3 reasons your industrial site isn’t converting prospects into customers

The formula for a successful industrial web presence is constantly changing. No matter how much time and money you invest in your website build, simply having a website live is not enough in today’s global marketplace. If no one is visiting your expensive, thoughtfully designed, and attractive website, you may be left scratching your head and wondering why.

One of the main things we hear constantly is a variation on this sentence:

“I want my website to be at the top/first page of the Google search.”

Everyone does. Getting there is a whole lot more difficult than you would think it would be. Also, from that simple statement or desire, the focus of your site shifts a bit from focusing only on what it looks like to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I mean, why build a site if no one can find it? However, is that singular focus correct? Not exactly, which is why SEO can be rather complicated. Driving traffic to your industrial website is only half of the battle. The other half consists of converting that web traffic into qualified leads and actual customers.

If you completely ignore the user’s experience as well as the overall layout and visuals on your site in favor of SEO-only practices you will end up with a very clunky website with very poor user experience that no one will stay on to read your content. You need to strike a true balance between a nicely designed site where the user’s experience truly comes first and peppered with thoughtful SEO practices in order to have a high-ranking website.

Let’s explore this a bit further. The following are the three key areas a lot of industrial manufacturers fail to focus on to improve their SEO.

The “sales funnel” doesn’t start on your website

The sales funnel, also sometimes referred to as the purchase funnel or buyer’s journey, is a term marketers use to describe the process of gaining new business through a “customer journey” from awareness of your company or offering to action or purchase. The process of catching someone’s eye online and getting them onto your website doesn’t start on your website, it starts somewhere else. That starting location can be a trade directory, social media feed, a partner company, articles you have posted, webinars, video content, or (more often than not) an online ad you placed. There is a reason that online advertising providers (like Google and Facebook) make billions in ad revenue – ads work. If you aren’t running search engine or social ads, you may want to start. These ads are typically the first time a prospect has been introduced to your company or product or service. From there they will go to your site or landing page seeking more information about you or your offering. They don’t start on your website.

What is my website truly good for then?

You spent a lot of time and money making a nice company website… but was it worth it? Yes! Your site’s existence, how it looks, and the information it contains is critical; however, it doesn’t exist for your buyers for the reasons you may think that it does.

Honestly, no one is on your site specifically to look at how lovely the design is and websites rarely attract users based on how cool the layout or the video intro is. That being said, your site still needs to look as amazing as possible – it is your company’s virtual “face” on the web. First impressions count and if your site looks like it was designed 10 years ago with an outdated look and feel and no new content, odds are high that the visitor will simply click away and leave. Keep in mind that in many cases your website will be what a prospect will judge your company on before they make contact with you (if they make contact with you) so it better look good and has new content that speaks directly to them.

Your website is really there for three reasons:

1. Giving someone easy access to your contact information
2. Helping prospects learn about a product or service
3. Guiding people to sign up for something or ordering your products and services

No one cares to hear about how great you feel you are

Websites full of nothing more than self-aggrandizement will be ignored by search engines and most of your potential customers. We aren’t saying it is bad to toot your own horn occasionally but the main content on your site should focus on how you or your product or your service helps your customers and how you ease their pain points, not on how wonderful you feel your offerings are. Your industrial prospect’s conversion to paying customers will suffer, or outright fail, if your site’s content fails to address their specific pain points. You MUST provide the content they need (white papers, blog articles, case studies, videos, demos, testimonials, etc.) to help them make their buying decision.

If your site has already been optimized for SEO (proper meta information, titles, keywords and phrases, etc.) and it is still not bringing in the business that it should, it is time to focus on the content to make it the best it can be for the engineers and buyers you are sending there. The next step after that will be to explore the options available to you to drive more traffic to your site. Consider starting a new social media ad campaign or maybe a new industry directory ad to send people to your new content.

All industrial – all the time!

With over 30 years of experience, The Rico Group specializes in helping industrial manufacturers and job shops grow their business and diversify their customer base. We are your bolt-on marketing department. Our solutions give you the full capabilities of an in-house marketing department at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire a full-time marketing crew. We know how engineers think and what they are looking for. We know your processes, equipment, and materials. We also know that you have very little time to take away from your production and getting your customer’s orders delivered.

Interested to see what your current digital marketing efforts are really doing for your company?

We offer a free comprehensive analysis of your company’s online marketing to give you insights into what your true digital footprint is and how you can improve it. The report also comes with an in-depth competitor analysis and a free expert consultation to review the report with you and answer any questions you may have.

Also, please grab a free copy of our comprehensive digital marketing success guide to help you accelerate your job shop’s growth. The guide walks you through the process of generating more qualified leads for your industrial manufacturing company.

Our industrial clients swear by our strategies – because they work.

Grow your manufacturing business with better marketing with The Rico Group.

www.thericogroup.com

 (805) 497-7401