Wouldn't it be amazing if everyone that called your office, submitted a form on your website, or followed you on social media was your ideal customer? Wouldn't it be great to get more of the type of leads you really want; or to get any leads at all from your website?
Some folks say; "yeah right, that could never happen". Well, I'm here to tell you that actually, it can. What if I told you it was actually much easier than you think?
Maybe you're a small business owner, or the sole salesperson for a small business making between $1M and $3M in annual revenue. You could be with an architectural firm, work in the health and wellness field, or in technology.
You're no longer a start-up, that's for sure! Your company has been at it for over 5 years, but you're just not getting the leads you want, which is certainly no laughing matter.
You're good at closing new business, but you just need more opportunities to close. You tried a few marketing strategies, maybe Google or Meta ads.
You sent a lot of traffic to your website and even had a form to capture leads on the landing page, but it seems all you got was a high bounce rate and a bill from Google or Meta. Definitely not the results you were hoping for.
Well, what if your ads were working? You've got substantial traffic, just not enough conversions.
Let me ask a question or two.
Did anyone fill out the form? If someone did fill it out, were they the right type of lead? Seriously, I'm not trying to be funny here. Think about it for a second. I'll give you a few......
...
Now that you've taken the time and thought about it, tell me a couple of things:
- Were they from the type of business you typically work with?
- Could they afford what you sell?
- Were they like most of the people who usually buy from you?
If you didn't say yes to all 3 of those questions then it's very likely that there's something going wrong with your website.
So let's go through a few things that will help ensure that you attract more of the people you actually want. The best fit leads.
Defining your personas
First, you have to determine who you are trying to reach. Look at the first few paragraphs of this blog post: I outlined exactly who I'm speaking to. If the concept of a buyer persona is relatively new to you, check out this blog post and get up to speed in no time.
I then dive into the problem our personas (you) may be facing in your organization. You see, you are on this page because this page was written with you in mind.
Once we've defined the personas, we plan everything around them.
Outline your ideal customers
Defining what their business looks like can be incredibly helpful for your audience to self-qualify. As you saw earlier, I have provided a detailed description of what our personas' companies resemble, including
- how much they make annually,
- how long they've been in business, and
- the industries they may be in.
Maybe you're in one of these industries, maybe you're not. At least you can see how we work to attract what we consider our best-fit clients.
It doesn't mean we can't help others, but these industries seem to work best for us. We'll gladly start a conversation with companies outside of these.
Design for your personas
Understanding the personas of your target audience allows you to create a design that caters specifically to them. This goes beyond just surface-level elements like color; it encompasses the overall user experience (UX) and Information Architecture (IA).
For instance, if your personas are tech-savvy individuals, you can incorporate tech-savvy solutions such as chat/text communication and social media into your design.
Consider your personas' preferences when it comes to consuming content. Are they avid readers who would appreciate a blog or newsletter? Or perhaps they prefer video content?
You can also provide options like listing your web address and allowing them to subscribe to an RSS feed. And don't forget about the importance of effective calls-to-action (CTAs).
When designing your website, think about the specific information your personas are looking for. What should they find on your website as a whole, as well as on each individual page?
Remember, everything should be tailored to the people you are trying to reach. By personalizing your design and content, you can better engage and connect with your target audience.
Write for your personas
Communicate in a language that resonates with your audience. Craft content that is tailor-made for them.
Make references that they can relate to. Do they prefer technical or entertaining writing?
Every single word on your website, yes, every single one, should be written specifically for your target audience. Imagine it like this:
You don't want to shout at a crowd of people, hoping that a few of them might need what you're offering. Instead, you want to address a crowd of individuals who absolutely need what you're selling.
Your website has the potential to do one of those two things: either shout at a random crowd, or engage in thousands of personalized conversations with your ideal customers. To keep yourself from shouting into the empty void of a crowd, here are some questions to keep in mind:
- What are the benefits they desire?
- What problems do they need solutions for?
- What should we say to guide them through the buyer's journey and down the sales funnel?
- Should our calls-to-action be concise or detailed?
- Which keywords do they use?
- What kind of information would they find valuable?
Post for your personas
What social channels are your personas subscribed to? How should we use them? What kind of content do they like?
How often do they want to receive it? When do they have time to read your posts? Are they busy during certain times of the day?
You can use your social media and blog posts to attract anyone and everyone, or you can use them to attract your best-fit ideal customers.
This also applies to your Google and Meta ads. Hopefully, this is starting to feel a little redundant by this point.
So how do I know if it's my website or my ads?
There are a few ways to answer this, but they paint a better picture together than apart.
- Are you getting traffic from your ads? If not, then it's likely your ads need help. If yes, then it's likely your ads are working.
- Is your bounce rate higher than 35%? If it is, it means the traffic coming to your site was potentially expecting something different than what they got when they arrived on your website. There should be alignment between your ad and the page the ad links to. If your bounce rate is 35% or lower then it's likely that people are getting exactly what they came for.
- Are the people filling out your forms, or calling from the website, the types of leads you want? How many of the leads are you closing? If your close rate is low then you may not be getting the best leads. If your close rate is high, then you are getting good leads. As long as you're not making exceptions just to close business, then this should help.
If you're still not sure, we can help. We can do a free audit of your website and provide a marketing assessment.
We'd love to help you get more of the leads and customers you want.
