Website Must-Haves for Better Conversions and Preparation for Agency Partnership
Websites are the foundation of online presence and will make or break success in business. Whether the goals are to sell products or capture leads, creating a seamless path to conversion is essential. Knowing which website features are must-haves, and how to incorporate them, strengthens website performance and the outcome of marketing campaigns.
By having clear call-to-actions (CTAs) and incorporating lead capturing, conversion potential is optimized along with the potential for success when working with a marketing agency. Here are the website and business basics to know and implement before engaging with an agency partner.
Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)
What it is:
CTAs are buttons, banners or links that prompt website users to take specific actions. Examples could be “Buy Now,” “Contact Us,” “Sign Up,” or “Download the Guide.” These CTAs should be strategically placed throughout the website to encourage website visitors to take specific actions, guiding them along the customer journey.
Why it matters:
CTAs are the most vital part of highly converting websites. Without them, visitors are likely to wander through the website without any clear direction, and can lead to website bounces if they don’t quickly find what they are looking for. Well-crafted CTAs encourage users to act with intent, ultimately making a purchase, completing a form or requesting more information.
Effective CTAs should:
- Visually stand out by including bold fonts and contrasting colors.
- Appear in high-traffic areas, such as above the fold of the homepage, landing pages and product pages.
- Communicate the ideal actions for users to take.
- Encourage a sense of urgency as appropriate (e.g., “Purchase before we sell out” or “Limited Time Offer”).
Before engaging with an agency, ensure CTAs are clear and compelling. This will increase the odds campaigns will be successful.
Fillable Lead Capture Forms
What it is:
Lead capture forms are important tools to collect visitor information. Every lead capture form should offer an exchange for something of value, such as a consultation, newsletter signup, discounts, guides or freebies. These forms typically appear on contact pages, landing pages, pop-ups, website footers or other strategic areas of the website. Fillable forms can also be part of a gated content strategy.
Why it matters:
Conversions aren’t always about immediate sales. Most often, users want to get to know brands better before completing a purchase. Capturing leads and nurturing them through the sales funnel will lead to higher-quality prospects. Lead capture forms also provide a way to collect important first-party data from potential customers to engage through email marketing, retargeting campaigns, or direct outreach. Depending on what information is required in the forms, it can also provide insightful data into potential customers’ needs and wants, along with demographic data.
To optimize lead forms:
- Keep them simple and easy to complete. Asking for too much information can overwhelm users and decrease the likelihood of completing the forms. A name and email are usually enough for most lead capture forms.
- Offer valuable content in exchange for the user’s email address. Make sure the offer is perceived to be valuable to visitors.
- Always ensure the forms are mobile-friendly. Approximately half of web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices, so it is important for forms to work seamlessly on small screens.
Having well-designed, functioning lead forms in place on the website before working with an agency will allow for lead nurturing immediately after campaigns start.
Preparing to Engage with an Agency Partner
Once the website essentials of CTAs and lead capture forms are in place, it is time to prepare to work with a marketing agency. While agencies bring expertise and execution of marketing strategy, ensuring the foundational work is done beforehand will help maximize success.
Define Business Goals
It’s important to start by clearly defining business objectives. What are the main goals? Are conversion goals focused on product sales, lead generation or both? Understanding key performance indicators (KPIs), such as conversion rates, cost per lead, or average order value, will help in aligning strategies with an agency.
Here are some questions to consider:
- What actions would you like users to take on your website?
- How do those actions align with your overall business goals?
- Are there particular products or services you’d like to prioritize?
Clearly defining business goals will ensure agency-recommended strategies are aligned and optimize results.
Establish Brand Guidelines
Consistent branding is critical to building trust with audiences. Before engaging with an agency, it’s important to organize brand documents, and build a brand guide if possible. This guide should include logo(s), typography, color schemes, voice and tone, imagery style and messaging.
Brand guidelines help agencies quickly understand a business’s identity—streamlining the creative process and ensuring there are cohesive ads and messaging across all platforms. Without having a brand guide in place, ads and messaging could appear disjointed and potentially diminish the brand’s credibility.
Organize Initial Data and Benchmarks
Before engaging with an agency, establish current and historical data from website and social media platforms. Knowing the current stats will help in measuring the impact of campaigns, future changes and strategies.
Some key metrics to track include:
- Website traffic: How many users visit your website daily, weekly or monthly? Make note of busy times of year that may increase traffic, such as events, or sales for seasonal business.
- Bounce rate: What percentage of users leave your website without interacting?
- Conversion rate: How many users take a desired action (filling out a lead form, clicking the call button or phone number link, or making a purchase)?
- User behavior: Which page(s) have the highest engagement or time on page? Where do users typically leave the website?
Providing this data to an agency partner helps them quickly identify opportunities for improvement and sets the baseline starting point to track results right away.
Engaging With an Agency Partner
Taking the time to ensure the foundational website must-haves are in place are key to business success! In addition to having a seamless path to conversion, clearly defining your brand, understanding business and marketing goals, and knowing current data and KPIs will strengthen efficiency with efforts and budgets.
This preparation not only improves current website performance, but also ensures your team and agency partners have the tools they need to help your business be successful—maximizing conversion rates and achieving broader business objectives.
Sky Digital Media wants your business to succeed! We would love the opportunity to be an agency partner for your business. Contact us for a free consultation to learn more about how we can help.