As a business, no matter how wide your reach and how high your turnover, you will likely already be aware of the importance of both a high-quality website and an effective marketing strategy. But how often do you review the two in sync with each other, and consider the importance of your website in the broader scope of your marketing efforts?
The fact is that your website does a lot more than provide information to prospective customers and clients. Not only does it provide an important touchpoint to the online journey of customers, but it is often the landing page which links together all of your other online presences and platforms and is a source of valuable information about your customers, their online habits, and their browsing preferences.
This piece looks at just two of the key ways in which your website can (and should) be used as a valuable cog in your overall marketing strategy; both in the public sphere and within the inner workings of your company.
The storefront which never sleeps
We have already mentioned how your website is the landing site which ties together your other online touchpoints, but it is also key to acknowledge the importance of consistency in delivering an effective marketing funnel. If a customer finds your brand through one of your social media profiles, reads some of your content, and then clicks through to your website to find out more, it follows that the experience they have with you should be consistent and reassuringly professional. The only way to achieve this is by uniting your marketing strategy to ensure all touchpoints align.
The importance of analytics and insight
The other primary value of a good website is the access it can give you into the mindset of your customer and website visitors. When you build a website, you will be offered a series of different analytics, tools and platforms which you can subscribe to and sign up for; each promising the world – and more besides. Your job is to work out which of these analytical tools you can really use to your benefit, and which you need to implement in order to better understand your audience and convert them from browsers to buyers.
Some of the top analytical tools to consider include:
- Website traffic (who is visiting your website, when are they visiting, where have they come from, and what are they looking at?)
- Engagement (how are visitors engaging with your website and what are they doing when they get there?)
- Click Rate (are your email newsletters, marketing emails, and paid ads working, and how could you make them better?)
- Lead Generation rate and Conversion rate
- Sales growth
All of these are areas which can be blown open with access to analytics and can give your complete marketing strategy a huge boost when they are successfully built into the backend of your website. You simply need to find the tools which work for you and start integrating them as part of a wider strategy.
