement.
Ecommerce sites are generally focused on converting web visitors into sales. However, there is a huge opportunity in capturing the details of those who are ‘non-transacting’.
By capturing site visitors information, you can capitalise on the visitors who are not yet sales ready, move them further down the sales funnel and ultimately increase transaction rates.
There are three critical steps in creating offer drive lead paths and if these are implemented successfully your conversion rate will soar. These are:
1. Call-to-action button
2. Landing page with a form
3. Thanks you page
Keep reading for implementation and design specifics on these three key pieces.
There are a whole host of web agency out there trying to convince you that they can create a web presence to die for! But let’s get one thing straight, complicated and busy websites create confusion and this often translates to lower effectiveness.
So instead of telling you how a new fancy flash banner or some wonderfully quirky images will improve your website we are going to tell you what to delete to get it performing! Let’s face it; a website success is not based on how pretty it is, it’s about getting found online and converting visitors into sales leads, right?
What is your website doing for you? Is it simply a brochure or business card for your company products and services? Is your website only beneficial to your visitors? If so you are missing a huge opportunity to turn your website into a lead generation machine.
You need CTAs
You may think that this blog is going to be based on how a new flashy website will help you get visitors to take an action. Sorry, your wrong, all you need is a few effective calls to action CTA. Calls to action are ‘Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as “Write Now,” “Call Now,” or (on Internet) “Click Here.” They compel web visitors to do something such as download a useful white paper or take a trial. In return they give you some information about themselves and as such become a sales lead. Any business that wants to generate leads online must therefore consider their Call to Action Strategy carefully.
Solve a problem
Website visitors will only share their contact information with you when they believe that you understand their challenges, problems and goals. As such you need to design a CTA that solves a problem for the visitor. They are not interested in how much your product costs. They need to know why your product is of value to them and how it can make their life simpler.
Why is this of benefit to me?
Your visitor has probably found your website by typing a question into Google. In order to keep them on your site before they disappear forever, you need to grab their attention. Your offer must therefore to clearly state the benefits to them.
A good example of this maybe; “How to generate more leads online”.
A real life example can be taken from the 37 signals website. The quickly and clearly offer a resolution to a problem, in this case internal communications and when you hover over the CTA provide an action orientated message ‘find out more’. Action orientated CTAs are essential.
Create a sense of urgency and tell people what to do: Sign up now! Contact us! Download today! And make sure the images and text in the CTA are highly visible and clickable!
Get their Info
Once you have offered a resolution to their problem and they are sure you can help they will be willing to provide their details. You can further reassure them by creating a landing page (a page they navigate to after clicking the CTA) that further emphasises your offer.
To capture a visitors details you need to create a create short form on the landing page. A general rule of thumb is, the shorter the form, the more likely people will fill it in. You need to consider how valuable your piece of content is. If it is for a cheat sheet or White Paper keep it short and only ask for the information you need. On the other hand if it is a trial, you are giving something big away and should therefore expect more details in return. Once you have their details they are a lead.
Clearly downloading a White Paper doesn’t translate to a sales ready lead. You do however have their information and can now start to understand their needs fully and nurture them, a topic we will pick up on at a later date!!! What are your top tips for getting visitors to take actions?
Share them by leaving a comment.
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