Why don’t all well-designed websites convert?

So… you’ve got a new website, the design looks great and you’re pleased with how it presents your business. Your logo is proudly on display, your products and services are presented well, and all the links are working. But maybe you’re not getting the leads that you want, or people aren’t interacting with your site in a way that brings in money to your business. What’s wrong?

Here at DP Marketing Communications, we see a lot of slick looking websites that fail to convert visitors into sales.

To put it simply, design isn’t everything. When creating a website for your business, it’s important to think about the person using the site and what information they’re looking for. Because if your potential customers don’t find what they want to on your website you could lose their custom forever. That’s why we analyse the user journey of a website from capturing a customer’s attention to closing a sale and creating brand advocates.

Here are some of the top problems we find with websites that look like they should have it all…

Websites that can’t be found.

The first stage of your sales funnel is raising awareness of your business. Chances are, your customers don’t know you exist yet. Where are they going to find you? Probably Google!

We can pretty much guarantee that if your website isn’t showing on the first page of Google results, you’re losing out on customers. We recommend searching for terms that your customers would use to find you. For example, ‘unicorn groomers in London’ or ‘learn to hulahoop in Nottingham’. If you’re not on that first page of results, you need to do something about it!

There are two ways you’ll do that.

The first is through the copy of your website, using key words that relate to your business. Utilising key words in your body text is just the start; search engines also comb through title tags, image tags, links and blogs posts to make sure they’re showing the most relevant, up to date information. We aren’t going to lie to you…. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a beast that takes time to tame. But it’s worth it.

A quicker way to get to the top page of results is through pay per click (PPC) advertising. Utilising PPC means that you’ll show up right at the top of the search engine, and be charged whenever a customer clicks through on that link. We’ve got lots of information about PPC in our previous blog post.

An unresponsive audience.

If you’ve got plenty of traffic visiting your website, you’ve got to give them directions. We call these directions calls to action, or CTAs, that push your audience through to the purchasing part of your sales funnel. A website that lacks a good CTA will fail – even it was designed by the great Massimo Vignelli!

Let’s say you’re selling hats for cats*. A well-designed website would show off your brand to its fullest, contain product information, and (of course), a gallery full of the cutest pictures. But then what? You don’t want people to come to your website just to see a Bengal in a beret… you want them to buy. Having a ‘shop’ link on your website’s main navigation isn’t enough. There should be links to your shop with a strong CTA throughout your website. For example; ‘Buy now’ or ‘Get my cat a hat today!’.

*If this is you, hit us up!

Leads that vanish into thin air.

Sometimes, a visitor will land on your site, like what they see, but not be in a position to buy. We see a lot of websites that don’t find a way to engage that particular audience. So, how do you do it?

It’s well known within the business world that email addresses mean money. Therefore, you should be utilising your website to capture email addresses for future marketing. For our ‘hats for cats’ website, we’d use strong CTAs to encourage people to join a mailing list, download a free gallery of hat-wearing kitties, or share to social media and get your business viral!

Your website isn’t there for one-time visits. Once you’ve obtained a potential customer’s email address, you can send marketing to them later, and direct them back to your website at a better time to buy.

Call in the experts

At DP Marketing Communications, we know that business owners don’t have the time it takes to research and optimise a website to increase conversions. We offer a full range of services and specialise in affordable options for start ups and small to medium sized businesses. Whether you need us to optimise your website for search engines, design a great user journey, or even automate your email marketing, we have a solution for you. Contact us today to book a free 1 hour marketing consultation and improve your website today!