At the August Social Media Breakfast virtual program, Eagan Heath, Get Found Madison, revealed why a majority of an organization’s website visitors leave without taking any action. He offered insights to improve response rates. The program also served as an Official Forward Festival event.

Eagan, founder of the digital marketing agency, explained that most websites offer a confusing array of options with no clear call to action. He noted that visitors don’t want to be sold to, but love to receive offers that are free or provide great value. Give visitors what they want, and your website’s engagement will increase.
In his presentation, Eagan addressed three areas:

• The problem with websites
• Why this happens
• What to do about it

The Problem

Many organizations, Eagan said, ask way too much of people who visit their website. Faced with too many options, “they don’t know what to do and why to do it.”

He recommends reviewing a website’s Google Analytics to see what’s happening.

• Who are your visitors?
• What’s their behavior?
• What are your conversions?

If you want some insights, try out Hotjar. It uses heatmaps to reveal how visitors navigate a website. “Watch people using your site. People will do things you didn’t imagine,” Eagan said.

A review of that data could lead to customer experience improvements.

Why It Happens

Website visitors are looking for answers. If they’re confused, they’ll leave.

Eagan urged SMB attendees to make it easy for visitors to figure out the age-old question, “What’s in it for me?”

Create a persona of your top prospect and then find their pain points, which typically include:

• Money
• Time
• Relationships
• Health

People buy to solve those pain points, he said. For compelling copy, use emotional words. Check out some examples:

WEAK Phrases                   STRONG Phrases
Losing                                   Hemorrhaging

Lacking clarity                     Migraine-inducing

Suboptimal                           Piss-poor

What to Do About It

Keep in mind whom you’re addressing with your messages, Eagan said. “Sending the wrong message to the wrong people doesn’t work.”

What’s your prospect’s traffic temperature? Figure that out first and then create your message. Check out these definitions:

• Cold: Has a problem but doesn’t know there’s a solution
• Warm: Looking for a solution, but doesn’t know you
• Hot: Knows you and that you could solve their problem

Here’s how Get Found Madison adjusted their messages to reflect their prospect’s temperature:

• Cold: Struggling to get awareness for your business online?
• Warm: Trying to rank higher on Google?
• Hot: Take this SEO course to get more organic traffic and customers!

The messaging reflects a prospect’s awareness of SEO. One organization may want to get more online traffic, while someone else knows they want to rank higher on Google. A more knowledgeable prospect may be interested in a Get Found Madison SEO course.

The best answer, Eagan said, is to create three different types of ads with different landing pages to address the needs of each type of prospect.

Create a Direct Offer

When you create an offer on your website, determine if your goal is branding or to get a direct response, which has more of a focus on selling. Check out the differences:

Branding                                                                 Direct Response
Raise Awareness                                                       Earn Leads
Amuse, entertain                                                      Amuse, entertain, sell
Maybe you’ll buy someday if you remember      Act now to start getting the benefits

Get Found Madison offered website visitors a free SEO checklist to help them bring more customers to their website. Then on the landing page, visitors were invited to take advantage of a special offer. They could sign up for an SEO video course.During the presentation, attendees guessed whether promotions were branding, direct response or a combination.

As a result of this free offer, Eagan’s agency obtained new website development customers.

How to Do Full-Funnel Marketing

With full-funnel marketing, your goal is to provide value, so cold leads become hot leads. To build a strong relationship, start by offering free information. Then build on that relationship until prospects decide they’re ready to buy. Here’s a natural progression:

• Free Guide
• Social Media Ads
• SEO, SEM, Remarketing
• Email, phone, sales

“Start cold, ” Eagan said. “Keep offering value, and they’ll come back to you.”

Get Found Madison specializes in SEO, Pay-Per-Click ads and website analytics. Eagan recently launched My Digital Marketing Mastery, which offers step-by-step digital marketing video tutorials for marketing teams, business owners and entrepreneurs.

Don’t Miss SMBMad in September!

Special thanks to Eagan, attendees and sponsors. For its Nonprofit Spotlight, SMB recognized Reach-A-Child™. Its goal is “Helping First Responders Comfort Children-in-Crisis.” First Responders positively engage these children through the power of a book. The responders then give the child the book and a drawstring backpack to put it in.

The next virtual SMB program will be Gen Z and Social Media: What Modern Marketers Need to Know, presented by Dana Arnold, managing director of Hiebing Austin. Register here for the Sept. 16 free program via Facebook Live that will begin at 8 a.m.

Leslie Blaize wrote this post on behalf of Winbound, a content marketing firm specializing in manufacturing and industrial clients. Winbound provides an all-in-one content marketing package specifically designed for small marketing departments.