How to Turn Your Website into a Lean, Mean, Converting Machine

What company isn’t looking to turn a profit? Yep, no doubt about it; these days the geospatial industry is a hot-mess of companies all searching for the holy grail…real life paying customers. But so many people don’t invest in one crucial revenue source: the humble website. Yes you know who you are!!  Sure, you can make it shiny and pretty, but that doesn’t mean it works for you. You can make it very easy on the eye, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to convert. At all. I’m going to give you 4 easy tips to turn your website into a revenue machine. Let’s take a look…

 

  1. More Than Words

 

It’s very simple – people love watching video. Communicating visually is such an easy way to engage and get across what you want to say concisely and effectively.

Some groovy examples are: Me updating everyone every friday about my weeks progress – short, sharp and to the point

 

 

Or Storm Geomatics doing a spot of fun filming showcasing their actual skills and injecting some creative ‘watching’ into it.

 

 

One study on the ROI of video showed that users are 27 times more likely to click through with videos than copy. It offers more information than text, it’s more engaging and you can easily demonstrate your products and offering.

My lovely B2B Marketing friend Nicola Ray demonstrated this recently on LinkedIn, posting the question Doing a video experiment on LinkedIn over the next few days, let me know your thoughts. First question: what do you think of video updates?” while she got a mixture of comments, it proved a very interesting ‘in-face’ video clip with 21 likes and 16 comments.

So get those cameras out and get creative! Even a steadily-held smartphone can do the job these days if you’re on a shoestring, but if you can shell out for a more professional video, then you won’t regret it.

 

  1. Get Mobile

 

Everyone has a smartphone in their pocket. In fact a recent study in internet usage by Mary Meeker, shows that mobile usage is more common than desktop browsing at 51 percent vs. 42 percent respectively.

It’s your job to make sure that those potential clients who land on your site via their smartphone aren’t seeing a jumbled mess because it’s not optimised for mobile.  The amount of Geospatial product manufacturers who still don’t have an optimised website is crazy, let alone the surveyors in the world!  Some don’t even have an online presence!  

 

 

Consider these points: How does it look on mobile? How fast is it? Is it easy to navigate? You know exactly how annoying it is when the web page doesnt load on your phone, I know I do! Aarrhh!

 

  1. Display a Killer Value Proposition

 

What makes you the only choice for your potential customer? You need to identify your customer’s key pain-points/ needs and solve them, all on your homepage – it needs to create an instant connection.

Don’t have a value proposition? It’s time to get your act in gear and create one!

Remember, the root of your value proposition needs to answer the burning question in your customer’s mind: ‘What do I get out of this?’ If you can convince them that they’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose, you’re on the right track.

But make sure you’re clear and direct with your language. Don’t scare them off with salesy, flowery language that they can’t relate to.

 

  1. Create Persuasive Copy

 

Let’s face it, we’re not all wordsmiths. Selling your products and services one-to-one? Yep no problem, you’ve got the gift of the gab. Translating that salesmanship to your website? That’s a whole different ballgame.

 

 

Invest in a copywriter who can take your brand essence and turn it into all-singing, all-dancing words that make your customers go ‘Ah, that’s exactly what I need in my life!’ or ‘Yes! Finally a Geospatial company that gets what it’s all about!’

Once those leads start rolling in, you won’t look back!

That’s a wrap; but remember, don’t let your website just sit there looking pretty. It’s not just the aesthetics that matter, it’s the nuts and bolts that get customers to sit up and take notice.

Until next week!

Elaine