Call Him in for a Performance Review

Be honest. If I were to ask you about your current website’s performance, many of you would respond with some form of, “It doesn’t look that bad. It just doesn’t really do anything.” And then I’d follow up with, “How many of you would keep an employee around if they simply looked good in their uniform, but didn’t produce any justifiable benefits to the company?” Far less likely to keep someone on the payroll if they looked BAD and didn’t produce anything, right? So, why are so many contractors seemingly okay with marketing efforts that amount to little more than a costly, yet worthless placeholder?

I know the lingo you get fed during conversations with marketing companies, but beware when you’re getting sold on promises of impressions, views, traffic, and engagement. None of those things can pay the invoice for your next shipment of equipment. Unless they lead to the next step of CONVERSION into a bonafide lead, they might as well be hopes and dreams.

Have you felt this frustration before? The analytics look good, and the traffic is okay, but the submission form lays untouched, and the phone isn’t ringing. If a “crowd” of impressions is this silent and uninterested, does it really matter if they’re there at all? Maybe it’s the wrong crowd that you have looking, or maybe a few simple tweaks can turn these silent websites into the revenue generators they’re intended to be.

• Test A New Call-To-Action: …or ADD a call-to-action if you don’t have one at all! People are likely not going to do what you want if you don’t:
  • ASK
  • Give them a GOOD reason to do what you ASK
  • Make it easy for them to do what you ASK
  
  Sadly, a simple call-to-action is missing from many “sales” seeking websites, and then a GOOD call-to-action is missing from almost all of them. If what you’ve got isn’t producing the results you want, don’t let it just sit there. It’s time to start experimenting.
  
  First, figure out what it is you want these visitors to do. If you’re just looking for a call that connects to a CSR, make sure your phone number is immediately visible, in a brightly colored bubble, and displayed prominently. Use photos, graphics, and colors to direct their eyes straight to that phone number, and make sure the site is mobile friendly. When they click that button on a cell phone, the call should be as good as made. To an even more granular level, start to tweak the verbiage. Changing “Call Now” to “Click Here to Speak with Us!” changing “Get a Quote” to “Get a Custom Price” might not sound like much, but the results might surprise you.

• Find Out Where Your Traffic Is Going, And Why. There are many digital tools available now, even some free options to help you figure out important data points about your visitors like: heat maps for finding out where the visitors clicked, how long they stayed on each page, which pages were the most visited, etc. This can tell you so much about why your lead funnels might not be producing like they should.
  
  Brass tacks – You could have excellent offers and influential copy on your site, but if navigation is confusing, then your prospects might never have a chance to see it. If your traffic is arriving where they have a chance to respond but still aren’t, then you’ve likely got a call-to-action or sales copy problem keeping you from sealing the deal.    

• Professional Sales Copy Might Be the Best Investment You Could Make: If your lure is in front of the fish and you still aren’t getting bites, it’s time to change lures. You could be spending a fortune in Google marketing getting people to your website, but then they always disappear. This might be the spot where it’s best to turn to a professional for help. In any consumer sales pitch, how you present yourself and your product will always be the determining factor of success or failure. And it’s a little disheartening to think of all the ways your plans can be derailed before making it to handshake promised land.
  
  There are a million reasons for a consumer to say no: lack of trust, cost, time, etc. But your website should make the best sales pitch possible, and good copy can turn those no’s into yeses by lowering the commitment bar, calming the consumer’s anxiety, and making the benefits outweigh the negatives. Custom-written, professional sales copy can cost hundreds per page, but think about what a 1% - 2% change in engagement could mean when considering the number of people coming and leaving your site daily. Good salesmen and closers are highly valued in the trades, but you can only get them in front of a finite number of people. Your website works 24/7, doesn’t take commission, and never asks for the day off. Arm it with the best sales pitch possible.             

There’s an old acronym in marketing that maps the consumers flow through your marketing funnels. It’s called AIDA, and that stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. If your prospects are aware of you (if they’re not, that’s another topic for another day), then good sales copy should build their interest and desire, and a good call-to-action should close easily. Identify where the drop off is happening and look at ways you can invest in the solution.

If you looked at your website like an employee who, based on investment and potential, should be one of your top performers, how would you rate him? Are you okay with him looking the part and doing “okay” but bringing little to no actual results? It may be time to call him into your office for a very uncomfortable performance review.

Email us today for a website performance review.