Why traditional marketing methods are failing, conversations are the way forward

Everyone expects everything… now. Not later, not tomorrow but now.

And the issue with a lot of the ways in which we are marketing to our clients; potential or existing; is still too reliant on old methodologies – form fills, enquiries, “request a callback” – all with an element of delay added for the visitor.

Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t really apply to those at the top or middle end of the buyer behaviour cycle – those just setting out on information searches and deciding on the right solutions for them. Downloads from form fills or accessing content in this way will still work relatively well but wouldn’t it be great to start influencing when we begin having conversations with people?

Think of it like this:

As an agency we like to talk to our potential prospects straight away because it allows us to get a feel of you just as much as it allows you to get a feel of what we’re about. When someone visits our website, it’s usually from an Organic Search or Paid Search which has most likely began with the user searching for very high intent keywords “Branding agency Manchester” being one of the main topics when someone is looking for help with rebranding their business.

It’s not too far fetched to presume that by this point the visitor knows what they are looking for. They have done their due diligence on the problems that their business is facing, worked out that it is specifically a branding agency that they need so they go to the all powerful Google and have a look for what they can find.

This takes them to our website, they look around at some of our work… like what they see, are ready to get in touch and start a conversation about how we can begin working together…. and they hit a form fill.

How many times have you been onto a website and seen a form between you and your goal? It says that there will be a response within 24h but, how often do you really believe that? This is where we think businesses that streamline any process for their website visitors will begin to see a higher CVR% and therefore more business.

And all it takes is to put yourself in the mindset of the visitor and just make things simpler!

“But How??” I can hear you screaming.

Think of your website like a shop. And not just any shop, your favourite shop that you go to on a regular basis. The shopkeeper knows your name, greets you in a friendly manner, almost knows your order to a tee and shows you stock relevant to you; perhaps even suggesting other things you might be interested in.

What the shopkeeper doesn’t do is grunt at you as you walk in, expect you to struggle when you can’t find what you want and then tell you to wait 3-5 days for a response when you ask for help. But realistically; this is what most modern websites do nowadays and… it’s pretty frustrating, isn’t it?

Be welcoming of those you don’t know, personalised to those that you do

In the last month, 10% of all of our website traffic have been returning visitors. This means that there is a portion of our visitors that have come back to look at our site after finding it through Google, PPC, Social etc. If we can get details of people as they become more engaged then tailoring their experience is extremely important for building trust. If I visited a website and it greeted me with “Hi Lee!” then I would at first be a little freaked out but then i’d crack a smile.

I would also expect this number to be quite a bit higher for businesses that have e-commerce sites, memberships and newsletters that encourage return visits so it’s even more important for those businesses to ask themselves what they are doing to better engage their existing users.

We actually created a guide for this, read it here >

People don’t remember you, they remember how you made them feel and encouraging positive experiences go a long way in positioning your business as the trusted advisor. So even if the visitor doesn’t go on to buy something from you in the first instance (according to Episerver, 92% of first time visitors won’t), you’ll definitely be in their mind when they are further along in their buyer behaviour cycle.

The time to start streamlining the way that users interact with your site is now so to get started, you can click the little chat box at the bottom right to speak to Christian directly 🙂