EXECUTIVE REPORT continued
Websites that are optimised for mobile phones gain higher Google rankings.
While being on the first page of a Google search might get visitors to your site, they will quickly leave if they can’t find the information they require within a few clicks. “It is extremely important that a website is very user-friendly and easy to navigate,” added Kris Desmedt. “It also absolutely has to be mobile-friendly, as we have seen a massive increase in the number of people browsing the internet on their phones
over the past few years. If your website is not mobile-friendly it will pretty much kill your online presence.”
Lead generation
It goes without saying that your website should explain what you do and why you’re good at it. However, in today’s market it also needs to provide a high level of detail on the products and services you provide.
“Along with the needs of the customer, you should think carefully about what you want from your website. Is it about brand awareness, or do you want your website to generate leads?” said Kris Desmedt. “At Riwal, we think we have a good balance, but we are undoubtedly moving towards lead generation.
“Very often in the equipment rental sector there is a great cross- selling opportunity from training. By analysing our customer base we found that many of those who came to us for working at height training were not actually hiring our access platforms. So that became a great new opportunity for us.
“We are also definitely seeing a shift towards e-commerce. A lot of our existing customers are not using our main website but are logging into our customer portal, called My Riwal, to place orders. If your customer already knows exactly which machine they need for a job, and have a good technical knowledge of it, they don’t want or need to call us. They just want to order online.”
Landing pages with information specifically targeted at the visitor, coupled with a clear call to action, are an excellent way of converting website visitors into customers. (A call to action is the marketing term for providing the customer with a prompt such as a telephone number, email address or contact form.)
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“If the user arrives on a landing page with really relevant information and a call to action, they are much more likely to convert. In our industry, we still see so many web pages which are essentially dead-end roads. The information is good, but without a call to action, the sale is lost.”
Measuring success
As discussed above, driving visitors to your website is achieved by digital marketing activities such as social media (see the dedicated articles in EHN’s September and October issues for a recap), Google Ads, blogging, and advertising. The success of a website is typically measured in two metrics: the increase in visitors to the site, and the concurrent rise in enquiries or leads.
“You have to run your online marketing activities before you can measure performance,” said Kris Desmedt. “An increase in visitors is great, but make sure you get behind that and look at the number of enquiries. If your visitor numbers are up but lead generation is not also growing, then you have a problem. You also need a good CRM (customer relationship management) system to track leads and quotations, to find out how many of them convert. In this way, you can start to calculate the return on investment from your digital marketing activities.
“Cold calling simply does not work anymore. These days, marketing is about pulling people to your website, then having the right information and call to action so that they take the next step. LinkedIn recently published statistics showing that around 60% of a customer’s sales journey has taken place before they contact you. The majority of the sales cycle is completed online before the customer ever gets in touch. So getting your website right has never been more important.”
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Statistics suggest that 60% of the sales journey has taken place before the customer makes contact.
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