What should a marketing team look for in a digital marketing strategy? Lots of things. But the biggest thing? A solid, well thought out website. If your website is wobbly, your digital marketing effort will be doomed to failure.
Think of it this way: digital marketing is like a water faucet. Your service’s or product’s website is like a bucket. Web banners, pay-per-click ads––they crank up the faucet. Web traffic flows like water into your splashy website. But your digital campaign’s success will only be as good as the bucket is sound. Say, for instance, your website is experiencing a low conversion rate, then it’s time to look for a hole in the pail. As a rule of thumb, your brand’s website should be meeting or exceeding the industry average of 2.5% conversions. Turning up the tap with low conversion rates will only create more wasted marketing dollars. You need to stop and repair the bucket.
Here are some common “leaks” that your website may have:
1. Slow loads. A slow-loading site will negatively affect SEO or a PPC campaign. Have a web developer or your digital branding agency troubleshoot this.
2. Weak synchronicity. If the messaging and look of a digital banner doesn’t match the messaging/look of your landing page, then people will quickly bounce from your site.
3. Bad site structure. The old adage of less clicking means more sticking is true. Avoid structuring your site where the searcher has to drill down multiple pages before they understand your proposition. Never direct a searcher to a page where there is no clear call to action. Make conversion simple.
4. Lack of landing pages. Add as many landing pages as needed to appeal to niche audiences.
5. Onerous forms. Never try to capture more information than necessary in your form fields. People are in a hurry. Don’t scare off a lead.
6. Not enough eye candy. Charts, videos, photos with SEO sound, linkable alt tags will cause visitors to spend more time on your site which will improve conversion rates.
7. Broken links. Audit your site for broken links and 404s. Broken links not only hurt your SEO, they reflect poorly on your brand. Your customer should never be made to feel that your site is an abandoned ghost town. They will bounce.
8. Dead Blogs. If you have a blog, keep it current. It will improve your organic ranking and visitor retention.
Once you have addressed these structural problems and added appropriate landing pages to your brand website, then crank up the faucet and fill up the bucket. See digital marketing isn’t so hard, after all? It’s mostly about plugging holes.
We are a Dallas Branding Agency specializing in digital marketing strategy.
