It Starts with Knowing Who Is Playing in Your Sandbox
Sun Tzu says, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Fortunately, businesses do not have to dodge arrows or bullets when competing for new customers online. This quote holds true even today, especially for businesses competing in highly competitive web markets. Companies that counter their competitors’ web efforts can create a competitive advantage and win web dominance in the markets they serve.
Ironically, the current Yellow Pages delivered last week in Denver is subtitled “The Original Search Engine” and is a prime example of could have, would have and should have. Now, most consumers immediately put it into the recycle bin. They instead use web searches to find tree, plumbing, garage door, and other services for their homes and businesses.
Since Google replaced Yellow Pages, professional service companies now compete online for new customers. Why? The most popular websites get the most clicks, and this web traffic can convert into leads and jobs. Companies with a dominant web presence get more leads than their competitors, making them more recession-proof and smoothing out any seasonality in their business. Over the last ten years, some of the most web-savvy companies in Denver are Brothers Plumbing and Don’s Garage Door. They were the first to understand the importance of being found online. On the other hand, Ross Tree Company gained dominance in the Denver tree service market by unseating its competitors over the last three years with an aggressive web marketing effort.
How Valuable is a Prominent Web Presence?
“It depends,” according to Steven Bell, Principal of Iron Wheel Solutions, a Denver-based business brokerage company. “For a company’s web presence to have value, companies need processes to track the conversion of leads into sales. The sales generated by leads add value to a company, not the marketing investment to produce them.” Tracking can be a homegrown process or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Some CRMs are industry-specific. For example, Arbor Gold is popular with tree companies, while some plumbers use FieldEdge. Many remodelers and construction companies use Buildertrend. Companies use these systems to follow up on leads and manage customer relationships. If they do not, the leads can go to waste. Justifying a significant web marketing investment becomes easier if web leads and sales are tracked and measured.
Web-savvy companies track sales by lead source and can generate reports on how many sales each marketing activity produces. They use this information to calculate ROIs on each member of their marketing mix. They buy more productive marketing activities and cull all ineffective ones. Companies that do not track leads cannot calculate the value of their web marketing efforts. Instead, they focus on costs, and their attempt to build a web presence usually falters.
Web Site Designed for Conversion
Web lead generation starts with a professional, attractive website. Web design is both an art and a science. The art side makes the website attractive to the eye and has the right balance between text and graphics. It is easy to navigate and read. Visitors can determine the business’s value proposition within seconds because the company’s products/services jump off the page. The website contains helpful information and builds relationships with visitors, enticing them to return. These factors together make the website popular.
The science folds websites into the sales function of businesses. It uses best-in-class Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methodologies to help Google find and index all the pages of websites. The design encourages visitor behavior to convert, meaning they email, call, or fill out a form. Buttons and forms are moved around and tested until the desired conversion rate occurs. Web-savvy companies religiously use Google Analytics and other tools to measure conversion performance over time. Designers put much thought into the meta content of each page, and web page performance is analyzed each month to improve its ability to attract new customers.
What Does Content is King Mean?
The phrase “content is king” is not new. It came from an essay written by Bill Gates, retired Chairman of Microsoft, in 1996, where he predicted that content would become a key determinant of success on the web. It makes sense that when companies compete on the web for business, businesses that distinguish themselves by consistently delivering high-quality content for their websites, blogs, and social media platforms can eventually dominate the web markets in which they compete.
As Sun Tzu says, “…know yourself…” Blogs are a great way to create more indexable content about their company that overwhelms the competition. They must be sincere, well-written, and demonstrate a company’s knowledge and experience in their industry. Great content helps companies:
- Improve User Engagement
High-quality content tends to attract and retain users’ attention. It can encourage them to spend more time on a website or social media profile, interact with the content (like, share, comment), and even return in the future.
- Help SEO Efforts
Search engines like Google prioritize relevant and valuable content. High-quality websites improve search engine rankings, increasing visibility and organic traffic.
- Increase Brand Authority
Providing valuable content establishes a brand as an authority in its niche or industry. Websites with brand authority become trusted sources for information with customers returning, making them more popular.
At Downs Digital, we take copywriting seriously. We have written 1.5 million words for our customers’ websites, blogs, and social media platforms since September 2019. We take the time to understand our customers’ value proposition, products, and services to ensure we deliver high-quality content that resonates with their target audience.
Who Is Playing in Your Sandbox?
Today, no professional service company operates in a vacuum when competing on the web. There are probably a hundred or more competitors in each vertical market with websites in Denver. About ten percent of the companies try to build their web presence and attract new customers. They aim for first-page ranking on search results to be noticed by consumers looking for particular services. Today, it is a given that most companies have modern websites with various levels of search engine optimization. Companies that want to dominate a vertical market take their web effort one step further – making their company website more popular than their competitors. The two items they should measure each month are organic search traffic and web sales revenues. Organic traffic denotes web presence and popularity, and web sales reflect the effectiveness of their marketing spend.
Sun Tzu says, “…know the enemy… ” After a company identifies their competitors, they should pick a company to compete against. It is like playing King of the Hill. The goal is to knock or unseat the competitor by acquiring more organic traffic than them. Next, they survey their opponent’s SEO, blogging, social media, and referral network activities. Each month, they try to match or surpass the competitor’s web efforts over time. In competitive markets, unseating a web-savvy competitor takes time, and the money to do so depends on the willingness of their rival to compete against them. Fortunately, there are web tools to measure a company’s web presence compared to their competitors every day, week, month, and year. Remember, companies who measure and improve.
Companies who want to fold their website into the sales function of their company should call Downs Digital Marketing. We are a Denver-based digital marketing company with a proven methodology to drive more revenue from websites. Our services help professional service companies build a dominant web presence so consumers can find their websites when looking for home products and services. Call us at 303-748-5851.