To start let’s pretend for a moment that your company website is not a website but instead your online “house”. Continue to imagine you are going to host an online house party and it promises to be amazing. Party goers have caught wind of your party and have tried to find your address but were unsuccessful. They didn’t find your house so the party goers quickly decided to attend another party!
Some party goers have managed to find your address. They showed up at the front door but couldn’t get in. They were uncertain if they were at the right party so they left. Other party goers found your house and managed to get in the front door. Excited they entered your house looking for the party, but they didn’t find the room the party was in. Very disappointed, they leave.
A few party goers find their way in the house and also found the room the party was being held in. Unfortunately, the other party goers in the room seem very unfriendly. The party was not exactly what they expected and those party goers leave.
Other potential guests were interested in attending and managed to find the correct address. But before they go, they ask others who had been to previous parties about their experience. After hearing too much negative feedback they decide against going. Some learned of a friendly side door to your house but when they went to use the door it was rusted shut. It hadn’t been used in years.
Ironically, you are sitting at your house waiting to entertain guests! You just spent a fortune to get the front of the house painted (think your website) but guests can’t find their way in.
Further, you have no idea who is in your house, where they came from, why they came, or why they are leaving. Plus all these robots milling around your house are filling space, but you know they are not really the party goers you desired.
What is being described above is what business owners and marketing directors need to focus on first. Why send out a party flyer (advertise) when the guests will have some variation of the above experiences?
If they can’t find your house party (online presence), then you need help with SEO and Search! If they find your house party (online presence), but can’t get in the front door, then you may need more website functionality. The same solution applies if they can’t find the right room.
What about when your guests found “unfriendly” party goers? Is your “online presence” creating the experience that is being promoted in your invitation? How are your reviews? What do others say about your “house parties”? Are your social media sites, or your “side door,” updated regularly or rusted shut?
Then we get to a common mistake occurrence when dollars are dropped for websites without much thought of functionality or user experience. Or what may worse: the millions of businesses that don’t know who is in their “house”. They don’t know what rooms guests like most, where they came from, and what words brought them in the first place. Analytical data that show a ton of info on web traffic is often ignored or not understood.
These elements are fundamentals. cThru Media is experienced, knowledgeable and provides answers to these questions for our clients. No building will stand long without a strong foundation. Let me give a couple of real life examples of the cost of neglecting a strong foundation.
A successful restauranteur I met with was considering building an ecommerce site. After a deep dive into the website analytics I discovered that 1600 new visitors were checking out the banquet page every month. Renting banquet space was a major source of revenue and yet this information was not known to the restaurant owner. They could have been booked for the year, but left money on the table.
Another company we created a digital marketing plan for, a private school, was unhappy with the number of applications they got from the marketing program. We used google analytics to help them understand that several hundreds of new visitors had been driven to the site from our campaign. We also helped them see that the campaign created significant lift in new visitors checking out the admissions info page. This was also the page most people exited the site, right after seeing the tuition costs. We helped them to understand this data and to create a “softer” price tag”, thus increasing enrollment inquiries.
The next time you find yourself spinning from all that you need to do for your online presence and/or online business. Think of your online “house party” metaphor. Or simply reach out to cThru Media and we will provide a roadmap to building an effective foundation.
