{"id":1458,"date":"2020-01-10T15:52:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:35","slug":"make-your-website-a-marketing-asset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/make-your-website-a-marketing-asset\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Your Website A Marketing Asset"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You see it all the time \u2014 on digital ads, on billboards or even on business cards: \u201cVisit us online at XYZCorp.com.” <\/p>\n

It looks like a complete sentence, but it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n

On some level, customers need to see the website URL in that sentence followed by the word \u201cbecause,\u201d along with a reason to visit. A URL on its own doesn\u2019t mean much. <\/p>\n

When the Internet first took off, companies often went ahead with designing a website<\/a> only when it helped serve a specific business strategy, like selling goods online via e-commerce. <\/p>\n

Today, you don\u2019t see a lot of press releases announcing a new website. It\u2019s become as standard as having a physical mailing address or a phone number. <\/p>\n

Unlike those things, however, a website is more than just an online presence for a business. <\/p>\n

A website may be a place where your customers can access or be exposed to a lot of content marketing<\/a> assets, from white papers and case studies and infographics and blog posts. It\u2019s not just a collection of assets, though. It\u2019s an asset in its own right.<\/p>\n

A website represents a unique way to showcase your mission, vision and values, along with the full scope of the customer experience you\u2019re trying to offer and the products and services that are part of it. <\/p>\n

Of course, most companies may have had a website up and running for some time already, so you may not be in a position to start from scratch from a marketing perspective. <\/p>\n

Instead, it might be better to conduct a sort of digital check-up to see if your site is delivering everything it can in terms of brand awareness, demand generation and customer retention and satisfaction. <\/p>\n

Step one: find all your \u2018front doors\u2019 \u2014 and make sure they\u2019re welcoming<\/h2>\n

As much as you may promote your website URL across various channels, your home page is not necessarily the first place the majority of your site visitors will land. <\/p>\n

Given that most traffic likely comes through search engines or social media, some of the first impressions customers and prospects make<\/a> will be based upon other pages instead. These could be product and service pages, blog posts or even your \u201cAbout Us\u201d and \u201cContact Us\u201d pages. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re focused on driving interest and conversion around particular products or offers, you\u2019ll want to make sure there are quick and simple ways to encourage visitors who land on these pages to navigate to the areas you want. Sidebars and other widgets are one way to tackle this, as are simple call-outs or interstitials that greet visitors when they first arrive. <\/p>\n

Rather than leaving such things to chance, create landing pages that help steer visitors towards a particular customer journey. <\/p>\n

A landing page could promote a particular asset, like a guide or eBook, and include a form to capture information for sales leads. Visitors can not only get the asset they want but be driven to other critical areas of your website, like your most popular product pages. <\/p>\n

Step two: treat SEO upkeep the way you would a reception area<\/h2>\n

No one would want customers to arrive at their office and find the lobby littered with discarded coffee cups or magazines strewn carelessly about. Even worse would be business cards of competitors lying on a coffee table. <\/p>\n

Search engine optimization (SEO) is similar to a reception area in that it\u2019s how you set up your site to be introduced to the world. It involves making sure you\u2019ve included keywords and keyword phrases everywhere you need so that when customers search for terms, you\u2019ll be ranked in the first page of results.<\/p>\n

There are lots of free resources online to get up to speed on SEO fundamentals<\/a>, but the biggest mistake is treating it as a one-time initiative. Instead, the most successful firms constantly review and update areas including: <\/p>\n