A lot of articles talk about a website in terms of lead generation and marketing – i.e. getting people interested before the hard work of making a sale begins. But what if you’re one of those businesses for whom the majority of sales are still made face-to-face, at events, or through referrals? Do you really need to sink money into a website in this case? Yes. Your website is your most important sales asset, bar none. And that applies even if you make none of your sales online.
In this article, we explain why, and how you can optimise your website to make more offline sales.
1) Attract Sales Leads Through Your Website That Can Be Closed Through Your Normal Methods.
Even if most of your leads come through off-line channels at present, imagine how you could supercharge your leads database by having an effective sales website. These days, most people use the Internet as their starting point to research potential suppliers, and for most people it is their main source of information. By having an optimised sales website online, and having it rank highly on Google, you open yourself up to a great number of new sales leads from people who are searching for your products and services.
Once your website traffic increases, of course, there is no obligation to close the deal digitally – by email, for example. You can choose the action you want your leads to take and embody that in a CTA (call to action). For an e-commerce business, this CTA could be to buy a product or to sign up for special offer updates. For a predominantly offline business, this CTA could be to download a product brochure, or an informative e-book, or to book a free consultation with one of your salespeople.
The purpose of your website is to start a conversation with visitors that encourages them to engage with your products and services to the point that they become sales leads.
2) Supporting Your Sales Team
A good website is an invaluable tool for your sales team when following up sales and providing information to leads. Not only does the website act as a filter to qualify people who are interested and separates them from those who may not be ready to purchase, but it is also a hub of useful information. During initial conversations, your salespeople can refer leads to pertinent pages of your website for further information, and provide gated content that further accelerates them through the sales funnel. This can save a lot of time during phone and face-to-face meetings. It also provides your leads with a source of information they can take away and digest at their leisure, making it more likely that you will close a deal in your next conversation.
3) Save Valuable Time
Once it is set up, your website becomes an asset that continually gives – and should not be viewed as a drain on resources. When coupled with marketing automation software, your website becomes a powerful lead harvesting and communication tool with potential customers. Visitors can automatically subscribe to a newsletter or email marketing list. They can request further information about specific services, or request a call back for a face-to-face meeting. Whenever someone does this, the marketing automation software will automatically add them to a leads database. Autoresponders will ensure that they are thanked for their interest and that all communications are followed up promptly – so that leads don’t go cold, and your team saves valuable time on following up every lead manually.
4) A Better Understanding Of The Sales Funnel
Not all enquiries come to you at the same level of readiness to purchase. Some people are keen to sign on the line, others are maybe comparing you with one or two competitors, and others may simply be researching the market. If you are doing all of your sales offline, you’re going to have to filter and score these different types of lead manually, which takes a lot of time.
Your website can do a lot of this donkey work for you by setting up targeted content and landing pages for different types of sales lead. For instance, you could include blog posts aimed at giving general information, detailed product or geographical pages for people searching for a specific service, and testimonials and portfolio pages for people ready to sign up. Each page could feature a bespoke CTA that encourages the lead to move from one stage to the next – i.e. to progress along the sales funnel. This frees your sales team to focus on the leads who are genuinely ready to purchase, and thereby increase the ROI from your sales expenditure.
Long Term Value From Online Marketing
Increasing sales is the key to growing your business, and your website can play a crucial role in this. However, a quick spike in revenue isn’t the only benefit you’ll get from optimising your website for sales. Investing in inbound marketing, using your website as a hub of information and lead generation, is a long-term strategy that delivers exponential value to your business.
Having a sales-optimised website will help you attract more leads and close more sales. At JDR, we provide a range of bespoke marketing and sales services to help companies like yours achieve more closed sales. To find out more about how we have helped in individual cases, please take a look through some of our recent case studies. Or, if you prefer, please call 01332 982022 and have a chat with one of our marketing and sales specialists in person.
Image source: Pixabay
