The objective of digital marketing for any business is to drive traffic to their website, gain exposure for their brand and ultimately convert the website traffic into business transactions that improve their bottom line.
At a glance some digital marketing (DM) campaigns may appear successful because they’ve driven volumes of traffic to a website, when in fact they’ve fallen at the final hurdle because the website they are driving the traffic to is not up to scratch — it doesn’t fairly reflect the quality of products or services the business offers, and it doesn’t convert the leads into completed sales because users are sceptical.
So, the five questions you need to ask before investing in (and during) a digital marketing campaign are:
1. Is my website good enough to be sending people to (will they convert)?
2. Does my website do my brand justice and equal my company’s high standard of professionalism and industry authority?
3. How do my competitors’ websites look and function (how does mine compare)?
4. Will I be throwing good money after bad running a DM or offline campaign that drives traffic to it?
5. Are you open to listening to (and acting on) professional guidance should you answer “no” to any of the above?
Still not sure how to answer? Read on for a more detail around each question. We’ll also show you example websites to apply these questions to later in the piece.
1. Is my website good enough to be sending people to (will they convert)?
Are you holding a party no one wants to be at?
An analogy we use for DM around lacklustre websites is inviting people to a gangbusters party which turns out to be a yawner — you invest time in lining up calendars, sending invites, starting a Facebook Event and building some hype around your shindig. This works well and you have a bunch of friends and family excited to come to your house and dance the night away.
A full register of party guests shows up at your door, but they have a terrible time because you haven’t spent enough time getting your house in order. You haven’t set the stage with food, drinks, games, seating, live entertainment, etc… you haven’t equipped your guests with the right tools to convert them from invitees (leads) to party animals getting what they came for — a great time (successful conversions).
This is the danger of running DM campaigns and driving website traffic to a poor example of a website — once there, everyone’s looking for the exit.
2. Does my website do my brand justice and equal my company’s high standard of professionalism and industry authority?
What happens when your house isn’t in order…?
When a user lands on your website, they immediately start judging your brand based on what they are seeing. This is a bottom line that many businesses miss — in the eyes of your would-be customers, your website is an absolute reflection of the customer-experience they’ll receive if they choose to purchase your products or services.
If they think your website is a little shoddy or your user experience (UX) challenges them in any way at all, it sews a seed of doubt. If they suspect your competitors have more user-friendly websites that will get them what they want sooner, then BAM, they’re gone… they’ve taken their hard-earned dollar onto the next website, never to be seen again.
3. How do my competitors’ websites look and function (how does mine compare)?
Are you offering customers everything your rivals are?
If you aren’t constantly comparing your website to those of your competitors, you’ve missed a trick, because you better believe your customers are! You need to understand your playing field from the users’ perspective.
Remember that when the user is viewing your website, they have no experience of your goods and services. So, even if you’re convinced your offering is head and shoulders above your competitors’, if their website is better than yours, that is the only influencing factor for the user and will likely make or break the sale.
4. Will I be throwing good money after bad running a DM or offline campaign that drives traffic to my website?
Is your website ready to be put in the spotlight?
Digital marketing can have a great impact on the performance of your business, but it’s not a magic bullet. Because we put an emphasis on campaigns that drive conversion rather than simply traffic, we believe the Limelight Online team are extremely transparent in offering genuine, honest guidance in this area.
We’re upfront in educating businesses about their websites’ shortcomings before we partner with them, because at the end of the day, we don’t want to drive traffic to a website that won’t convert. This is throwing good money after bad.
If you’d like to consult with us on the current state of your website before entering into digital marketing efforts, please drop us a line. We’d love to help you gain (potentially money-saving) perspective.
5. Are you open to listening to (and acting on) professional guidance should you answer “no” to any of the above?
Can you handle the ugly baby conversation?
Over our 20 years of operation we’ve dealt with all manner of businesses from various sectors and with websites of radically varying quality. We’ve learnt that while some people are open to feedback regarding the shortcomings of their website and responsive to suggested improvements, there is also a contingent that consider their website as their baby and struggle when someone tells them it’s perhaps note as ‘cute’ as they think it is.
The bottom line here is literally the bottom line — we don’t consult with clients meaning to insult their current website on a personal level, we have the end user’s experience and the client’s ROI and bottom line at front of mind at all times.
Our ideal DM client is one who already has a brilliant website, or one who takes our comments on board with an open mind to making changes that will help them achieve their business goals.
Putting your website under the microscope
If you are willing to put your website under the microscope to get it ready for digital marketing, then get in touch — we love helping to improve websites.
And if you’re not sure you’re quite ready to have the ugly baby conversation, take 5 mins to read our three-part ‘Hard Truths About Promoting Your Business Online’ series.