6 Website Features That Can Make Or Break Your Marketing

Implementing an effective small business marketing system is like putting a puzzle together. From blogging and SEO to social media and premium offers, the pieces are so intertwined and crucial in their own right that it can be hard to prioritize what to do and in which order. Each piece of the puzzle must link together perfectly, and no piece can be left out.

That’s why you want to avoid implementing random tactics, such as blogging before a conversion funnel is in place or posting on social media without a content strategy.

Having said that, your website should always be a priority. It’s where your traffic lands and a crucial factor in your ability to convert visitors into qualified leads and ultimately, into customers.

Given that your website is the hub of most of your marketing activity, here are six crucial features to make it highly converting and highly engaging.

1) Unique value proposition

The first thing to do if you want a high converting website is make sure visitors know why they should do business with you.

When visitors land on your website, they need to see right away what it is you do and why they should do business with you.

A great example of this is Wix.

There are many website builders in the market today, so how does Wix stand out from the pack? They focus on how easy it is to create a beautiful website.

If you think about it, many people looking to build their own website are entrepreneurs who have a million things on their to-do list. Chances are their background isn’t in marketing or technology. So being able to easily build a website is super important to them.

Do you know what’s super important to your customers? Make sure they see that message right away. Nine times out of 10, when clients come to me asking why their marketing isn’t working, a quick look at their website reveals the answer.

If you’re saying too many things, or you’re saying them in ways that confuse people, it means that you’re unclear about your unique value. And if your value proposition is unclear to you, it’s definitely going to be unclear to your readers.

2) The homepage

Most of your traffic will pass through your home page, so it’s very important it makes a good impression. In some cases, it’s the only chance you have to make a lasting impression on a potential customer. If your homepage looks great, functions well and loads quickly, there’s a good chance visitors will navigate to other pages of your site and continue to engage and move through their journey. Get any one of these things wrong, and visitors will probably leave and visit another competitor entirely.

Make sure visitors can easily find what they’re looking for on your website. If there are any interruptions at all that make it hard for people to navigate the site easily, people will be more likely to give up and go elsewhere. Give them what they want right away and don’t leave any gaps between what they want to do and a clear, easy way to do it.

3) Landing pages

When a visitor encounters an ad or offer that makes them want to click through to your site, they have a strong expectation that what they’ll see next will match that hook exactly. By creating compelling, laser-targeted landing pages, you can make sure your site won’t frustrate their expectations. A good set of landing pages will help your site seem as if it is speaking directly to your prospects no matter how they got there or what motivated them.

4) The user journey

Whether your visitor arrives on a landing page or your home page, there has to be a clear path for them to navigate. That path should lead through the fewest number of other pages and clicks possible – and it should go straight to your website conversion goal. In the early stages of designing a site, you should define the actions you want users to take and then streamline the path to those actions as much as possible. With a landing page, website conversion could take as little as a single click: Ideally, your home page adds only one new click to the equation.

Navigation should be intuitive and make sense. Anything that causes confusion will make it unclear what you do and why people should care. Your navigation should be labeled clearly and lead people to pages where the content supports what the page is about. When you can, avoid drop down navigation.

5) Content

Sooner or later, whether it’s after their first conversion or while contemplating their first buy, visitors will break away and go off the beaten path. As they explore your site, they’re on the lookout for signs that you’re an expert and an authority in your space. Those signals comes from your web content. It should be helpful, informative, and directly related to the big questions that occupy prospects’ minds. If you have strong ideas about who your ideal customers are, it will be easy to uncover the challenges they have relating to your products, and give them the solutions they need through articles, videos, podcasts and more.

6) Offers

Once a visitor leaves your website, odds are good that you won’t see them again unless they have a good reason to come back. This means you may be leaving money on the table. By offering premium content that provides real value to your target audience, you can drive engagement and develop lasting relationships with visitors long after they leave your website. Make sure your premium offers provide real value to your target audience and use compelling titles to capture their attention.

Key Takeaways

Optimizing your site for conversions is about making sure potential customers have the information they need to make decisions and take action. The path to their journey should be clear and straightforward, with minimal distractions to prevent them from taking the action you expect. Over time, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of what motivates your potential customers to purchase your products and can modify your website accordingly for even higher conversion rates.