Domain? Check. Hosting? Check. Design? Check. Launch? Check. Done? Nope.
Launching a new website for your business is a great kick-start to your online marketing strategy, especially if you’ve gone to a lot of trouble making sure it’s well designed, responsive and populated with useful, engaging content. The thing about kick-starters, though, is their effects often lack the longevity needed for maintaining a successful business.
Your website is just the beginning; a seed, if you will. You’ll need to nurture it, grow it and give it the odd prune every now and then if it’s going to become the evergreen success you want it to be.
Enough of the gardening analogies; here’s how to follow up your website launch to support your online marketing strategy:
Track and evaluate performance
Getting it absolutely right first time round is incredibly rare, so tracking and evaluating the performance of your website is crucial to ensure it’s doing the job you built it for.
The best place to start is with Google Analytics, a free and incredibly insightful web analytics platform which lets you monitor everything from user visits, time spent on-site and number of conversions. You can also track the success of your sales funnels and locate and rectify issues within your website that could be damaging to user experience.
Other paid tools you can use include Hotjar and Clicktale, which carry a lot of the same features as Google Analytics with additional functions such as user feedback polls, heatmaps and session replays to drill down further into the performance of your website.
Only with constant analytics can you make sure your site stays functional, relevant and dynamic, so don’t skip this step.
Run some A/B testing
Are your analytics throwing up mysterious user drop-outs along your conversion funnel or a drop in click-through rates? A/B testing to the rescue!
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is the process of comparing two different versions of a web page to determine which one performs better for your specific conversion goals. Variances can be as subtle as a button being a different colour, or they can be as significant as two completely different page layouts.
Whatever you’re comparing, you will be able to collect data about specific sections of your site and make informed improvements based on the results. Ideal if you’re struggling to pinpoint issues based purely on your analytics.
Run some usability testing
Another worthwhile method of testing the quality of your site is running some usability testing sessions. Particularly useful during the development and launch phase, usability testing simply monitors users as they perform certain tasks on your website, and records any difficulties they may have.
You can use eye-tracking software to analyse the visual appeal of your site and see whether your site structure is leading people through the conversion funnel efficiently or not.
You can also use ‘hallway testing’ which asks a random selection of people to carry out tasks on your website without having ever used it before, which will tell you how easy to use the site is from the perspective of real users.
You can even use remote testing software to measure the experiences of people in different countries and time zones, which is especially useful if your website is designed to reach and be understood by audiences on a global scale.
Invest in content marketing
Content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound marketing, and costs 62% less, so it’s a total no-brainer. Once you’re confident that your website is performing well on a technical level, you should turn your attention to implementing an ongoing content marketing strategy to capitalise on these benefits.
Content marketing can take many forms, including blog posts, guest blogging, infographics, live video, how-to guides, newsletters, podcasts and eBooks. Depending on your business model, goals and target market, these methods can help you reach and engage with your audience and add some real value to their on-site experience while also boosting SEO performance.
If you’re already well-versed in marketing techniques you can run content marketing campaigns yourself, or you can enlist the help of a digital agency to assist you with everything from planning and creating content to promoting it online.
Monitor for new technology
If the last 20 years have taught us anything it’s that technology evolves quickly, so you need to be monitoring for any developments that might help boost your website performance and marketing efforts to avoid being left behind.
Changes in Google’s algorithms can mean you need to update your website accordingly – the great mobile-friendly update panic of 2015 is a good example of this – so these are well worth keeping an eye out for if you want to stay up to date.
Other new technology, such as the emergence of new social media platforms, apps, wearable tech, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can and will have a significant part to play in marketing techniques and communication with audiences – so keep at least one ear to the ground at all times.
Evolve with new business goals
It’s natural for businesses to evolve and grow as they adapt to the changing world around them, so you need to bear this in mind when designing and maintaining your website. You may decide you want to add a whole new service to your existing repertoire, or change the direction of your business altogether, in which case you’ll need to update your site accordingly.
When you’re designing your website or working with your web design agency, make sure you’re bearing in mind the potential need for future expansion and adaptation. This way, you’ll be able to respond to any changes in your business goals and continue sending out the right messages to your customers.
Experiment with lead generation
Did you know that around 96% of new website visitors are nowhere near ready to make a purchase? So, as you can imagine, setting up your website and then sitting back hoping to watch the sales roll in is a tactic that just isn’t going to work.
Luckily, there is help at hand. Lead generation platforms, such as Lead Forensics, A1WebStats and WhoIsVisiting, are clever pieces of software that can help you transform your inbound traffic into sales leads, optimise your sales funnels and collect valuable data about your customers to analyse and learn from.
These are powerful tools and can transform your marketing campaigns into real money spinners with a little practice, so it’s well worth trialling them out on your own website and seeing the results for yourself.
In today’s rapidly growing and fluctuating business market, standing still simply isn’t an option. New businesses are born with every passing hour, and launching a website is one of the first ports of call. But don’t let it be your last. Keep growing, keep changing and, most importantly, keep learning.
Angela Roche is the founder and Creative Director of Design By Day – A design and digital studio based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.