I came across an interesting statistic this weekend.

Just over 70% of customers have identified a solution before they engage a salesperson (CSO Insights).  

Being in the business of designing websites and digital marketing campaigns that generate leads, this has big implications for what we design for clients.

Most websites are relatively small and serve the bottom of the funnel

Let’s start with a few assumptions that define most of your websites.

• Most company websites get less than 10,000 visitors per month
• Most of that traffic comes from Google “long tail” searches. These are searches that are very specific and often intended to refine their search results to answer a few remaining questions to inform their understanding of a solution
• Branded searches or direct traffic then make up another large percentage of this traffic, indicating that they are there to consider you specifically

Based on these circumstances, most company websites are not able to acquire high traffic, core informational searches. Consequently, there is a high likelihood that most of your web visitors are in this 70% of customers that have identified a solution.

Most websites should be positioned for sales enablement, not marketing

Now, let’s consider some assumptions that should guide my design process.

• Most of the “buyer’s journey” occurs away from my website
• If they’ve arrived at my site, they’re probably pretty close to a buying decision
• When they land on my website, I need to quickly close that 30% gap. This requires clarity around the solution I provide and what makes it different and better than my competitors’ – knowing they have checked them out too
• I need to make it easy to get them to a salesperson
• The average website is probably more sales enablement than marketing

These assumptions put great priority on a few parts of my web design process. 

If you want more leads from your website, acknowledge industry assumptions and state your unique positioning

I want to make sure that I’m doing a thorough competitive analysis. I want to know exactly what my web visitors have already seen and probably been influenced by before reaching my website. I’m going to increasingly document what beliefs about my product, service, industry, and company have been formed by this visiting these other websites.

I want to make sure that I acknowledge these beliefs and clearly define my product or services’ in relation to these broadly reinforced beliefs. Then I need to convince my visitors that my unique approach is the most effective and valuable.

I need to quickly convey this in a few words and with strong visuals. 

It’s okay to backstop this clarity with additional content that provides depth and consideration to the larger industry’s discussion around solutions, but don’t lead with this wall of words and complex visuals.  

For most of our websites, the number one job is to get that visitor to a salesperson

Most importantly, I need to make it frictionless to get them to a salesperson. Your phone number, contact form, or live chat is the most important feature on your home page and every web page behind it. 

Without a simple call to action to contact a salesperson or schedule an appointment for discovery or demo, you’re likely driving your business to another website where they can quickly and simply talk to someone.

Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash