Categories: Articles

Don't Forget Your Website

Lately, I find myself thinking more and more about what Bryan Eisenberg (co-founder of Future Now Inc., Blogger over at GrokDotCom, and co-author of books like Call To Action and Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?) had to say during his keynote at Search Engine Strategies Toronto this year. When it comes to looking at what we’re doing online and in the Digital Marketing channels, we tend to focus on either the current campaigns we’re running, or on the next and latest in shiny objects (be it Social Media or otherwise). The sad reality is that none of those are going to help you much if your consumer comes to your website and leaves because it was not relevant or didn’t provide the proper "scent" in terms of what brought them there in the first place.

It all started with the website, and now it seems to all end there too… and yet we are spending less and less time optimizing our pages for search, findability, usability and functionality. We’re intensely focused on driving traffic and clicks and deftly terrible at understanding what is happening once they arrive and why. We have robust web analytics tools and amazing web research applications – all available either for free or fee (but readily available) – and yet bounce rates continue to suck and I’m not seeing a much better conversion on both e-commerce and non-transactional sites.

Let’s get back to basics. Most potential consumers are doing numerous searches for the products and services you sell. If you’ve done your job, and you’re ranking at the top of the search engine results, it is incumbent on you to capitalize on the opportunity by providing them with both the basic information and the opportunity to learn more. Your website is your window to the world and will demonstrate your ability to communicate why you should be their only choice.

No pay-per-click search campaign, e-mail marketing blast or Blog is going save you. The only thing that will save you is a great Website that helps your consumers accomplish the tasks and goals they’ve set out for themselves.

The time has come for you to review your website – both what the public can see and how it was set-up on the back-end. It’s time to take some notes on visuals, navigation, calls-to-actions and content. It’s time to make sure that the final point of consumer connection – your website (which is, incidentally, becoming their first point of contact too) is not just "up-to-par" but the ultimate demonstration of everything great that you do.

The best way to make this happen also happens to be the title of Eisenberg’s soon-to-be-released book – Always Be Testing.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.