By John Hogg
With Halloween just around the corner we thought it would be a right scream if we took a few minutes of your time and look at “7 Scary Facts About Marketing Your Business Online”.
Maybe you're a saint and it’s all just hunky dory or perhaps like most people you have a few howlers knocking around your website?
It’s a fact that it will be a rare day in hell if you have absolutely everything right - and be very wary of any demons telling you they can help you because they do everything right.
The absolute beauty of online is the very fact that everything is trial and error. You plan, you build, you test, you rinse and repeat. In the old days we longed for proper data on the outcome of our marketing efforts now we have it we need to use it to continually get better and improve our proposition.
So with no further ado, may I present to you a very ‘enlightening’ list of the “Top 7 Scary Facts About Marketing Your Business Online.”
Scary Fact 1: Over 50% of Small UK Businesses still don't have a website
Shocker! How can the UK seriously step forward with confidence into a digital 21st Century if the 'majority' of SMEs don't even have a website? Seriously?
Good on you if you have one, believe it or not you guys are the minority here. I suppose we shouldn't complain as we do build websites for clients after all but really how can so many businesses not have a website?
Even worse is the thought that a website is only the beginning. Having a shiny new website is only the beginning… the very beginning of your journey. You have a long way to go yet…
Scary Fact 2: 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results
So you’re all proud. You have your new website but… where will the visitors come from? Sorry to break it to you but Kevin Costner would have been the worst digital marketer in history as “Build it and they will come” just doesn’t work online.
One of the best ways of building traffic is to do it organically through search. Basically, you will need to built and optimise your website for search engines to find you and understand your content. With a good SEO plan in place and good quality content you will start to rank well on the likes of Google.
Make sure you get the technical aspects right too and follow the simple rules Google insists upon. It’s amazing how so many sites fail to even get the basics right. This can have a bad effect on your rankings no matter what else you do.
So why do you want to rank well? Well, if 75% of people don’t turn to page two of their search results how scary is it that over 50% of people will only click on one of the top 3 results? Hmmm, so what chance have you got of getting traffic to your site?
TOP TIP: stop trying to rank for the vanity terms that Tom, Dick and Harry will be trying to rank for. OK, there will be a lot of traffic from these terms but if the world and his wife are trying to rank for them sure as shooting if you’re a medium to small company you will get nowhere near page one. Our advice would be to pick other relevant terms with less traffic and competition for the rankings. Focus on these keyword phrases and you will see a marked increase in your traffic. Better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond!
Scary Fact 3: Companies that blog 15 times or more per month get 5 times more traffic than companies who don't
Something that goes hand in hand with SEO is having good quality content on your website. Google isn’t going to be fooled by a few SEO tricks if your actual content is irrelevant rubbish.
Blog well and Blog often is our mantra for content marketing. The more quality content you publish on your website the more traffic you can expect to get. I suppose there is a pretty logical reason for this as your website will now have more pages which will all start to appear more on Google and therefore increase the chance of traffic. In addition to this, Google will begin to view you as an authority on your topic and reward you with a better ranking position. Better still the better your rank the more traffic you can expect. Bingo!
Scary Fact 4: 46% of web users look towards Social Media when making a purchase
This is a no brainer. If almost half of purchasers check out social media before buying, wouldn’t it be a good idea to have your social media sorted?
Now hold your horses for just a second… we want to influence a sale on social media NOT go all salesy on social media.
Let your social media be an extension of your content plan. Build your story, get across who your company is, your personality, your passion and with this your audience will become more comfortable making a purchase from you be that actual purchases online or in the real world (or perhaps at Halloween even in the afterlife???? Mwwahahahahah!!!)
Scary Fact 5: 88% of online customers are less likely to a site after a bad experience
… and now the magic needs to happen!!! You build all this great content, have a wonderful social media channel and your SEO is bringing some great, relevant traffic to your site - what do you do now? What if your website lets you down and your visitors get a howler of an experience?
And the outcome of… bad design, no relevant content, no answers to the questions they have in their head, broken links, bad process, having to re-enter the same data, no follow up to their contact forms when they ask a question, etc, etc, etc??? 88% of visitors don’t come back. ARGHHHHH!!!!!! All that effort wasted.
Scary Fact 6: 79% of Marketing Leads never convert into sales
And breath… we’ve come this far and we still have problems??? We hope we haven’t scared you half to death but no-one said this would be easy… Don’t worry, get it right and your bank balance will be smiling.
What we’re trying to say is that you’ve come this far and you’re still not guaranteed a sale. You need to view your website as a business tool and not just a marketing poster.
So are you planning to let your website drive business for you?
Firstly, you need to know the overall objective of your website.
- Are you trying to convert visitors into leads for an offline conversion into a sale, or
- Are you trying to convert visitors into leads and into sales all on your website?
No matter your objective, you need a simple, logical process to convert them into either a lead or a sale. And no matter what you are trying to do you need to continually monitor and test what is working and even just as importantly, what isn’t working.
This leads us very neatly to our last scary fact…
Scary Fact 7: 54% more leads are generated by inbound tactics than traditional paid marketing
Isn’t it scary that if you don’t employ Inbound Marketing techniques you could be missing out on sales and leaving a whole chunk of money on the table!
Rest assured Inbound Marketing isn’t Hocus Pocus, it genuinely works and if you employ Inbound Marketing techniques in your business you will start to see the results. 54% more to be precise!
First and foremost, we see Inbound Marketing as a state of mind. Rather than simply trying to sell to prospects, Inbound Marketing is about building a relationship with your visitors and bringing them on a relevant journey which concludes with a conversion into either a lead or a sale. Give them value in advance!
Think about it, if you are receiving value such as a free report or even some free training or advice your credibility with your prospects will rocket. These people are currently strangers to you but they will begin to trust you more and if you do it right they will be more inclined to purchase from you when the time is right.
We like to think about “giving to get”. Let’s not be takers in life and start to think more about how we can get people to want our products and services based on their experience of our marketing activities and interactions rather than our marketing simply shouting our message AT them the way traditional marketing does.
Had enough yet? Or are you ready to slip your mortal coil?
We really hope we haven’t scared the "bejesus" out of you with our series of “7 Scary Facts About Marketing Your Business Online” The really scary thing is that there are a whole host more although the saving grace is that they are all fixable.
Nothing here is rocket science.
Take a methodical approach and look at all your marketing and make sure you have a plan of action going forward otherwise you will become overwhelmed and the zombies might get you…
Have a clear strategy and think TRAFFIC, EXPERIENCE and CONVERSION and you won’t be far off the mark.
Like this article or are you scared half to death? If you would like to learn more about how we can help, please get in touch.
John Hogg
John is managing director of Enlighten IC and has been involved in legal marketing and technology marketing for over 25 years. He is passionate about how an inbound approach to marketing can help firms to drive leads and grow their business.
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