When they talk about their websites, I find that marketing people fall into two groups: One group thinks their website is awful. The other group is in the midst of re-doing it. They’re unhappy about a lot of things with their website: the way it looks, the number of visitors it attracts, the volume and quality of the leads it collects, and sometimes the number of solutions it sells.
They expect their website to play a big part in finding customers… but it’s not getting the job done.
Don’t fixate on the wrong problem
But it may be that for all their moaning about their website, these folks are actually fixating on the wrong culprit. If they’re falling short on marketing and sales goals, obsessing about what’s wrong with the website might not be the best fix.
In fact, it may be distracting them from the real problems.
After all, the website is just one piece of the marketing mix. For most B-to-B software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, vendors need to work with prospects through a long process with multiple steps.
Yes, nearly all prospects will spend some amount of time on the website. But it’s really just one part of a comprehensive customer acquisition strategy.
Look upstream and downstream from the website
At the front end of the process, there need to be programs that drive prospects people to the website. Social media campaigns, blogs, PR, events, and direct mail might play a part in building visibility and driving traffic.
And then things need to be done after prospects leave the site. Programs need to follow up with prospective customers and nurture the leads captured on the website. Email, webinars, and white papers might be part of these efforts that nudge people forward with their evaluation.
For more expensive or complicated solutions, prospects will often want to talk to someone at the company before they buy. A trained sales team and even support engineers may need to be part of the effort to win the business.
Even after the solution’s been purchased, there’s still more marketing work to be done. SaaS companies need to get people to actually use the solution, renew their subscription, and upgrade.
At each of these steps, the website often plays only a bit role. It’s other marketing programs that need to do the heavy lifting.
The website can't do everything
I talk with a lot of SaaS companies that are eager to acquire more customers. Often the first thing they say to me is something like: “My website isn’t working. I need to fix it.”
The first thing they want to do is streamline navigation, add more effective “calls-to-action,” or post videos or a blog.
All of those might be good ideas. There’s almost always room for improvement.
But if all they do is some work on the website, they’ll probably be disappointed.
Don’t blame the website
To fix a broken customer acquisition process usually means more than just fixing the website.
There are likely problems upstream from the website: a lack of visibility so that few people find their way to the site.
And there are problems downstream as well: no follow up with the prospects after they visit the site and poor programs for retaining customers.
Fixing those broader problems requires a hard look at the entire customer acquisition process from end to end.
Don’t blame the website. It can’t do the job all by itself.
