Whether you are selling to consumers, business professionals, or federal buyers, you are selling to humans—and humans leverage the internet to make decisions. Your buyers will be researching in order to educate themselves about their problem, potential solutions, how to meet their requirements and which vendor to choose. Will they be using your website, or your competitor’s?
If you aren’t seeing the traffic and conversion numbers where you want them, your website may be chasing your buyers away. Here’s a list of mistakes that you might be making that can be easily fixed.
1. Your Site Isn’t Loading Fast Enough
47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. (Source: Neil Patel)
Your website needs to load in the blink of an eye and if it’s not, then you are definitely losing people. Large images, videos, or embedded apps might be causing the lag. Bloated code and slow hosting server may also be the guilty parties. You need to do some analysis and systematically work through the issues that are slowing your site down.
2. Your Site Isn’t Responsive
Simply stated, more people are browsing the internet on their phones than on their computers. Therefore, if your site isn’t responsive you are absolutely losing people. If content is all squished and difficult to read and browse, people click away in an instant. And let’s not forget that Google ranks your website higher when you have a responsive website which ultimately results in more organic traffic. As of July 1, 2019, Google moved to a mobile-first policy meaning that Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
Buyers Rely on Mobile
According to HubSpot, 87% of mobile consumers turn to search engines first to address their needs.
Even decision-makers in the federal government use mobile devices to access information. According to Market Connections’ 2019 Federal Media & Marketing Study, over 75% of federal workers use their mobile devices in the workplace on a regular basis.
3. Missing a CTA
CTA stands for call to action. More than 90% of visitors who read your headline also read your call to action (CTA) copy. (Source: Unbounce)
If you don’t have a CTA, you are missing out on moving your customer through the sales funnel. You need to tell your website visitors exactly what you want them to do—download an ebook, watch a video, book a consultation call, buy a product etc. Keep it simple! Create only one CTA per page and make sure to keep it above the fold.
Examples of compelling CTAs would depend on your industry and the stage in the buyer’s journey of your visitor. For a SaaS company, as an example, “Get Demo” would be a CTA that could help move your visitor to the next level and closer to a contract won. Government decision makers may still be researching solution options and not near the final close. You would want to consider how to influence their decision, possibly by directing them to “Download White Paper” that addresses their requirements. Here are 31 call-to-action examples from HubSpot
4. Your Content Isn’t Cutting It
Be Specific
Only 12 percent of marketers say that they create content with specific customers, targets, marketers, or industries in mind. (Source: Marketer Gizmo)
Is that you? If so, you have a major problem. Your website content needs to clearly explain what your company does, who you are, and what the visitor can do there. If this isn’t clear to a prospective customer, they are clicking away within seconds, never to return again.
For government contractors, this is of critical importance. When government decision makers are looking on Google to see what companies are out there providing the services or products that they are looking for, they need the search results to be clear and concise. And when they can’t find what they are looking for, they will simply go back to the vendor who was currently providing the services. You may have the best service for the contract, but if they can’t find you, you lose.
Don’t Be Salesy
Also keep in mind that much like the BtoB world, according to Market Connections (marketing research experts specializing in BtoB and BtoG), “When creating marketing content for a government buyer of products, services or emerging technologies, federal and state and local decision-makers want to be educated and not sold to,” based on their 2019 Content Marketing Review: Federal & Beyond. They also state that “Content should help them make informed decisions and have minimal sales messages.”
The Solution—Keeping Visitors Engaged
The first step with any problem, if first admitting you have a problem! If these are areas that need attention on your site, don’t feel overwhelmed.
Whether you are leveraging your in-house marketing team, hiring a professional marketing firm that specializes in creating websites as part of a larger marketing strategy, or rolling up your sleeves and doing yourself, once you know what is causing the problem, you can tackle fixing it one step at a time.
Is the federal government your target market? We have also created the Website Checklist for Government Contractors for you with a few other must-haves to consider.
What’s Next?
If you are unsure about what to do next we are offering a FREE website assessment—we’ll let you know where you stand today and what your options are moving forward.
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