If you want your website to be valuable to your customers and generate a consistent stream of good leads for your business what do you need to focus on? Here are the eight most important elements you’ll need to address with your content and web design if you want your website to fulfil its potential.

1. Focus on your target reader first

If you want to create a website that genuinely works for your business, put the customer first. This means defining exactly who the website is for, building a deep understanding of what their needs are and designing the site and its content around those needs. Just describing your company, what you do, the services you deliver is not enough. You will miss the mark with your customers and miss an important trick with your marketing if you do this. Remember: your website is not for you, it’s for your customers.

2. Content matters

Some mistakenly see a website’s content purely as filler. Bung a few words down to replace all that Lorem Ipsum your designer first put in. Nobody reads it anyway do they? But the content is vital: your words ARE your message. That’s how you communicate your value and get your point across. Don’t begin the design process until you have the content. So think content first, then get the web designers in.

3. Valuable content matters most of all

We see many sites without a shred of valuable content, and some with the right type of content but it’s virtually hidden from sight. Both are missing a trick. Remember: valuable content is what your buyers seek so make your content USEFUL. Think library, not brochure with useful articles, video, slideshows. Fill those shelves over time.

“If your website isn’t getting traffic it’s because your content isn’t important or useful enough. It’s that simple. You’re not raising the bar, helping people, entertaining them, changing lives, and inspiring your readers to take some form of action. If you were, your audience would grow. Trust me.”  Mars Dorian, creative entrepreneur.

4. Good design is essential

Investing in professional design is crucial if you want to give a professional image, entice people to stay on the site, read what you have to say and find the information they want to find, fast. Skimp on good design at your peril. There’s nothing more off putting than a badly designed or confusingly laid out site with content that is hard to read.

5. Make your website simple to navigate

Make it simple for your visitors to find the information they want, fast or they’ll quickly get frustrated and click away. Can they get from A to B? Pay attention to the site’s ‘information architecture’, and make sure it’s structured around your visitors’ different needs. This takes thought and planning. Remember to follow conventions – don’t try and reinvent the wheel.

6. Your content must be scannable

Write it, design it for the busy reader. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen when asked how users read on the web, replied simply: “They don’t.”

“People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.” Jakob Nielsen’s Alerttbox, Oct 1 1997

New visitors will make fast judgements about your site. They will scan first and read only if they can see that it is relevant. If you want to connect with them, get to the point fast. Summarise, use numbered or bulleted lists, highlight key words or phrases, use sub-headings to guide them through the page. And slash that word count. Even more important now we’re reading web content on mobile devices.

6. Learn to label for search engines

Search engine algorithms are getting better and better but if you don’t label your information properly then they will struggle to index your stuff. If you’re going to get the most from your investment in great content, learn how to index it properly so that the Googlebots can can find it. That is, in a nutshell, what search engine optimisation is all about – no black art – in essence it’s about good labelling. Make like a good librarian and index your stuff appropriately.

7. Make your website sticky

The longer your visitors stays on the site, the higher their level of engagement and the more chance you have of starting to build that relationship, get them to sign up, contact you, buy your stuff. So you have to make your website ‘sticky’. Fill it full of information they genuinely value. Link and direct them to related content: “If you like this, you might also be interested in this.” And give them an opportunity to come back: invite them to join your mailing list and, if you continue to deliver them value, you’ll motivate them to come back to your site to learn more.

8. Clear calls to action

We don’t mean just putting your contact details on the Contact Us page. We mean having clear signposts to action across the site – telling your visitor what you want them to DO if they like what they find. So many sites miss out on this. Retailers tend to be better at it – ADD TO BASKET, BUY NOW. For service firms – the purpose of the site is to engage your visitors, to build the relationship, not always to elicit an immediate purchase. The action you want is for visitors to either get in contact with you or give you permission to stay in touch (sign up to your mailing list). Give clear calls to action and spell out the next step you want the reader to take. Make it easy for them.

Build your website around these eight elements and you’ll reap the rewards in terms of visitors, leads and sales in 2012.

Related articles:

• How to create a lead generating, high performance website
• Pack your website full of value

December is the perfect month for planning your approach for the following year. Chris Brogan calls it ‘the power month‘ – and I like that. For all us hard-working business owners it’s our secret slowdown: somewhere between December and January we carve ourselves just a little bit of head space to look forward and think back; a good time for letting those creative ideas fly.

If marketing is one of the things you want to improve next year, here are a few ideas to add to December’s thinking pot:

1. Start blogging in earnest – write articles regularly that help your customers do business better and you’ll be amazed at the results – wider awareness, increased trust, easier referrals, more sales.
2. Keep in touch by email. Don’t forget your current contacts in 2012 – if you want to make your life easier, devote time and attention to keeping in touch with those that know you. Communicate with them regularly in ways they appreciate and find useful and they’ll reward you with referrals and new business when the time is right.
3. Produce something really valuable. Take it further in 2012. Produce a piece of high quality stock content with a shelf life – the really strong, valuable stuff – a useful downloadable guide, ebook, whitepaper, research or king of them all – a book. Up the value for greater return.
4. Stop flirting with social media and get stuck in. It’s no longer on the fringes, it’s how many of your customers and clients research, connect and communicate today. Get involved!
5. Make your website a resource, not a brochure. Turn it into a valuable resource for your clients, not just a promotional tool for you. Stop shouting, start helping: put your clients first.

At the heart of each of these ideas is valuable content. Make your marketing all about creating and sharing information that is genuinely valuable to your particular buyers and watch your business grow.

We wish you the best of luck for 2012.

Related articles:

• Five solid reasons to start a business blog
• Use your Christmas cards to change your marketing forever
• RT, @, #, DM? Twenty Top Twitter Tips

Yoke is a new design studio. Run by Jay Bigford and Alister Wynn here at Spike Island, the company is six weeks old today and it’s looking like a runaway success. In just six weeks they have landed their dream client, have just about all the work they can handle with a stream of good leads coming in – and all this without having to resort to ‘cold calling’ too.

Yoke have their launch and marketing strategy absolutely right. Here is their story:

The Cornerstones of YOKE’s Marketing Strategy:
- A clear, honest, positive mission that runs through all that they do
- A targeted, niche approach with absolute certainty of who they want to do business with
- A beautifully designed website with valuable content at its heart
- Writing and sharing relevant articles on topics close to both their own and target clients’ hearts
- Building relationships through Twitter
- A web strategy that’s wider than their website

Sonja: “What is the big idea behind Yoke?”

Jay: “We are both experienced freelance designers, with a background working for digital agencies on web design projects for global brands. Alister and I been friends for 12 years and from the start it was clear that we shared the same goals and values. We have always loved design but we wanted to do more than just earn our keep: we want to make a difference too.

We launched Yoke so we can offer our services to people or organisations we think are really trying to do something positive for our planet.  Often these organisations don’t have big budgets for online marketing services. Our aim is to take our knowledge and skills and help their causes by giving them the digital tools they require, at a significantly lower rate than that of a large agency. We really want to help.

Sonja: “How did you come up with your launch ideas?”

Jay: “We thought long and hard about how to start our studio. Many people who do so take a client with them and build their company off that relationship. We couldn’t do that: many of the clients we’d worked for previously didn’t fit our selective work ethic.  Our policy is to collaborate with those who are contributing towards positive change in the world.  We looked at the design companies who inspired us.  Their websites were way more than just beautiful portfolio sites – they talked about more than just design; they seemed to write a lot, sharing their expertise in the widest sense.  We decided to do the same but take it one step further.  We write about subjects that interest us on a personal and professional level which we feel helps us connect with our clients.  We wanted to prove our ideas without being smug or judgmental. Content and tone were absolutely key.

Sonja: “Tell us about the steps you have taken so far.”

Jay: “Our first step was to get our website right. We couldn’t launch the company without it. We paid close attention to design, layout/usability, content and wording – they all had to work together to provide the right platform for our business. We wanted a site people learn from and start conversations, not just a portfolio site.

We had a clear idea of the organisations we wanted to help. Our next step was to write articles and reports on subjects close to their hearts (for example one on using social media for social good, another on trends in online grocery shopping). We wanted to show that we understood their issues, and give them something useful to think about.

Before we started we thought we might have to cold call to make contact. We weren’t looking forward to this I can tell you! We noticed that many of them were on Twitter. What has really surprised us is that just by connecting with them on Twitter and swapping news and our reports was enough to get their interest. The ‘Twitter handshake’ is amazingly powerful – you get a totally different response to a cold email or call. You can really build relationships via Twitter.  You have to make sure you get your bio just right: this gets delivered to their inbox and can make all the difference.

The other thing that has worked well was to get our site up on design inspiration sites across the web. I put us on one or two and had a great response. It’s gone viral – we’re now on 20-30 sites!  We’ve landed a couple of really interesting projects in the States this way. We’ve just won the ’site of the day’ award on a fantastic site called awwwards.com. We were up against loads of other sites and reviewed by an international panel of judges. Part of the prize is getting featured in a book they produce. It just doesn’t get better from a marketing point of view.

Sonja: “What success have you had to date?”

Jay: “We thought we’d have to do a lot of free work for small companies to get to where we are now, but three weeks in and we are working with our dream client – The Sustainable Restaurant Association – on a really important campaign to reduce food waste in restaurants.  The campaign has been endorsed by the likes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and other chefs and celebrities, so will make a big impact. We have created the identity for the campaign as well as delivering a cutting-edge responsive website that is optimised for mobile use.

We have also landed two jobs in the States working with online marketing agency Thoughtlead.  After discovering our site on design award sites Thoughtlead got in contact: they shared similar goals and ethics to us as well as loving our style and design.  We are really overjoyed that people are actually connecting to our message and contacting because we have shared beliefs.  This has far exceeded our expectations.

We have now got a steady stream of work coming in and are feeling good about the fact that we can turn down work that doesn’t fit our market and ethics.  We have turned away at least eight projects so far because they don’t fit with our values. We now have six projects booked in, not bad for six weeks after launch!

Sonja: “What advice would you give others looking to launch a new business?”

Jay: Stay positive and play to your strengths. There is no point trying to sell yourself as something you are not.  The main reason for us starting the business was because we had something valuable to add to the discussion, a voice worth hearing. It is important to find your voice and give it a defined tone that people can relate to. The content of our site was key: images can only say so much and we really want to start discussions, change behavior and influence change – hopefully by people engaging in our writing we may achieve this. I would also recommend treating everyone you work with amazingly, it helps your business reputation and also makes people happy which is what it’s all about!

Alister: Specialise in a sector and create a connection with your market that is personal.  At Yoke we believe strongly in sustainability and working towards a better future.  This comes across in our work and people connect with this: it’s why they get in contact.

Sonja: Thanks very much Jay and Alister. What a fantastic start! We love the idea behind Yoke and we think your marketing approach is just right. We’d like to award you this month’s Valuable Content Award for your beautifully designed, content rich website with a sound message at its heart.

• Narrow Your Niche For More Leads
• Pack Your Website Full of Value
• The Perfect Couple: Content and Design
• What is Your Crusade?

Creating a new website for your company is no small task. Design is only part of the challenge; building the content of the new site needs careful thought and attention. As content writers and website project managers we ask a lot of questions. I thought it might be useful to list these here for anyone considering building or redesigning a business website.

My list of questions is pretty exhaustive. It will tease out all the important information needed to create the type of content website visitors now expect to find. I’ve grouped these questions to correspond with the key sections of a professional website.  Answer them as fully as you can to get your message across.

For the About Us section

1. How do you currently describe who you are and what you do to potential clients? (Pull out a few examples e.g. from proposals or other marketing collateral.)
2. Who do you work for? What kind of companies and people benefit from your help? Where are they based?
3. Why do they need you? What issues do you solve for them? (One way to do this is to ask yourself: “When should someone pick up the phone to your company?” Make a list: “Call us if you want to…..”)
4. What is going on in the marketplace that makes your services so relevant today?
5. What would people search for online to find you? What phrases would they search for?
6. What are your particular skills, specialism and expertise? What are you known for?
7. List the impressive clients or noteworthy projects you have worked on. Describe your most successful project/client to date.
8. High-level benefits you deliver?
9. When did you set up your company? Why did you set it up – what’s the story?
10. What’s the company structure, number of employees etc? Describe the team.
11. Any awards, accolades or relevant qualifications/associations?
12. Where would you like to see the business going – what is your ambition?

Your Approach

1. How would you describe your mission? What is it that you’re aiming to do? How do you make the world a better place? (Weird question I know but it’s a very informative one).
2. What inspired you to set up in business? What was the idea behind it? What difference did you set out to achieve?
3. What does your company stand for? What do you believe in? What values are important to you?
4. What bugs you about your industry – your biggest frustration?
5. Biggest kick you get out of work?
6. Describe your approach to your work.
7. How does this improve customers’ lives?
8. Why choose your company? Why do clients come back to you?
9. Who are your competitors?
10. What makes your approach different and better from all the other companies in your space?
11. Who or what inspires you?

Your Services

1. List your services.
2. How would you group these services?
3. Which are your main/most popular ones? Which would you most want to highlight on the website?
4. For each service give the name, state who it relevant for and why they need it, the problem this service solves, state your approach to this service and the benefits it delivers.

Your People

1. Provide details on your team.
2. What information would you like to appear on the site for each of the team? What tone of voice do you want to convey?
3. Provide images of each of the team or instruct a professional photo shoot.
4. Any other information you’d like to see to reflect the personality of the team or company?

Clients and Projects

1. Create a list of your current clients, giving name, buyer, service delivered, testimonials and case study if available, location.
2. Which clients/projects would you like to highlight on the new website? Which are you particularly proud of and why? Collect together information on each key project.

A Library of Valuable Content

(NB: This is different from company news. As an example see: http://www.hingemarketing.com/library)

1. What useful information do you provide to clients now, on the website or in other formats?
2. What other useful information would demonstrate your expertise and give benefit to your clients?
3. List the type of information you could provide. e.g. articles, guides, research, recommended books or papers by others etc.

Company News

1. List previous news articles you’ve written that you’d like to see on the new site.
2. Include details of events, awards etc. etc.
3. Provide hard copy or links of articles you’ve had published in the press.

Contact Details

1. Provide us with the contact details for your company that you’d like to see on the site.
2. A map and directions are useful too.
3. Specific legal wording?

And anything else you think we need to know?!

Not all websites work like they should.

And too many companies don’t expect them to.

They see their sites as an extended brochure.

“We’ll never get any real leads from our website,” some say.

But you can make your website work for your business.

You can make it into a powerful lead generating tool; one that makes a significant and measurable impact on your revenue, if you do it right.

Here’s a new book that shows you how. A Website That Works is written by Mark O’Brien, MD of niche web development/consultation firm Newfangled. Written with design agencies in mind, the approach it teaches is for anyone who wants a website that gets results.

5 important lessons for your website project

1. Planning is key: don’t start with visual design. (Wow! This is so refreshing to hear from a web design company!) Websites take a lot of time, money and energy to create. As Mark clearly states, you risk all of this if you don’t invest in some strategic planning at the start of the project. This is a mistake that many companies make. Don’t dive into web design without thinking through what you want the website to do for your business, who you are selling to, what the message is that you want to get across – how the website will achieve this.
2. Demonstrating creativity is only a small part of what converts a visitor into a prospect. If you want your website to really work for your business, it has to be about more than putting up an inspiring portfolio online. It must be a highly usable and a valuable resource for your target clients.
3. Content matters: you need a content strategy. Mark defines this as: “a plan for regularly adding unique, expert, and indexable content to your site on a regular basis.” Demonstrating your expertise in your on-site writing (e.g. through regular blogs or newsletters) is not just a bolt on, extra activity. It’s core and essential. This is what will attract visitors to your site, and inform and engage them when they arrive. If you want to get found and generate leads, get your content strategy right.
4. Be very focused on the type of clients you serve. If you truly specialise you’ll know more about your area of focus than most firms. You’ll have something unique to say. (I totally agree on this point. See my article Narrow Your Niche for More Leads).
5. Traffic is meaningless; action is everything. Mark talks about the three goals of a professional business website — to attract prospects, get them to the areas of the site they are most interested in, and then bring them into the next level of their relationship with the firm. The action you want is for visitors to either get in contact  with you (to call or email you) or give you permission to stay in contact with them (sign up to your mailing list). Site traffic per se doesn’t pay the bills and measuring the success of your site on this basis is dangerously misleading. Real engagement is a far better measure.

I agree wholeheartedly with all 5 points, and this is just the start. You’ll find more nuggets of wisdom in the book too: Mark’s 9 step process covers your entire web strategy, from persona development to social media, analytics to SEO. I think that A Website That Works is a superb book – both in terms of its content and design. I recommend it extremely highly to business owners and design agencies alike.

“Your website is a work of commerce, not a work of art.” Mark O’Brien, Newfangled

A website that works is a website that sells. This is something we can all achieve if we approach our websites and content in the right way.

7 words you won’t find on Valuable Content websites, and which shouldn’t be on yours.

We write lead generating websites for businesses, so we get through a lot of words – thousands of the things. There are some we try not to use any more – either because they’re overused, or because they’re not clear, or because we just don’t like them.

1.  Solutions.

Offering solutions to a client’s problem is a hackneyed way of saying you can help. Next time you’re sitting in a traffic jam count the number of vans with ‘solutions’ written on them.  Dry rot solutions, office furniture solutions, decorating solutions. Be more specific about exactly how what you do will improve your client’s situation.

2.  Facilitate.

Don’t use it if you mean ‘set up,’ or ‘organise.’ It’s a bit of a prissy word, sounds like you’re trying to make something simple sound more important.

3.  Orientated as a suffix, like results-orientated, or worse, solutions-orientated.

Of course you work towards resolving the client’s problem. Just bunging ‘orientated’ on the end of a word doesn’t help show your method or describe your USP. Say how you do it, specifically.

4.  Focused as a suffix.

Or worse, focussed. See above. Results-focused, solutions-focused, we don’t like it.

5.  Dynamic.

Maybe we’re getting old, but we don’t really like dynamic agencies. For a start it’s a bit of a cliche, a lazy way of saying you’re not lazy. Plus, if you say you’re dynamic we imagine you wearing patterned socks and running round screaming into your Blackberry like an Apprentice wannabe. We’d rather see examples of original thought and genuinely helpful content.

6  Passionate.

Being passionate about customer service makes you look a bit silly. No one believes it, so don’t say it. Caring is good, so is attention to detail, but passion? Save it for your lovers.

7.  Synergy. Paradigm. Proactive.

Just stop it.

That’s our hit list of business gobbledygook. What’s on yours? Anything you’d like to add?

We haven’t quite decked Valuable Content Towers in bunting, but we’re getting into the Royal Wedding spirit by celebrating the perfect couple.  And while we wish Kate and William all the luck in the world, our perfect couple is something quite different. At Valuable Content, the marriage made in heaven is ‘content and design.’

As wordsmiths, you might expect Sonja and I to argue for the supremacy of the written word. But the deeper we get into the world of brilliant content, the more strongly we realise the inseparable link between what we do and design. The greatest words in the world won’t get read if the design’s all over the place. The smoothest design in the world will trip up if the words don’t make good sense.

As Lizzie Everard, one of our favourite graphic designers puts it,

“Flashy, superfluous and self-indulgent design that exists for itself is like having a Prada handbag filled with Superdrug costmetics.

but…

Brilliant, well-crafted words and insights that are not dressed for the party will miss all the fun.”

People won’t take your words seriously if they’re not professionally presented. And they will be equally disappointed if your design makes empty promises.

Iain Claridge, the Valuable Content web designer agrees.

“First Impressions are lasting impressions.

The visual design of a company’s logo, its products, its website, printed matter, etc should not be optional concerns. In a split-second someone can look at a shoddily designed website and decide “This company doesn’t look professional enough.” There is a critical period in the very first moments a potential customer sees a logo, product or marketing material that informs the rest of their relationship with that customer. There is always the danger that without an appealing aesthetic front, a potential client will have written you off mentally before you ever make it to delivering the meat of your pitch.  Oh… and consistency is key.

Strong visual design generally promotes a clear, consistent identity, which in turn reinforces trust.”

So, to inspire trust and instill confidence and to give your content the very best chance of being loved, you need both; the great words and strong design.

All our projects start design and content simultaneously – and we run the two together – design and content, back and forward. It means we’re not just thinking of the message, but of the way the words work on the page. We favour clarity and simplicity of both text and visuals,  always approaching both with ‘what does the reader/user want here?’

Get the marriage right, and your content will live happily ever after.

Five things to bear in mind when designing your content:

1. Readability. Can your reader quickly find the information they need? Pay attention to the layout and look of your copy. A clear structure and hierarchy, carefully selected typography, use of headers, bullets and call outs all help.
2. Images for interest. Give your words a focus and your readers pause for thought with graphical interest – helping you tell your story and hold their attention.
3. Consistency. As Iain Claridge says, a consistent theme or a thread to your content design will give you a recognisable identity and means the reader knows what to expect. Keep it neat and tidy and make your content more usable.
4. Space. It’s a busy, crowded world. Give your readers some thinking space by not over-stuffing your content.
5. Attractive content works better. Look professional. Show your readers that you care.

That’s our view from the content perspective. We’d be fascinated to know what the design fraternity thinks. What do we all need to consider when designing great content?

If you’re running your business on Valuable Content principles, then your website is the powerhouse. It’s the engine that drives everything, and most of the time – if you keep the content coming – it all runs smoothly, refining your niche and generating leads.

Every once in a while though, you need to stand back, and ask yourself whether it’s working as well as it should. Peer into those neglected corners, scour the pages you usually skim over, and take a hard look at the way it’s arranged.

We’re calling it our Valuable Content spring clean – and here are the seven signs that show your website needs one.

1. You can’t update it yourself.

The best sites are really easy to manage – if you can’t make changes, add pages, and post the kind of information your clients are looking for without a phone call, then you need to do something about it. We recommend WordPress sites, but any content managed system that puts you in control will work.

2. You don’t know how many hits it gets, or how long people stick around.

How will you measure the impact of your valuable content if you don’t know who’s reading it? Get your analytics sorted, and use them to market yourself smarter.

3. You’ve still got too much text on the home page or a really long Flash intro.

We know it looked so good a few years ago, but now the world’s moved on. Your customers want information fast. Cut the distractions and get to the good stuff quicker.

4. It doesn’t make the right first impression.

Your content is static or out of date, or perhaps you have a blog but it is hidden out of sight. High performing websites lead with their content. One glance is enough to tell you that business is buzzing, and that these people can help you with your problem.

5. Your users don’t know where to go next.

Websites designed with users in mind work smoothly with the content on one page leading you to another. If the web copy sparks a question, the next step is a natural click away. Is this the way it happens on your website?

6. It’s not obvious how to get in touch.

Put addresses, phone numbers, email and Twitter details somewhere easy to find.

7. No calls to action.

Be bold about it. What do you want people to do once they’ve read your stuff. Sign up for your newsletter? Download your guide? Call you? So say it, clearly.

So, what are you waiting for?  Roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.  If you’d like an independent view of the way your website’s working, we’d be happy to help.

When you’re trying to sell your home, estate agents recommend clearing out the clutter to show off your best features. I think the same applies to your home page. It’s the first place new visitors land, so you want to make a good impression.

Here are my 5 tips for a winning home page.

1. Clarity of purpose

Your home page should tell me very clearly and simply how you and your services can help me, so share your mission in a few well chosen words. I’m talking a paragraph at most. About Us will go into more detail about you and your ethos, so you don’t need to say lots here. Keep this page very clear and straightforward.

2. Navigation

I want to know exactly where to go next. Your home page should set the agenda, so your choice of words and destinations is important. Being too clever here can be a mistake. I see an awful lot of websites, and am a fan of the ones with the easiest navigation. The home page isn’t the place to surprise me, or to be oblique. Help me find my way around.

3. Call to action

What do you want me to do now I’m here? Call you? Read more? Look at this? Think about that? Don’t go overboard with your demands, but do try and get me to engage. The right words can pull me further into your site.

4. Evidence of life

Empty houses are harder to sell, and so are empty websites. I’d like to know you’re around, hard at work, helping people like me. Twitter feeds, blogs, video content. Have something on the home page that shows me you’re in business, right now. We’re talking tasters – headlines, logos, boxes – not the whole thing. Use your up-to-date content to lead me deeper into your website, and to reinforce your expertise.

5. Room to breathe

Sometimes I use the home page as a reference point, somewhere to go back to and orientate myself. In a large website, packed with valuable content, it’s good to have somewhere clear and simple to take a breath. (It’s a bit like returning to the blurb on the back of a book you’re reading. That concise reminder of the story that grabbed your attention is useful.) So don’t overload it. Less is more.

If you want help with your Home Page, get in touch. Contact Sharon on 07985 015300.

A guest post by marketing strategist Sean McVey of Hinge Marketing

Professional services firms are changing the way they think about and use websites. Not very long ago the service website was an extension of a firm’s print collateral. It was little more than an online brochure, presenting basic information about the company. More recently, however, the function of the website has begun to shift from providing general information to generating qualified leads.

When looking at effective websites, you will notice that they not only describe the company and its services, but they also provide valuable content to educate visitors.  From white papers to blog posts and webinars, these sites give visitors a reason to come back.  Treating your site as a living breathing entity and updating it constantly with information relevant to your target market will help to build a foundation of trust between you and your prospects. 

What Is a High Performance Website?

If we consider lead generation alone, we can offer up one possible definition of a high performance site: If 50% or more of your business is coming through the web, you’ve got a high performance website.

Sound like pie in the sky? In fact, many service firms today are exceeding that threshold. And they are doing it by crafting their sites to encourage responses from their visitors.

Here are just a few elements you should consider when transforming your site into a lead generating tool:

Clear calls to action – The best performing websites are built with specific objectives in mind. This means telling the visitor exactly where you want them to click. You can use the sidebar of your website to feature buttons that encourage the visitor to take action. Some examples:

• Request a Proposal
• Download our Research Study
• View Our Case Studies
• Watch Our Webinar 

These calls to action create clearly defined pathways for the visitor. These pathways make it easy for a visitor to take the next step in a multi-stage customer development process.

Conversion Forms – If your goal is to have prospects contact you, then you must make it as easy as possible for them to send you a message. Including a simple form on your contact page is a must for any high performance websites — visitors can write a few words and click submit, without leaving the page. A surpising number of firms don’t include forms on their websites. Adding a form to your site removes any friction between the visitor and your goal. They just work.

Forms are also important for tracking purposes. In analytics programs, you can measure how many times people submit your form and get an idea of where those people came from.

Here is a basic form that helps capture information here at Hinge. We’ve intentionally kept the number of fields low to encourage people to use the form.

Retention Elements – Once visitors get to your website, you should try to find a way to bring them back again. Many visitors are in the early stages of the buying process. To turn them into qualified prospects you have to nurture them, which takes multiple touches.

You can encourage visitors to come back to your site in many ways. For instance, you can put offers on your site for newsletter subscriptions, blog feeds, and free white papers. As visitors receive newsletters and blog posts, your company stays top of mind.

Search Engine Authority – None of your website’s elements matter if nobody comes to your site in the first place. The heart of a high performance website lies in its search engine authority. If you have authority with search engines, you will rank well and gain consistent traffic.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex topic that can’t be covered in a blog post. From keyword research and implementation to link building, SEO is a long-term initiative that all high performing websites must tackle. For a great free resource on this subject, check out SEOMOZ and their free tools and advice.

Now What?

Retooling your website may seem like a daunting task, but it is a necessary step if you want to generate a significant portion of your leads online. A great starting place is to begin looking at other professional services websites and evaluate what you may be missing. Consider the tips above for your next design and you will be one step closer to fulfilling your company’s online potential.

In today’s professional services marketplace, the almighty referral has a new rival: the high performance website. If you haven’t already, perhaps it’s time to open your mind and open your arms to the precious and potentially generous World Wide Web.

Examples of High Performance Websites

• HubSpot – This software company does a great job of making things easy on the visitor. Basic pathways and calls to action make it very obvious how to navigate the site and contact the company.
• Ian Brodie – This professional services consultant has mastered the concept of retaining prospects through free reports and other outstanding content. He claims that 70 percent of his business is generated by his website.
• WebMarketing123 – Not only is this firm dominant in search engines, they also know how to treat visitors once they’ve arrived. Clear calls to action work together with proven retention techniques such as webinars to nurture the prospect throughout the sales process.