The Marketing Cost of NOT Engaging Website Visitors

The initial focus of most inbound marketing campaigns is to direct consumers to a business's website. This goal is so important to some businesses that they measure the success of their marketing efforts solely by the number of people who visit their website in a given month.

However, the number of visitors your website receives is of no importance if your visitors don't convert to customers.  If you are marketing for a medical practice, does it matter how many people drive into your parking lot if they never come in for a visit? No.  Having traffic flow through your website without engaging them is the same problem.

Some Common Mistakes

• Failing to Engage Consumers. No one waits anymore.  There's just too much to do and see.  According to Microsft Research, visitors are most likely to leave within the first 30 seconds of their arrival if you don't offer them something of value.  You have less than 30 seconds to engage them. For this reason, your website needs to contain content that is both visually appealing and informative. If they stay and if the content presented is engaging enough, consumers will be more likely to offer their information in exchange for some truly valuable content, return to the site later, and even recommend it to friends and family.
  
  
• Failing to Ask Website Visitors to Interact.  Did you know that, according to research conducted by Hubspot in 2013, 72% of small businesses don't use calls to action (CTA) on their interior website pages?  That seems like a shame when more than 90% of visitors who read your site's headline ALSO read the CTAs.  And since CTAs attached to landing pages convert more website visitors into leads than any other method...well, it just seems like smart marketing to include CTAs on your web pages.

• Failing to Learn about Consumers. When consumers or prospects come to your website, you can collect valuable information about them. This information can help you to learn more about the type of people your current marketing efforts are attracting, which in turn allows you to optimize your marketing campaigns by providing deeper, richer content and better serving your target audience. You can also use contact information provided by consumers to follow up with them and increase the chances of a sale. If you use marketing automation software like Hubspot, you can employ "smart" marketing tactics and never ask them the same question twice.  They might tell you only their name and email address the first time they visit.  The second time, they may tell you their company name and size.  By the third or fourth time they visit, you can even gain insight into their buying cycle.

• Failing to Follow Up on Leads. After consumers provide you with contact information, you need to put that information to good use. Failing to follow up with website visitors is like catch-and-release fishing...you don't go home with anything! To maximize lead conversion, follow up with each consumer who visits your page within one week. Even better, engage them sooner by adding them to a workflow so that they receive an automated follow-up from you within 24 hours of their first visit. 

So what? Attracting visitors to your website and allowing them to leave without engaging them, learning about them, or following up is a waste of your marketing budget. Avoid these costly mistakes and get the most possible benefit from your website traffic.

Do you want to learn more about optimizing your landing pages to increase website visitor conversion rates?  Download this free ebook from Hubspot today for some valuable tips and tools.

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