Ten Tips to Creating a Website That Will Improve Prospect Conversion and Engagement, Part One

There is a great deal of marketing guidance out there on what MSPs can do to help drive new leads into their organization. One thing that is going to make all the difference in the world between a prospect reaching out and engaging with you, or clicking that back button, is making sure your website is the very best that it can be.

Many marketing experts agree that the most important asset MSPs have at their disposal from a marketing perspective is their website. Unfortunately, it is often the asset that is the most overlooked and could potentially be harming your MSP’s sales success, not helping it.

Consider the buying journey of a potential prospect. Or, if it helps, think about your own habits and buying journey when you are looking to purchase something. I can predict with 99% certainty that visiting a company’s website would be step one of your process.

How do you react if you don’t like what you see? For me, if I am researching a new business to purchase from and their website doesn’t immediately give me the right impression, I move on. I bet you do too. I also know that your prospects will too!

Did you know? It takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not—whether they’ll stay or leave.

So why is it that so many MSPs put such little thought, time, and energy into something that could be so incredibly powerful in helping to build their business?

If you feel that your website is not helping your sales efforts, it may be time for a refresh.

But what makes for a good website design that encourages prospects to reach out and connect? Over the next two blogs, I’m going to look at 10 things you can do to ensure your website is as engaging as it can be. Here are tips one to five:

1. Know thy customer

Who is your ideal client that you prefer to deal with? What industry are they in? What do they desire from their business? What are they struggling with currently?

The more focused your website can be on addressing the business challenges facing your ideal client, the stronger the connection your prospect will have with your organization and the more likely they will want to engage with you further.

2. Have an attention-grabbing headline and prominently displayed value proposition statement

Don’t be generic here. Create this content with the firm knowledge of who you want to do business with. Spend time developing a compelling value proposition statement and test that statement for its emotional appeal with everyone in your inner circle—peers, family, friends, customers, even prospects. Gauge how it resonates with your focus group and if it entices them to remain on your website and poke around for a bit. You could also consider getting an independent review from an outside organization to really understand how you are being perceived online. Mark Copeman from Wisecurve offers a service specifically for MSPs—wisecurvehq.com/review.

3. Keep it Clean and easy to read and navigate

Don’t make your website menu-heavy or have pages with large amounts of text.

Keep things simple and keep your website copy targeted to what the benefits and the outcomes are that the prospect can expect to receive by partnering with you. Revisit Tip #1—keep your target audience in mind as you write your copy. Your target client is non-technical in nature, and they are looking for a company to help solve the business-related challenges they are experiencing. So, focus on that. Don’t fill your pages with products and their features, as that is not what your target audience is interested in.

4. Fix the broken stuff and be mobile ready

Nothing is more frustrating than visiting a poorly designed website or viewing a website where care and attention is obviously lacking. Again, poor attention to detail will cause prospects to immediately judge and question your business’s skill sets and capabilities.

Your website and online presence are an extension of your business and should be viewed as such. Have a critical eye and be sure to fix broken links or pages that take a long time to load.

Be sure too that your website is mobile-friendl, so that a business owner can clearly and easily read everything no matter what device they using. Google will thank you for it too—their index is famously mobile-first. If you don’t get mobile right, you will be penalized.

5. Ensure it is SEO sound

Make sure you have an understanding of the core keywords that are the most relevant and searched for in your industry and the industries you are targeting, then make sure those words are utilized prominently throughout your website.

If you don’t have a list of keywords, there is a high likelihood that your website isn’t as optimized as it could be for search engines, thereby making it more challenging for your MSP to be found by prospects.

SEO optimization is an art and is best handled by working with an SEO professional. As a business owner however, you should understand the basics.

The more visitors arrive at your site, the greater the chances are that meetings will be booked, increasing the chances of converting them into newly signed contract clients.

Look out for part two of this blog where I’ll cover the remaining five tips.

Your website may not be the sole reason why you might be struggling with your lead gen and revenue numbers, but it is definitely a good place to start when looking to make overall improvements, so be sure to register for my April office hours to get some expert advice.

Stefanie Hammond is head sales and marketing nerd at N‑able. You can follow her on LinkedIn and on Twitter at @sales_mktg_nerd.