What is the best way to drive traffic to your website and how do you get people to come back when you are selling a service rather than a product?
Good Answers (5)
Fred S.
President at BlindMonkeyMedia
Best Answers in: Personnel Policies (1), Advertising (1), Sales Techniques (1)
Lindsay,
looking at the service you offer and the type of customers you have, you could try to get people to go to your site and have them coming back by expending on your current projects section.
People are probably interested in how the project is doing how much of it has been completed and so on.
For example. I see on your website that one of your current project is the "McPherson Opera House". I am sure that they are a lot of people interested on how that project is doing.
So you could have it where if I click on the project name, it would show a bar that would show that you are 75% done with it and that bar would change as the project goes along.
You could even include your deadline schduele and whether you are on the mark on those which will help in getting new business if you are able to meet each deadlines since it will show that your company delivers on what it promises. You could also talk about whether the rain you have had this week(I dont know if you had any or not, its just an example) made things harder for the project but your team was able to overcome the rain despite it all. As Rob suggested, a blog would help out especially if each project has its own blog. As you hit key deadlines on each project, send out a press release to news agencies in your area as well as clubs that are involved in the arts and even local newsletters.
Cheers,
Fred
Tammy J. A.
Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, L.C.
Not that we are using our own Website this way, since most of our practice development is done more one-on-one through relationships, but I have found that the Websites I tend to return to again and again are those which provide both new, frequently updated material AND reference materials pertinent to my needs over time. For example, when I worked in higher education, I frequently visited the Website of higher education marketing consulting firm Stamats because they send e-newsletters with links to their site, but they also compile pertinent data from readers/clients and post it as well as archive back issues of newsletters and white papers.
In service marketing, as Stamats was doing, you are selling access to expertise rather than a product -- which actually can be easier to deliver via the Web than for a product.
For a construction company like Eby, for example, you may be able to provide expertise/updates on developing issues such as LEED building.
Links:
James W.
Executive Director, Digital at conversiv
Best Answers in: Starting Up (1), Web Development (1)
Blogs are good but only if you really commit to doing it. Otherwise it has the opposite effect and makes you look like you are over committed, not a good idea in construction especially (I come from a long line of builders).
Email is a great way to bring people back and keep them connected with your brand - but always, always put yourself in the shoes of the recipient and ask: what's in it for me? Encourage people to register for your email database by offering free tips/advice, and if that doesn't work, go the old fashioned route: a contest.
It may not work in your business...but email coupons are a good way to go too. Find a complimentary business to your own and offer coupons in your e-blasts. And of course make sure you are CAN-SPAM compliant by making opt-outs easy...your job is to make them <b>not want to</b> opt out.
Paula A.
Web Designer + Online Marketing Consultant
Best Answers in: Occupational Training (1), Internet Marketing (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Hi Lindsay,
First things first. By now you know who your key audience is and you are offering content that is solid, valuable and relevant to them.
Then, there are some tactics that you can easily implement that can raise your site stickiness:
a. Premium content: offer a white paper to visitors that authenticate allowing you to capture information about them.
b. Every event is news. Post your project progress on the site for up-to-date content freshness. Also, start writing press releases about you and use an online distribution service.
c. Find your Evangelists: identify who the key bloggers are in your industry and pitch them your story. Then let them do the talking.
d. Become an expert: offer valuable tips, insights that will make visitors come back. The key is to solve their "pain." Looking at your referral keywords could be a good place to start. Identify what they are looking for and analyze the behavior to see if you are addressing the void.
e. Competition Analysis: what do they have that you don't? How are presenting themselves differently? What is your niche? Are you bringing enough visibility to it?
Last but not least, optimize and/or redesign your website if needed.
Best of luck,
Paula Austin
Exciting, relevant, informative VIDEOS!
Ever since the video-sharing giant YouTube hit the scene and was bought out by Google, businesses have taken this opportunity to create low production cost commercials that were informative, entertaining, and viral in order to drive tons of traffic back to their site.
Once you've accomplished that, a strong CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Strategy is in order. Document and analyze that traffic you get to your site. Make sure you provide some method in getting those leads to give you their contact information, so you can start a Drip Marketing campaign where you inform, educate, and nurture those leads to become customers.
Hopefully this was helpful.
More Answers (14)
Driving traffic is one thing, but once you get them, you want them coming back - and the only way to do that is to produce relevant, unique, quality, free content on a regular basis.
So, start a blog. Use all of the obvious web 2.0/social media sites available. And produce the previously discussed content.
The simple answer to this would be to offer a good service that adds enough value at a reasonable price to keep them returning. The core service and the pricing will play an important role.
Of course the key aspect would be the User Experience. It is one thing to have a good service but another to "serve" it well. Usability, clean design and the general "feeling" the user gets after using the service must be taken care off with proper User Experience design.
For web based services, user convenience is also very important. Make sure you have a mobile version. Make sure the user can get RSS feeds into Outlook (or whichever reader he/she uses). Make sure user can opt in for newsletter or periodical alerts via email. In short make sure you reach the user at his/her convenience.
Support. Quick, accurate, helpful support always adds that little extra that make users feel welcome. It also ensures that users can actually use your service effectively. Your clients are paying their hard earned money, they deserve proper support. The importance of proper support can never be stressed enough, especially if the product is technical keeping the average user in mind.
I think I've covered some of the general points that apply to all. Of course this is not an exhaustive list and there's always scope for doing more.
One method we have developed and employed is to utilize personalized URLs to create targeted microsites and campaigns where content is dynamically generated and relevant to the specific visitor/prospect/customer/etc. In doing so, we have seen dramatic increases in conversion rates not only for our own efforts, but our clients as well.
Links:
Christopher W.
Manager of Marketing & Communications at The Pittsburgh Foundation
Best Answers in: Internet Marketing (1), Viral Marketing (1)
Engaging content and enough of it is my simple answer.
If you have something of interest, then other sites will link to it, bloggers will mention it, and visitors will come back for it.. Content can come in many forms.
It could be informative:
Editorial
Research
Technical Papers
Tools
Software
Valuable resources
It can be entertaining:
Multimedia
Podcasts
Videos
Humor
Contests
Free Swag
The key is to make it engaging, interesting and valuable to an audience.
After you have the appropriate content, don’t forget to get the word out. Utilize press releases, which can also create a link back to your site from a variety of places. Find bloggers that would find your content of interest and politely let them know about it. Don’t forget to integrate where appropriate with traditional marketing programs as well.
To put it in simple words, give them what they came originally for... the quality service.
Betsy G.
PHP/Javascript Engineer
Best Answers in: Web Development (17), E-Commerce (2), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Internet Marketing (1), Project Management (1), Software Development (1)
The best way to bring people to your site is to publish the domain name in many places and ways, not necessarily just on the web.
I would be less concerned with returning visitors if the site communicates your company's message well enough to convert them to clients.
Links:
Doing what you just did creates traffic for your site. Each person who read the question went your linkedin and looked at the site. However, the question really is ... is that relevant traffic? The first question is: What will traffic do for you on the website that you can't get from other media or face to face interaction? What is the strategy? If you are looking for that one person with deep pockets to sign up with you to build their business' building, that will be a difficult person to find. You are better off advertising via the web. Service's like construction need a website solely as a modern business card, people interested in your company immediately go to the web and research your website. If your purpose is branding, then as someone previously noted, it is best to engage people with your company. Transparency into your team, the interesting projects that you are doing can set you apart from the competition. Agree to be interviewed on nitch blogs, etc. However, again, traffic is not usually important to a service site like this unless it is a landing page for an advertisement. If you want to advertise, use adsense in this case b/c of the nitch nature of your service.
The best way is to ensure your service can be found through the major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and MSN in this order at least you are located in Asia where the order differs).
Ensure you have a clear strategy both in PPC and Natural search and once you do work hard in making your services worth the visit of the user and worth their attention by creating a great landing page that in a second provides the user the answer to their original query. Remember, a search query is a call to action and thus you must answer to the best of your ability to the user's query.
Add value, based on your area of expertise.
You are already an expert and a pro (70 years) in construction (judging from your website). In fact you have all the tools you need to get repeat traffic - What We Do, How We Do It, What's New (The Newsletter). These are things that 'repeaters,' will want to see.
IMHO, move the What's New (PDF Content) to the landing page, make it prominent, and keep updating it with nice pictures so that there is something new all the time. While the Profile is important, what is more important for people to see is how your company is handling other projects. Good for business development.
Lynn D.
at University of Kansas, School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Best Answers in: Facilities Management (2), Event Marketing and Promotions (1)
Lindsay:
You have received some great answers already, but I would like to comment that in our A/E/C industry, the most important thing to remember is what is important to your customers.
Your customers are the same as our customers (and we have worked successfully on many projects together): business owners that want a facility to meet their needs at a good price. Some of the questions they want answers to are:
1) How can they save money on the cost of construction?
2) How can they build or remodel their facility in the fastest way possible, while still getting quality construction?
3) How can they improve their employee productivity?
4) How can they improve their employee morale?
There are many ways that you can answer these questions for your customers:
1) You can highlight a project where you utilized a building information model to implement a new steel structure for the facility that saved them over $1 million in the overall cost of the facility.
2) You could have your staff write a technical paper or white paper on how to effectively measure materials used in construction for the life cycle of the building; which over time will save an Owner money.
3) You could post a daily, weekly, or some routine blog that gives energy saving tips to your customers, or post a yearly calendar that they can download which will remind them to change their furnace and air filters or re-caulk their window sills to save money in energy bills.
4) You could post a copy of a magazine article that shows Owners how the most efficient daylighting used in the design of their facility will improve employee morale and productivity.
When you provide content on your website that answers these questions for Owners, combined with the superior service you already provide, users will find that your site is a valuable resource and keep coming back.
There have already been several great suggestions on how to get people coming back to your site through promotions, another good idea is to promote your site with permission-based emails. You could include some of the content ideas I mentioned here in your newsletter and direct people to your website for additional information. I would suggest that you post a low-resolution version of your newsletter online (your current newsletter was over 8megs and took a bit to download on my old dinosaur); and whatever you email to customers, make sure it is a smaller sized file.
Whatever you do, make sure you are consistent and timely with your information. Best of luck, and call with any questions.
--Lynn
Thought leading content written for your buyer personas, speaking directly to their unresolved problem statements and not features and benefits
Links:
If you are selling a Service, set up an information site that provide free and relevant info to your customers. The constantly updated content will keep yur core customers coming back and eventually you will score high rankings on the search engines over many keywords as well.
This website explains EXACTLY how to do this for your specific niche, choose all the correct keywords, build a site around them, rank highly in the Engines and keep customers coming back. It really will answer all of your questions:
http://www.sitesell.com/WebmasterSales.html
Links:
Edward D.
Enterprise Architect, with emphasis on formal project management for IT
Best Answers in: Computers and Software (1)
Unleash a viral software program to force people to your site. ;-)
I'm being snarky and hyperbolic for a reason: Web traffic is a means, not an end. The goal is NOT to drive traffic _per se_. It's to increase name recognition, trust, sales, and satisfaction -- very traditional goals.
Ask yourself how you do that now. What are the major obstacles? What are the keys that help you close deals? Start with what you already know about your prospect qualification and development process.
Do you attend trade shows or similar events to gain mindshare? If so, apply those principles to your site.
Perhaps prospects are starting to deluge you with questions about environmentally-friendly construction. Could you find enough material to create a weekly blog/mailing? If so, launch a "Keen on Green" (or whatever you want to call it) column.
Do you have excellent Project Management talent? If good scheduling and resource allocation have helped thwart potential waste, thus saving your customers substantial time and money, prospects would appreciate knowing.
Are there opportunities for time-saving and feel-good features? If you're already using Project Pro + Project Server (or similar competing products), perhaps customers could have read-only intranet access to their respective projects' statuses.
Look at your company's financials: What are the non-COGS things that cost you money? There's a good chance that they have to do with sales or administration (SG&A), including customer service. Search for opportunities to create win-win (satisfy customers and save you money) situations via your site.
Consider creating an Internet-based community with forums. It's very telling that you posted here: You consider LinkedIn a worthwhile resource for your question. Shouldn't your prospects be going to your site?
Have realistic expectations; the average person finds limited intrigue in construction. *grin* If a little humor is in line with company culture, consider a tongue-in-cheek blurb about how your site offers the most fun that anyone can ever have with rebar and concrete.
Offer, but do not force. (Quick example: Why do some sites demand that contact form fields be filled in? People who do not wish to answer will go elsewhere, or provide false data. That serves neither vendor nor customer/prospect.) Allow people to browse your site, and also to contact you directly. Put your telephone number on each page, too.
Finally, think outside the box: Look at a management paper or textbook, such _The Toyota Way_. Read every paragraph with the intent of forcing it on your site. Many concepts might be square peg and round hole, but you might be surprised at the ideas you get along the way.
Linsay,
To answer your question, Find something that would add value to your referral source. We found that the insurance industry is required to take continuing education classes to maintain their insurance licence. I went through the process of getting certified with the state of Kansas and then put a schedule of classes on our website. The website schedule of classes is to register. To accually get the continuing education credit, and the KCE4 form you would have to attend one of our classes at one of our locations. I have found that not only am I getting a lot more website traffic, but I am getting the people who send me work through our front door. I update our website every couple of months and usually have enough classes to provide a year at a glance.
