Why Your Website Is The Most Important Marketing Tool

As someone in the business world, you understand how precious time is. From building relationships with clients to selling your company’s product or service, a day goes by in the blink of an eye. You want to grow your business and have various strategic plans, but have you ever considered that your website is the most important marketing tool? Updating your site may seem overwhelming or even tedious, but we assure you that you don’t want to have outdated details. On the flip side, if you have the elements of a great website, you can support your organization in several ways.

How To Use a Website for Marketing

Your website is the digital hub of your business. It’s where potential customers learn about your business, what you offer and how you are different from your competitors. By using your website as a marketing tool, following SEO best practices and incorporating relevant keywords in your website copy, you can attract more potential customers by appearing at the top of search engines. As a result, you can generate more traffic, increase brand awareness and drive more leads.

If you’ve neglected your website until now, intentionally or not, it’s more important than ever to update it. With how often people turn to search engines to find answers and research brands, having a website marketing strategy is critical to the growth of your business. We’ve outlined a few reasons why below.

Credibility

Think of your website as a first date—the first impression is everything. If a potential customer comes to your website and finds it’s hard to use or has broken links, they’ll leave. Your website needs to be a credible resource for your customers. It should include up-to-date service information, customer testimonials and educational content. You also want your website to be cohesive with your brand. And remember, your brand is more than fonts and colors, it's the experience customers have when they work with you.

Organic Traffic

As an SEO-first agency, we know that a key benefit of using your website as a marketing tool is increasing organic traffic. When considering purchasing a product or service, oftentimes the first place people turn to is a search engine. For example, a homebuyer looking for a mortgage loan will search “best mortgage lender near me” on Google.

By conducting keyword research and incorporating the words or phrases most often used by your ideal customers on your website, you can begin showing up higher in search results. If you skip this step, you could miss opportunities to get in front of your ideal customers and grow your business. Your competitors that have a more sophisticated website marketing strategy by optimizing their website with relevant keywords will outrank you in search every time.

Educating Potential Customers

You might be familiar with the phrase “content is king.” This was said back in the mid ‘90s by Bill Gates as he described the importance of the internet and content in marketing strategies. Almost 30 years later, his phrase still rings true. Why?

That could be a whole blog itself, but one main reason is that content educates people. Your business may say your running shoes are fantastic, but how does a possible customer know that from your website? Do you have content that talks about how you choose your brands? Details how you suggest the right shoe for each individual? You can’t just say you’re an expert. You have to show how and why you are one.

Brand Recognition

Creating a strong brand is an essential part of your website marketing strategy. Having a cohesive brand is more than a logo, fonts and colors. It’s also the way you communicate with your customers. Enhancing elements like your company’s name, value propositions, tagline, logo, brand colors and more allows you to better resonate with your customers, becoming a familiar and trusted name in your industry.

When done right, a cohesive brand enables your staff to strengthen relationships with customers, communicate value to your community and create an enriching online experience.

Lead Generation

Using your website as a marketing tool for leads is another fantastic advantage. From landing pages that collect users' contact information to CTAs that take them straight to your product page, your website becomes an avenue for engagement. With it, you unlock more creative ways to connect with your target audience and increase website conversions.

Each page of your website has the possibility to generate leads for your business. How, you may wonder? We are so glad you asked!

Tips for Using a Website as a Marketing Tool to Generate More Leads

Think of your website like a book. You must include certain elements - publishing details, table of contents, chapter breaks, etc. for the book to be both legitimate and understood by readers. As you consider your website marketing strategy, here are the elements that create a cohesive and compelling story.

Incorporate Clear and Enticing CTAs

As mentioned above, including clear CTAs is crucial in your website. These action items direct your audience to the next step. Getting their name and email can get their information into your sales funnel, or giving them a link to call your office can open the doors for meetings with more potential clients. For every page on the website, ask yourself, “What’s the natural next step?” Let that direct you in deciding what CTA to put on the page.

Regularly Publish Blog Content

Part of being recognized as an expert is regularly producing relevant content to your industry. And content can take many different forms - case studies, research on new products in the industry, trends in the market or frequently asked questions. Content provides a world of creative opportunities!

Highlight Customer Testimonials

This ties back to building credibility. When you have customers leave great reviews, you can easily highlight those on your website. And if your customer is comfortable with using a picture and a first name, you can bring an authenticity to your site that builds into a strong brand recognition as well.

Simple and Easy-To-Use Navigation

Your navigation is the map to your entire website. That means you want to provide simple and easy-to-follow layouts. What are your core pages? The services or stories that fit underneath those core pages? You can take a look at some of our portfolio pieces for web design to get your ideas flowing. You will notice that each website has a different navigation that fits their business but still provides clarity for their users.

Blue Compass Can Help You With Your Website Marketing Strategy

At Blue Compass, we live and breath web design and digital marketing. We understand the value your website can be and are passionate about creating ones that support and expand our clients’ businesses.

If you are ready for a website redesign or have more questions on how to truly use your website as a marketing tool, contact our team. We would be honored to support you in your marketing journey.

Mac & Cheese

Mac and Cheese is on the Digital Bark-eting team at Blue Compass. He loves greeting his team members when they arrive for the day, encouraging fun breaks during the workday and taking naps in various places throughout the office. He also enjoys saying hello to clients and other visitors - especially the mail carriers who bring treats! Mac is an important part of our team of digital experts at Blue Compass, where we help brands succeed online through web design, development and digital marketing strategies.