What purpose does your website serve?
Although this may seem like an easy question to answer, the answer for many companies may not be so clear. The goal of a website varies from business to business. That said, in the end, your focus should be on attracting best-fit visitors to your website so that you can convert them into loyal customers.
Converting visitors into customers will also look different across the board. For many organizations, demo requests are an easy way to identify sales qualified leads and begin developing a more personal relationship with prospects. The way your website is built and optimized makes or breaks your ability to convert visitors to demo requests.
We have a few tried-and-true tips to share with you to help continually drive more demos on your website. But first, a word of caution:
When many companies set out to build a new website or optimize existing pages, they run the risk of being distracted by flashy “nice-to-haves” that don’t ultimately influence the bottom line.
Let’s think through an example. Have you ever worked with someone who said something along these lines: “I love the look of our competitor’s website. Let’s mimic exactly what they’re doing!”
That statement is loaded with assumptions—the biggest one being that the competitor’s website is performing well. It may look sleek and modern, but that doesn’t mean people are actually converting or reaching relevant goals through key pages.
The same concept applies if you’re thinking through your own website. You may look at a page that seems dated and not so attractive, and assume it needs to be redesigned. But did you check the bounce rate, conversions, time on site, and user behavior to see if your theory checks out?
I can’t emphasize this enough. Always, always use data to inform how you optimize your website. You may think a page isn’t converting, when in fact, it’s the top driver of your sales team’s best leads.
You can objectively assess the performance of your website pages using tools like HubSpot, Lucky Orange, and Google Analytics. These tools will help you track user behavior, content interactions, and conversions on the website. Looking at these key metrics will give you a benchmark to compare future performance, and you can clearly identify opportunities to optimize.
With this in mind, here are five ways you can optimize your website to drive more demos.
Identify which pages on your website are driving the most qualified, sales-ready traffic and experiment with adding lead flow pop-ups to those pages. Using a tool like HubSpot, you can add these forms and capture qualified visitors.
Some ideal pages for demo pop-ups may include: product, service, and pricing pages, as well as consideration- or decision-level blog posts. You can even experiment with different types of pop-ups to see which kind works best for your visitors (exit intent windows, drop-down banners, and bottom corner pop-ups).
Relevant reading: Creating an Effective and Engaging Pop-Up Form
In a call to action, you have very few words to spur someone to engage further with your brand. It’s important to experiment with your wording in order to determine what resonates with your customers. “Schedule a Demo,” “Request a Personalized Demo,” and “Find a Time to Connect” will all have different results.
Equally as important as wording is where your calls to action are located. Think about which pages and blog posts offer the best visibility for relevant website visitors and make sure your demo CTAs can be easily found on those pages. For example: Consider a sticky sidebar on the right-hand side of your blog or a demo request CTA right below your product offerings.
First step, make sure you have a page specifically designed to field demo requests on your website. Use a form to capture all relevant information, but be mindful of how much information you are asking someone to give up. Experiment with shortening your form to increase conversions.
In addition, experiment with the language you use on the page. The copy on your demo page should clearly address your visitors’ pain point and offer an actionable solution. Ask yourself from the visitor’s perspective: “Why should I give up my valuable time and information for this demo?”
Finally, make sure the format of the page is intuitive and user-friendly. If a visitor has to work too hard to take action on a page, you’ll lose them. Make sure your form is easy to access, and there is a clear CTA indicating next steps.
Are you showing your visitors enough to convince them to learn more? Although writing eloquently about your product or service is an essential first step to optimizing for demos, video is an effective way to show visitors what they’re missing. Use a compelling thumbnail on your demo page to engage visitors upon arrival.
There are a couple of added bonuses that come along with adding video to your website. First, they provide an additional opportunity to optimize your pages for SEO and drive qualified leads to your demo page. Second, there are a number of video platforms (Vidyard and Wistia, for example) that allow you to add a CTA in the middle or at the end of the video—which means one additional opportunity to convert visitors to sales qualified leads.
Another easy way to engage visitors and drive demos on your website is through live chats and chatbots. Your site may draw potential leads that shy away from filling out forms. Chat functionality can provide a simple way for users to get in touch with your brand in real time. Not only is it simple for users, but chats also serve to automate interactions with your potential leads.
The end goal with chat remains the same: Convert engaged visitors into sales qualified leads. Using a channel like chat enables your online interactions to be more personalized and allows you to organically develop new relationships with prospects.
Relevant reading: Chatbots: Basics, Strategy, Best Practices
There is no single approach to effectively driving more demo requests through your website, but there are a lot of tools that you can leverage to identify what drives success for your organization. Ongoing iteration and experimentation is necessary, especially when it comes to generating the quality leads you need to help your organization thrive. Remember, if you make your website engaging and design it with your ideal customer in mind, it will do the work for you.