Kristen Patel
So you’re still asking the same question, Why isn’t my marketing working? At this point, when you say your marketing isn’t working – you’re not talking about bringing in website traffic. In fact, from this point on, I’m going to assume that you’re bringing in site visits like there’s no tomorrow – and that when you talk about your website traffic you couldn’t be happier.
But now there’s a new problem.
Your Site Visits Won’t Convert
You’ve succeeded in getting people to visit JonDoeTravel.com, but now it’s them who are the Jon Does. Despite the time they’ve spent on your website checking out your awesome, original content, they have yet to convert into contacts.
Like I told you before – don’t stress. You, Jonathan A. Doe, travel agent extraordinaire, will be converting contacts in no time at all. All that’s needed is a bit of investigation and, potentially, a lot of analysis.
The Question Is…
The first, key question is this: Where are you losing your visitors? If you have a good website that is tailored to your audience personas, your visitors will arrive at JonDoeTravel.com and immediately self-identify with your offerings. Are they interested in personal travel? Corporate travel? Or simply learning about potential destinations? They check out the related content, like your blog The 5 Keys to the Perfect Family Vacation. And then, perhaps they see the tag on the bottom, Family Travel, click, and read a few more of your blogs.
But then what?
If that’s the extent of your visitors’ interactions, chances are it’s because you are falling short in one of two areas.
Your Calls To Action
Does your website make effective use of calls to action? If you’re sitting there asking yourself, “Calls to whaaa?”, that’s a problem. Calls to action – CTAs, for short – are what convert your unknown visitors into quantifiable leads. Given that 75% of your blog traffic comes from information searchers (meaning your visitors want to learn and browse, not buy), the best way to nurture your visitors is to help them by offering more, relevant, in-depth content. Having well placed CTAs on your website will do just that.
You already have CTAs on your website? Phew, I’m glad to hear it.
This may sound superficial, but it’s important. What do your CTAs look like? CTAs shouldn’t be grey, monochromatic boxes with ugly offers within. The truth is, you can have one of the most engaging offers ever, but if it doesn’t pull me in – I’m not going to click.
According to Hubspot, your CTAs should follow at least some of these best practices (as many as possible):
- It is visually striking: Use dynamic imagery, inviting colors – don’t be dull
- It’s brief: Try to keep it short and snappy
- Action-oriented: Begin your CTA with a verb like Download or Register
- Located in an easy-to find spot
- In a contrasting, yet cohesive, color
- Large and visible, without being overwhelming
- Clear: Your visitor should understand what they’ll be getting
Your Offers
If your website already has beautiful, inviting, dynamic CTA’s but none of them have been clicked, your problem might be a bit trickier. Start by putting yourself in the mind of your visitors. Remember, you are just looking for information and you’re not ready to buy. Now imagine you visit your website and come across one of your beautiful CTAs. Maybe its a CTA that invites visitors to register for a Trip Consultation.
Whoa, there – that’s a bit forward, isn’t it?
If you’re the visitor, what do you think is going to happen if you fill out the form and register for a consultation? If you said “I’m going to get a phone call from the business,” you’d be right. The problem is, the majority of your visitors don’t want to talk to you yet. They’re still in research mode, trying to figure out what they need (or in this case, where they want to go) before deciding if they want you to be their travel agent. That means that you need to be sure that your offers align with where they are in the buyer’s journey.
If all of the CTAs on your website are bottom of the funnel offers, you aren’t going to get many conversions because most of your website visitors are still at the top or middle of the funnel. Start by creating a really good top of the funnel offer. A good TOFU offer is approachable and easy for your website visitor to convert on. From there, you can add in one or middle or bottom of the funnel offers for those who have already converted at the top of the funnel.
Your Landing Pages
Let’s say you have some great CTAs for offers at the top, middle and bottom of the funnel. Your visitors are clicking through, and moving from your homepage or blogs to the landing pages of your gated content.
And then they disappear.
Adding content (and thus landing pages) is great. After all, the more landing pages a business has on its website, the more leads it generates. But landing pages aren’t a magic bullet.
If the strategy you use to develop your landing pages – and the conversion forms on them – isn’t well thought out, it won’t matter how many landing pages you have. If one of your pages isn’t converting, it’s likely the others won’t convert either.
If your landing pages aren’t converting, check to be sure they folllow these best practices:
- Write a clear, actionable header
- Explain the offer and its value concisely
- Use numbers, bullets and bolding within the copy
- Include a relevant image
- Form fields relevant to the value of the offer
- Place content above he fold
- No menu navigation or links
It comes down to this. Make your landing page language concise, explain the importance of the offer, make it easy to read, and make the form fields relevant. Put simply, put yourself in the shoes of your potential contact. IF they’re still in research mode, looking for exploratory information, or its their first point of contact with your site, they probably won’t be willing to give you their annual revenue, their phone number, or any other personal information.
You’re building a relationship with these people, take it slow.
In Conclusion
Give these tests a try. Understanding where your visitors are abandoning your site will be key to alleviating the problem. By updating your CTA’s, offers, and/or landing pages – depending where the initial issues were – you should start to see contact conversions in no time. And remember, once you find out what works – apply the lessons learned and continue to test.
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