Web design best practices to turn brochureware websites into lead generators for Northern Virginia businesses

I’m writing about this topic because more and more I’m being asked what can my website be doing for me and what should its goals be? I’m glad I’m being asked because, frankly, many businesses treat their websites like brochureware and don’t have specific measurable goals in place for their websites to gauge it's ROI.

So what does a website goal look like? It could be something as simple as measuring how many people visit your website each month. The benefit of measuring website visits (measuring it is quite simple and easy) month over month is that you'll see something is working or not working. The next question might be where on your website are people spending most of their time? By measuring the number visits to each page of your site, you’ll be getting very good business intelligence. For example, if two of the pages on your site are product pages and people are spending 3-5 minutes on them, then you know you’re onto something good. So what next? Now you can do any number of things to turn your passive page into a lead generator. The first thing you can do is to add a short form at the bottom of each page. Pro-actively ask for the visitor’s name, their telephone number, their email address and provide a field where people can write a reason as to why they’re contacting you. You’ll be surprised how many people will complete the form because they want to know more about your product, or a detail about the product. Would you ever think of owning a store without a sales associate to answer questions and help prospective customers with their questions? You’ve now turned your website from a brochureware website into a working-for-its money lead generator.

What I’m describing is not the same as having a contact us page with a form or email address on it. This is about capturing visitors’ contact information at the very moment they’re asking questions about a specific product or detail. It’s a subtle but very powerful difference.

Establishing metrics or goals for your website will give you powerful insights into your website, which in my experience changes the way businesses sell and even operate. There’s a culture change that moves to accountability, which is always good for business.

To learn more about web design for Northern Virginia businesses, please visit
http://www.upclickmarketing.com/search_engine_marketing/web_design.htm