Your Website Lacks A Responsive Display
You probably take care of a lot of tasks using your smartphone. Your customers are no different. According to AUM Core, almost 70% of consumers aged 18 to 39 (the new purchasing and specifying people in your market today) use a mobile device to research products prior to purchasing. In fact, more people now access the internet using a mobile device than a conventional desktop computer.
If your website and your catalog are not set up to display and function just as well on a smartphone or tablet as they do on a laptop or desktop screen, you’re going to lose a lot of prospects. Poorly designed mobile sites with features that are inaccessible on a small screen will quickly cause visitors to leave and search for a better, more responsive competitor.
The Fix
Get a fully responsive website platform setup. A responsive website and catalog will automatically adjust to display and function properly on a range of screen sizes, resolutions, and browser windows.
Your customer may initially come across your website when browsing on their smartphone and later return to make a purchase using their tablet or laptop, and everything will look and work seamlessly, regardless of how they choose to view your content and products.
More Information: https://www.roigp.com/c/4/RFQ-Product-Configurator.html
Your Catalog Is On A Subdomain
Your catalog looks like it’s an organic part of your website to the average visitor, but compare URLs from your main site content with a catalog URL. If your catalog is hosted on a subdomain, your rankings and visits are probably taking a hit.
Every time a visitor goes from a page of your website to your sub-domain hosted catalog, search engines like Google and Bing see that as a departure from your website. With the adoption of algorithm learning systems, like Google’s RankBrain, your rankings depend on how long visitors stay on your website and give the impression that they’re interested in your content.
Even if your visitors go from your homepage to your catalog, to search engines, that action reads as a bounce out. Reduced dwell time and increased bounce rates are detrimental to search engine rankings and your ability to drive traffic using SEO.
The Fix
Your catalog should look and perform like any other part of your website and contribute to rankings, not work against them. You want to host your catalog on the same domain, keeping it part of your website platform.
This means that your visitors appear to stay on your domain longer and interact with more of your pages, and that’s a great message to send to search engines. It signals that your content is useful and should be ranked accordingly—right at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).
You Can’t Quickly Import, Export, And Modify Your Product Listings
What happens when you need to make changes to your line items? If you need to modify quantities, descriptions, or add a new series of SKUs, are you stuck dealing with a tedious process or wait time?
If you have a large inventory of line items, you need the ability to manage them fast so your content appears relevant. You want your website, and therefore your company, to have an active presence online, right?
Sluggish import and export features create a headache and fail to give you true control over your inventory. That’s frustrating and you could be losing sales from customers who are looking for a quote on those new products.
The Fix
You need a website platform that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of line items and multiple product categories, and also give you the ability to quickly and easily control your inventory.
We offer our clients two different options with their Lead Gen Edition website platform. You can have full admin access so you quickly import, export, and modify product listings on your own. You can also forego admin access and still retain the ability to quickly update your line items by sending us an updated product spreadsheet. We’ll take care of the rest.
It’s Too Easy To Get Lost In Your Catalog
A visitor arrives at your catalog searching for one type of product, but they want to see related items as well. They navigate away from the product they need, do some browsing, and then decide to return to the first listing so they can request a quote.
If they try to use the back button, they have to travel through dozens of pages and that gets tedious fast. They look to your navigation, but it’s not clear which category contained the specific listing they want. It’s taking all these extra steps to get what they need because it’s too easy to get lost in your catalog.
If your product listings aren’t organized and catered to the way your customers browse and shop, you’re wasting their time—and there’s no better way to lose a B2B prospect than to waste their time.
The Fix
A dynamic drill-down menu allows your visitor to see where they are in your catalog, and easily backtrack and navigate other categories. They can seamlessly browse for products and search by the features and attributes that are most relevant to their needs.
This type of catalog menu navigation allows your visitors to see all of their options and pinpoint what they’re looking for so they can submit an RFQ or add items to their cart in seconds. If you sell many different products with many unique attributes that your customers need to see upfront, a dynamic, drill-down menu is imperative to a faster, easier purchasing experience.
Visitors Hate Using Your Search Feature
The average internet user is accustomed to typing a keyword or question into a search engine and getting just what they want—almost as if Google or Bing can read their mind. If your website’s search feature isn’t delivering a similar experience, your visitors are going to get frustrated fast.
When a visitor starts typing in a product, part number, etc., it should feel as though your website is anticipating exactly what they need. If your search bar doesn’t deliver or is too slow in matching your content with a query, your visitors will be annoyed at the very least and probably not that eager to stick around and submit an RFQ or an order.
The Fix
Predictive search capabilities will automatically fill in likely search terms that match what your visitor is typing. If they begin to enter the name of a product, start typing in an item number or attribute, predictive search will display matching options, making your visitor appreciate that you know what they’re talking about, especially if they’ve visited before.
Predictive search will remember a visitor’s previous inquiry, so they can quickly navigate to the exact product category or listing they want. When you provide them with fewer steps between entering a search and sending their RFQ or order, you’ll gain and keep their business that much faster.
You’re Not Utilizing The Media Your Visitors Want
When a visitor arrives at your website, is it clear they’ve found a unique and capable provider of the products they need, as well as answers to questions and concerns? If you’re not utilizing online media to its fullest, then you’re not going to create much of an impression on an internet that loves video, vibrant images, and informative content.
A few lines of text regarding your capabilities and your catalog will not keep visitors on your site because it doesn’t evoke a feeling of assurance and professionalism. There’s also not enough for a visitor to engage with.
If they’re still in research mode and they’re trying to get a feel for what makes you unique compared to so many other providers, you need to capture their attention the same way you’d direct a returning customer to a favorite product category.
The Fix
Turn your website into a helpful information resource that visitors will want to engage with and rely on, no matter what stage of the research and purchasing cycle they reach.
To do that, start utilizing sales video production on your website. A company overview video is a good start, but you should also use video to talk about how your product and your company can solve problems for your customers.
When you want to show visitors why you’re the top choice among your competitors, video resonates. It’s also highly shareable and can extend your reach beyond your website and social networks.
There’s Nothing To Inspire Trust
Before you check out a new restaurant, book a hotel reservation, or purchase a new type of product for a considerable expense, what do you do first? If you’re like most internet users, you’re going to look for reviews and testimonials to ensure you’re making a good purchasing decision.
If your website does nothing to show that you are a reputable source of whatever you offer, and you haven’t made an effort to build and broadcast your reputation, you’re going to lose visitors and customers to competitors that inspire trust.
The Fix
Testimonials and positive customer reviews can have a powerful, positive effect when included on your website, as well as on relevant review sites and directories. Your online reputation is a considerable asset when attracting new customers and driving them to engage.
You’re Trying To Talk To Everybody And Reaching No One
You may have ample content on your website and an extensive catalog, but your visitors aren’t engaging on the level you want. Even if you have a robust list of contacts and leads, your email and marketing campaigns fall flat with little response from your audience.
The Fix
If you want to prompt stronger engagement and drive more traffic to your website, you have to make sure your messaging resonates by catering it to the specific needs of your prospect.
You serve different marketplaces and sell to people in different job roles. They have different concerns and goals when they look to your company to fulfill a need. When you cater your content to a certain type of buyer—and organize your list of leads and prospects accordingly—you’ll be better able to capture their attention and increase the quantity and quality of engagement on your website.
Your Visitors Don’t Know What To Do Next
Not everyone who visits your website will be ready to make a purchase. They may want more information on your capabilities, your sales process, or who to get in touch with if they have specific questions.
There are any number of things a visitor may want or need, but it’s not always clear what they should do, especially if your website lacks clear and relevant calls-to-action. “Contact us” and “Buy here” are fine, but they don’t always resonate with every type of website visitor.
The Fix
Give your visitors different ways to engage based on how their needs may vary. Make sure your website clearly shows what to do if they want to get a quote, chat with an online rep, call to speak with a live member of your staff, or take some other action.
Catch-all contact forms are useful, but make sure they are also relevant. For example, online appointment schedulers can take away a lot of the back-and-forth when trying to arrange a call or meeting with a new prospect.
Maybe your visitor wants to get more information but they’re not quite ready to pick up the phone. In this scenario, you can still capture them as a lead by prompting them to sign up for a newsletter or sales guide.
If you give them a clear path that accommodates their current needs, they’ll stay on track to become a decisive buyer in the future.
You’re Not Nurturing Your Leads
A visitor arrives on your website and completes a contact form with a few questions. You answer them and they respond saying “Thanks. I’ll think about it.” That’s the last you hear from them.
Another visitor arrives on your website and they make a small purchase but have not returned in months. You have many other products you know will interest them but you don’t know where to go from there.
These are just a couple examples of leads that haven’t be nurtured or prompted to return to your website.
The Fix
Lead nurturing isn’t about nagging prospects; it’s a way to attract qualified leads with content and incentives that they’ll value and will also prompt them to return to your website and engage.
There are dedicated strategies and systems that can be used to nurture leads so you stay relevant throughout their purchasing journey.
You’re Not Asking The Right Questions On Your Contact Forms
It’s great when a website visitor completes a contact form and you can see their name and contact details. You can then add that individual to your lead list and include them in your marketing messaging campaigns.
But is their name and contact information enough to create messaging that will resonate with them or will they simply mark your company as a spam contact?
If you don’t know enough about your contact to create more targeted and relevant marketing campaigns, then you may not be asking the right questions of them.
The Fix
Consider the markets you serve and the people who regularly rely on your products. What are their job roles and industries? You can give them an opportunity to provide that information on your contact forms and other interactive website features.
When you can categorize your leads based on unique factors like their job role or industry, you can create more targeted marketing campaigns to effectively capture the attention and business of highly valuable prospects.
The more you can cater to their interests and wants, the more they will value your communication and want to hear what you have to say. It will also reduce the likelihood of your company ending up on their spam list.
You’re Flying Blind And Throwing Money Away Every Month
You have a website and you know you need to drive traffic to it to get visitors. There are many different ways to do this, but other than gaining page views, what does this increased traffic mean for your bottom line?
You have no way of knowing which of your marketing campaigns are drawing visitors and what marketing programs are worth your time and money, so you continue to pay for all of them rather than risk a loss of traffic.
The Fix
Depending upon your website platform and the insight gathering tools you maintain, you can actually tie specific dollar amounts to campaigns, individual leads, and other marketing efforts.
When you know how to utilize website and visitor monitoring assets, you can connect visitors, their activity, and the revenue you gain with the initial marketing efforts that drove them to your website.
You’ll be able to see, definitively, which of your marketing campaigns ultimately deliver revenue and which are simply not worth your investment.
The website intelligence module that makes this possible is exclusive to ROIGROUP-built websites.
This system makes it possible to see the source of your website’s traffic, visitor activity, and connect all that insight to a bottom-line dollar amount, so you stop wasting money and start feeding the marketing programs that work.
Month after month, you’re paying no small amount of money to keep your website alive, functional, and fed with traffic, but what is it giving you in return?
You know a website is mandatory to stay competitive and relevant online; that’s where many of your customers research, browse, and do business, after all.
But if a website and online marketing are such a necessity to your company’s success, why aren’t you getting more for what you’re spending?
If your website isn’t delivering, there’s a good chance it’s due to any combination of the above 12 problems.
What Should You Do Now?
Do any of these problems sound familiar? If so, we can help you implement solutions that will make all the difference in gaining a return from your website, and fully understanding the sources of that return.
You’ll also want to learn more about our LeadGen website system and the website intelligence module that gives you your ROI on all your marketing programs.
