How to take advantage of your most important marketing channel — your website.
I like to talk about MarTech and the importance of utilizing the right tools to run your programs more efficiently. We are so focused on outside tools, technologies, programs, and challenges that we often overlook our most important marketing channel – our website.
We use our website to:
- share our brand messaging
- distribute content
- publicize upcoming events and programs
- Capture, educate and nurture leads and prospects
- make sales
- Inform and educate our customers
Everyone who has ever purchased and used your product has visited your company’s website. There are so many touch points you can influence that pass through your website. Let’s look at the different areas of the customer journey you can impact by just looking at this one marketing channel.
Navigation
When we first build out our website, it’s usually filled with a few key pages. As time goes on, it starts to grow with new offerings, events, and content. When adding new programs to your website, it’s important to consider website navigation so you can ensure a seamless customer experience. Avoid taking users to new landing pages that don’t have an opportunity to continue their journey on your site and remove any unnecessary distractions.
A good rule of thumb is to look at your website quarterly, with . Looking at this marketing channel with fresh eyes can ensure it still has the paths prospective customers are looking to follow to complete a translation, even after adding more content.
Content
Let’s talk content. With a website, we often struggle with finding a balance between too much and not enough content. But the real focus should be about quality, not quantity — you want to keep your visitors engaged and educated and guide them to take the next step. It’s one thing to try and keep people on your site for the sake of moving them through the nurturing process. It’s quite another to throw useless content at visitors just to keep them there. Determine the shortest route to get the prospect to the ultimate goal.
Google Analytics
Looking at our website as a key marketing channel means keeping tabs on how it’s functioning. Google Analytics is a powerful and free tool you should be monitoring regularly to determine the effectiveness of your website. Here are a few categories to look at to determine if your website is performing well…or not.
- Traffic: This section will tell you who is visiting your website and the highest traffic days and months. This can help you determine if a recent launch has successfully driven traffic or if a PR hit has introduced your brand to a new audience.
- Bounce Rate: If more than 50% of people are jumping ship once they find your landing page, that tells you all you need to know. Content, creative or layout needs to be tweaked.
- User Flows: User flows can tell you if people are dropping off after hitting a certain page on the site. Look here if customers aren’t converting properly. It will help you easily identify where they are dropping off.
Your website is a magical marketing channel! Don’t forget to use it, optimize it, and truly own it!
