One of my favorite advertising quotes came from the Englishman William Lever, who said, “I know half my advertising isn’t working, I just don’t know which half.” And like a lot of advertising, the quote was probably stolen, since John Wanamaker had said something similar a few years earlier. But who cares? In our digital kingdom, it’s just not that true anymore.
Gone are the days when you fretted over the questions from your superiors about website ROI. Good riddance to the inquest regarding the business case. Say goodbye to tiptoeing around the interrogation with the standard default response, I assume you’re speaking of return on interaction? Now you’ll be chomping at the byte waiting for the question to be lobbed your way because you’re going to slam it back for a winner, just like Rafa Nadal. But in order to put the ROI in your URL, you need to start at the end. Here’s how we do it at TMA+Peritus.
Because every website that’s developed always begins with understanding audience segments, I’m going to assume the voice-of-customer research and the persona creation have already been completed. Here are the first two steps in making your website a lead-generating, transaction-converting machine:
- Ask yourself this question: What actions do I want my site visitors to take? Make a list of those critical activities because you can’t develop a strategy without them, and you won’t pitch an effective business case unless you tell the honchos how a lead is going to be acquired and nurtured.
- Next, address the analytics from the beginning. Nearly all digital projects address measurement and tracking at the end, and that’s misplaced. Google Analytics is the price of admission, but you’ll need more. Your key performance indicators (KPIs) are also a strategic roadmap. How many leads do you want to capture each month, how many downloads, how many impressions, and what is the value of each impression? (You can set the value of each impression by analyzing paid search trends for your products and services.) What is the target click-through rate, how many emails will you acquire each month, and what is their value? And how many media pickups will you receive from your articles and blogs, and what is their value? (Advertising value equivalency formulas allow you to calculate the value of every pickup.) And the list of KPIs goes on.
Why, for instance, is email acquisition an important KPI? Anyone who understands the relationship between content and digital platforms knows that as a business, you’re only renting space on sites like LinkedIn or online trade sites. Ultimately, you want to own your content and the platform you’re going to distribute it on. An e-newsletter, with your own subscribers, is one answer to being an owner/publisher.
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Since Google changed its algorithms not too long ago, 35% of your search rank is determined by the frequency and relevancy of your content, and the next time Google changes its algorithms, that number will be even higher. Hey, it’s not surprising. If you’re not going to take the time to invest in your website, Google’s not going to take the time to invest in you. Oh, yes, now you have a whole new set of KPIs, and they’re search-related.
And while we’re on the topic of content, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: Content drives strategy, design, information architecture, the user experience — just about everything including your business case. So that’s your next step; by developing your content plan, you will generate leads and drive sales. Think about this; three out of every four decision-makers cite compelling content as a factor in their purchase, and the top three messaging tactics with the highest ROI are articles, videos, and testimonials; you guessed it, that’s content.
In their landmark book Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote, “You don’t fight fire with fire, you fight fire with water.” Not in this case. The numbers are on your side now. With a website strategy of lead generation and sales conversion, you aren’t the crunched anymore, you’re the cruncher. And if you have an integrated CRM, you can really go to town in putting the ROI in your URL. And here’s one last tip — unless your nephew Timmy has project-managed hundreds of sites, never mix your URL with your DNA. That can lead you back to the days of return on interactions.
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