Performing A Marketing Check Up: Is Your Website Doing Its Job?
A wise business owner will take the time to ensure all their tools are operating as they should. A website is one of the most important marketing tools a company can have. Not all websites are backed with a brick and mortar store where you can see the traffic and customer interaction, so performing a website check up should be a top priority.
When someone visited your site did they sign up for the newsletter? Did they submit the contact form? Did they take your survey? These interactions are called conversions. This is a way to measure how well your website is performing. Simply put, is the website doing what it was designed to do? If it isn’t, then perhaps it’s time to contact a professional and reassess the different elements that make up your site.
Is your blog creating engagement?
First let’s talk about the beating heart of your website, the blog. This is the voice of your brand. Do you understand the difference between copy and content? When you read your blog out loud does it sound like a bad used car commercial from the 70s? If so, it’s an example of pseudo-copywriting. Content writing doesn’t roar about savings, it shows value and usefulness by subtly telling a story.
To tell if your blog content is effective, the number of conversions will grow. How is your customer retention? These are the connected customers who write positive reviews and share on social media. Your blog is the gateway of your sales funnel. It should also be used towards customer retention.
Is your website user-friendly?
If your website sales are up but no one is interacting with the other elements of your site, this means your website content is good but your user interface might be a little clunky. A quick internet search will show that there is a multitude of online firms who offer website usability and UI testing. A UI test consists of a contracted employee performing basic tasks on your website while narrating their movements and voicing out loud their thought processes and rationales.
Just like editing a book, you should never perform usability studies in-house. Jacob Nielsen is the guru/go to guy when it comes to usability. He’s been testing UIs since 1983 and says,
… it’s wrong to test with your friends or colleagues. You need to bring in external users who are representative of the target audience and who don’t know anything about your project. And you can’t just let them fool around: they have to do real tasks. And, of course, you have to keep from biasing their behavior and giving them hints about how to use the site.
If your UI is clunky visitors are prone to either leave or barely scan the site to find the easy answer to their question. This can put a hit on conversion and retention rates.
Can a customer answer the call to action?
Another important element to keep updated on a website is the answers to your “calls to action”. If your blog content was written well, it will tell your customers what to do. This is their call to action. Do you want them to buy, donate, share, sign-up, take a survey, blog, vlog etc.? Without an element on your website to correspond with the call to action, it’s a half-hearted and wasted effort.
What does your website look like on a phone?
More people are operating their business and daily life from phones and tablets these days. This means a website should be tested for mobile-friendliness every time there is an update to the site. Failure to do so could leave the layout of site looking like a jumbled mess to mobile users.
Are you utilizing video content?
People are more likely to read and entire article if they are first visually hooked. Having pics and video interspersed breaks up the monotony of just plain text; this is especially import for long articles. Having a visual representation of the concepts being shared reinforces a customer’s engagement and strengthens the chance of conversion.
For more information, contact us today.