At OBO, we’re huge fans of personalization. It’s not only a key tenet of a successful account-based marketing strategy, but it’s also an important component of meaningfully engaging prospects. Of course, personalization is much easier when you’re dealing with smaller, more segmented audiences. In emails, for example, you can use merge tags that speak directly to that reader and their company; in blogs, you can answer questions that specific prospects have asked you. But on websites, the task seems too daunting to be possible. How do you personalize an entire website for prospects?
Identify Your Ideal Buyers & Speak to Them
Before you create anything for your website—including wireframes, designs, or content—you first need to identify and understand your ideal client profile. Yes, we’ve given this advice before, and that’s because understanding your target audience lays the foundation for every sales and marketing move you make from there.
Informative and engaging content is a major reason that prospects spend more time on your website. So, based on their ideal client profile, you can begin improving your website with fresh content that speaks directly to the prospect’s needs. Who are they? What challenges do they face? What are their goals?
These questions—and more—should be considered in the content development process. It can be tempting to create content that praises your company and how “cutting edge” or “industry leading” your services are, but you ALWAYS want to put the prospect first. As someone in business, you wouldn’t want to read some self-serving essay about another company, even if you’re interested in their solutions, so why would prospects want to read one about yours?
Give Prospects a Reason to Stay
The average prospect stays on a website for less than 59 seconds. This means that if you haven’t given your prospects a reason to stay on your site within that short time frame, they will move on. So how do you entice prospects to stay and, more importantly, convert?
The answer is twofold: with great UX and design, as well as original content.
UX-Focused Web Design
Your website design shouldn’t just look good—it should actually create a meaningful user experience that focuses on engagement and conversion. How you accomplish this goal depends entirely on your ideal client profile, including how they digest information. While there are basic web design principles you can follow, your website should be designed and developed with your users in mind. Navigation should be easy to follow, and content should be simple to find. If you make it a challenge for prospects to find answers to their questions, they won’t hesitate to move on from your page.
Original Content
Wait, didn’t we just talk about content? Yes, and it’s worth emphasizing: you will keep prospects on your website longer and increase their chances of conversion if you offer them engaging, informative, and original content. Your web pages should answer their specific questions without overloading them with information—if they can’t find what they are looking for, be sure to include easy-to-locate contact information so they can reach out directly. While there are several ways to curate content, we recommend Marcus Sheridan’s “You Ask, They Answer” approach, where you work with your sales team to identify the questions that prospects ask and then create content based on those answers.
Final Thoughts
Of prospects who find your website lacking in any regard, only 12% will return. If your goal is lead conversion, that’s not a number you want to see on any of your reports.
There might not be a secret formula to increasing lead conversion on your website, but identifying your ideal client profile and creating engaging and informative content for those users is a great place to start. Beyond your website, you’ll want to expand your content creation efforts to regular blogs, email campaigns, white papers, case studies, webinars, and more. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow: if your prospect wants it, provide it to them.
Contact us today for more information on designing and developing a website that your prospects will love.
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