CMA's blog has moved!

 As part of a year-long celebration of CMA's 25th anniversary, we have recently redesigned our website. Please go to www.CMACentralBlog.com to follow our blog from now on. Be sure to update your RSS links - this RSS feed will no longer provide blog updates. Thank you for reading!

Introducing a Series of Helpful Hints for Marketing Success!

In celebration of CMA’s 25^th anniversary in 2012, we will be bringing you weekly posts with a “how to” theme to help pass on the knowledge that has kept our clients thriving for 25 years. You’ll hear from a variety of staff members – each are experts in their own fields. We hope you enjoy our new initiative to bring you the most useful information to aid in your success in 2012.

How to Turn Your Website into a Lead Generator

With Matt Kulcsar, Interactive Art Designer

 A corporate website needs to be more than just a static, marketing piece. Your website should be a dynamic lead generation tool.   If your website is not powering your growth or reinforcing your brand than its time to consider a website refresh to maximize your online presence.  Keep these simple tips in mind when you look to enhance your website in 2012: 

Be precise.  Pretty much every website has standard analytics built-in but few users are tapping into the data to help take them to the next level.  Make sure you log in regularly to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can take action.  The design of your website should be flexible so you can easily make adjustments based on the insights from your review of the sites stats. Content management systems are usually the most cost-effective platforms that allow for on the fly updating.

Be engaging. Get to know your target audience better by finding out what means the most to them.  Incorporating an interactive survey or problem/solution component into your website will give you valuable insights into your customers needs and also help them find the content they are looking for on your site. Be careful and don’t overwhelm your audience. Engagement doesn’t mean unnecessary bells and whistles with no real purpose. Interactivity is the key to connecting to your audience and drawing them into your site.

Be clear.  You won’t be able to convert a website visitor to a qualified lead if they don’t stay on your site for very long.  You have maybe ten seconds to grab a visitor’s attention and draw them in to your website.  One step towards keeping traffic on your site is to make it easy for them to find what they need.  Navigation needs to be straightforward, intuitive and descriptive.  Using non-traditional navigation through the use of imagery and other techniques can guide users smoothly through your site to a conversion.

Be relevant.  Content is still king as long as it speaks to your target audience and it’s optimized for search engine performance.   Here’s where the analytics come in again.  Study up to see which pages have high traffic and which pages are low performers. Evaluate if the content needs to be enhanced or are you getting a message from your customers about what they are really interested in.

Be analytical.  In real estate the key is “Location! Location! Location!” but the mantra online is “Data! Data! Data!”.  The common thread that runs through all of these topics is analysis of your data. You need to have the right tools in place and the right people who can interpret and implement needed action. Site traffic has to be understood on the granular level in order to understand the finicky patterns of today’s web users.