Your website should contain the capabilities to ensure a positive user experience, if not, you are potentially losing customers before they even walk in your door.
Woah. That's a heavty statement, but true, so let us tell you how to fix it!
Just like your team, your website needs to be equipped with the right tools to attract new customers and increase your sales. Sound familiar? It's sales enablement (but for your site).
This means your website delights the user who is going to your site in such a way that it makes them want to take action - and that action is buying. At the very least they want to share what they found with someone else. Word of mouth is just as powerful.
40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is a negative experience*.
By creating a personalized website experience, could increase sales by 19%*. Having content helps build a relationship with your audience which leads to trust and in the end hopefully a sale!
Preventing Visitors From Having A Negative Experience
Here is the sales enablement process for your website. Do you give it these tools to be successful?
- Data collecting can be your biggest asset. Tracking can bridge the gap between your website and your actual store and help increase traffic and get more leads. Just like you talk to prospects who come in to buy in person, you can see what they are doing online.
- The speed of your website could be the difference between someone spending 10 seconds or 10 minutes on it. What is your patience like when a link doesn't work right away? Statistics show that most of us don't even wait two seconds for a website to load. Amazon stated if their site slowed by just one second they would lose $1.6 billion each year*!
- This is 2017 we are talking about, which means social media is rampant on every website you go on. Did you know that people are more likely to buy a product or service if their friends or family recommend it? This is where social media meets social proof and means you need to have customer testimonials, reviews, or social media connections with positive feedback.
But Wait, There's More...
- Content includes not only your updated inventory but also helpful tricks and tips to go along with it. Having a blog or an FAQ, or a chat box enabled on your website gives an element of humanity to your cyber store-front nurturing your customer relationship for the long haul.
- Let’s say you have the perfect image of a boat during a sunset on your homepage. How does it look on your phone or a tablet? Is it responsive? Nearly 60% of searches are on mobile. Your website needs to fit perfectly on every device your customers use. Are you losing customers because of antiquated technology? If so, a responsive website will help solve that problem.
- Does your competitor's website come up higher than your site when Googled? Do you even know? You have heard of SEO (search engine optimization) and its importance. One element of SEO that will help is inbound links. Inbound links can help you gain a significant advantage. The goal here is to get other authoritative sites to link back to you. You may have their links on your website – but getting them to connect back has to be earned and more valuable.
- When your consumers start looking for a boat, what do they search first? Knowing the high-traffic keywords and using them (naturally) throughout your website to your advantage could increase your visibility and improve your search engine optimization. The most significant takeaway is to know what your customers are searching for and how you measure up.
The Next Step.
We just threw a bunch of information at you, with marketing terms you still might be scratching your head about. So if you have more questions feel free to email us. Or if you're ready for the next step - see how your website is performing right now for free!
*Sources: HubSpot Academy, FastCompany