In the ever-changing world of web design, we often get distracted by the newest trends, the hottest colors, or cool innovative animations (really, the list is endless.) Looking beyond these shiny new trends, it is important to remember, what is the main purpose of a website?
To generate business and gain a stronger digital footprint online.
A shiny new website is great, but what’s the point of your investment if it is not achieving ROI? At BUHV Designs, we’ve incorporated the “Sales Funnel Focused” design method to ensure our clients achieve their website goals, and we accomplish this by monopolizing on a few important design fundamentals.
Lead Generation through a Sales Funnel with Engaging Content
Every day, you’re likely bombarded with 15 different lead generation emails sent to you by various Gmail accounts, outsourced companies overseas, and legitimate business interests. Most of these emails are bad, and some might work, but ultimately are they worth your time? Probably not. With the vast amount of email leads hitting inboxes daily, there has to be a greater focus on what will actually generate your business, well, business.
So. Outside of traditional word-of-mouth referrals and your sales team, what’s the best way to generate leads? The Internet! But to gain leads from the web, you have to understand what is first required from having an elegant website combined with fantastic digital marketing. To understand the process of generating leads from your website, we need to first understand the process of the prospect from a digital perspective. The following sales process is how the majority of prospects use a digital presence in their decision making:
- Prospect has a need
- Prospect discovers companies that offer their need through SEO
- Prospect visits website
- Prospect funnels through the website and makes the decision to contact because of engaging content, site architecture, and proper call-to-actions (CTA’s)
- A lead is generated and passed to the internal sales team
- Prospects determine to buy or not
Let’s use BUHV Designs as an example. A prospect uses the search term “Denver Website Design” and results list companies relevant to the search term using SEO.
BUHV Designs is located in the local pack of search results but also listed in the organic results below the local pack:
(Notice how Zenman and BUHV Designs have switched spots in results. This is very common, and Google changes positions of results frequently through algorithmic changes, but that’s another discussion.)
Now that the prospect has companies to choose from, the research process begins. This research might be looking over reviews and search results, calling other businesses, etc. but 99% of the time it starts with the website. So the prospect visits the website. What next? How do they convert into a lead?
Relevancy, engaging content, site architecture, aesthetics and the sales funnel focused method. Each of these various features can intimately influence a prospect’s decision to move forward with their research or leave your site altogether. For example, where your site flow might make perfect sense, the content could be boring as all get out resulting in someone leaving before they even navigate to the second menu option.
Let’s venture back to BUHV Designs. As seen below, the first image presented showcases clean and elegant design plus the end-user can easily understand what we do:
As you scroll through the website, the sales funnel focused design starts to unfold. The questions that exist in the prospect’s mind answered without them having to look around confusedly. What services are performed?
Are they credible?
Are they the right fit and how do I contact them?
At this point, the prospect is beginning to make the decision to either contact your business or continue the research process. If you make the cut, and the decision is made, this is when your site should easily navigate them to the contact process. An easy contact process means a new lead has now been generated by your internal sales team (or a sale of your product!), and you start your normal internal sales process.
But it doesn’t end there.
The beauty of a sales funnel focused design style is that you’re not only limited to the Internet. Your sales folks can take this process with them out into the field and use it as a tool to sell your product or service. A well-designed website can be utilized as such of a sales folder or brochure that you walk through with your prospects.
To Recap:
- Like anything in sales, your prospect has a need.
- They find businesses that can perform the need and begin their research process.
- SEO and digital reputation play a huge role in the “finding” process.
- They visit the businesses website
- They become engaged in the content, and the website answers the questions they are looking for
- The website earns the trust of the prospect
- The prospect contacts the business through various call-to-actions or buys the product immediately
- The internal sales process begins with an online lead generation
Bringing It All Together
Sales-funnel web design is not just a “cutting edge” trend or the next big thing you will hear about time and time again. Creating strong sales funnels is a mandatory part of any website to ensure all the money you are investing in new and shiny features delivers ROI. A sales funnel is not just one thing, however, so be careful of anyone who promises you they can generate online leads by skipping on the content or trying to add fancy site features that negate one of these features.
Having worked in the web design and online marketing industry for years, we get it there is a lot to consider. Get in touch today to learn more about how BUHV helps our clients create sales funnels that make our client’s work shine through and allows them to focus on converting leads instead of constantly stressing about what is happening with their online presence!
