Website Marketing
We have no control over who visits our website or where they are clicking. What we do have control over as marketers is our website marketing, and what our visitors see and experience. With that said, it is more important than ever to think about how you pitch to a multitude of anonymous visitors.
When visiting the websites of resellers I have noticed how many of them are carrying multiple ERP or CRM product lines and how few really know how to position their value among all this product noise. It is also apparent to me that the battle for the reseller’s website “real estate” is very real in the minds of software publishers. They all want the resellers to give up valuable real estate to position their product first and foremost. It makes me want to scream STOP and frankly, you should too. Unless you think about the experience carefully your website is going to be a big, ugly mess of ‘stuff’ that is meaningless.
Think about your own personal website experiences. What are the things you look for? What makes you linger that bit longer? What makes you click around? Here are some attributes to think about:
- Content that appeals to YOU (whether you’re buying a motorbike, considering a vacation or reading about your favorite hobby).
- Blogs that are interesting to read by sharing personal experiences and opinions.
- Appealing and attractive graphics.
- Copy that guides you to click on different items.
Now take those same website marketing principles and apply them to your business website.
- Lead with your main focus area, whether it’s delivering accounting services to Veterinary practices or women -owned businesses. (This is your statement about what YOU do and for WHOM you do it). And don’t try to do everything for everybody – if you do then you’re just irrelevant. After all, you want better qualified traffic vs. just traffic and a high bounce rate.
- Clearly state what you deliver, what the expected outcome is and what problems you solve.
- Curate your content and have limited variety. There is no reason why you can’t use the calls to actions (offers) provided to you by the software publishers, but make sure you guide the prospect to read/watch/download the items that are right for them. Less, but well curated, content is exponentially better than more or just dumping meaningless stuff on your site.
- Talk about what you do in personal terms on your blog. This reassures the prospect that you have done this for others and they’re not your first client. It also drives credibility for your consultants in the eyes of your prospect.
If you lead with just product information from different publishers you put yourself in the ‘commodities’ bracket. We’ve all gone out and sourced our favorite running shoe/coat/car at the least expensive price. The prospect is going to do the same to you if you don’t lead with your value and then you’ll sit and wonder why your profits are down. It’s time to get off the catalog of resellers and show your true colors.
If you’re struggling with this very topic, get started by reading one of our ebooks. They are packed full of ideas on how you can focus on your value to create unique, valuable content for your website visitors.
By Cheryl Salazar, Senior Marketing Consultant at The Partner Marketing Group
