What is a Marketing Website?

A marketing website is something we developed at The Backend Engineer after 16 years in online marketing and lead generation.

The marketing website captures all the important processes, elements and features you will need to create a lead generation machine online.

In my previous article, we discussed how to generate leads from your website. One of the many steps was called Lead Generation (or Lead Gen) Vitals

Lead Generation Vitals

Consider the human body. To function correctly, we need all of the following organs: heart, liver, lungs, brain and at least one kidney.

These organs are vital to the human body.

After 16 years of online marketing and lead generation, I have discovered that there are 5 ‘vital’ elements to ensure that your website generates leads and makes you money.

Remember, this is a deep dive into the website section only. You still need web traffic. for that, see the previous article.

Vital 1 - Website Speed

This topic makes people’s eyes roll. Website page speed is a very technical topic.

Let me explain how important this is using a conversation I had with a client.

Myself(M) Client(C)

C: Why are you so technical about it… so what if the website speed score is only 70%?

M: When was the last time you visited a website and LEFT before it loaded?

C: Erm… yesterday. M: Why?

C: Haha… because it was slow… M: Nobody… not even you would wait for a slow website. 3 seconds is slow. A 70% score is too slow.

C: Okay… I get it. M: No, it’s worse than you may think. If you lose three out of ten people because your website is slow, and a lead is worth $50 to your website, then you are losing the cost of getting that lead there AND the opportunity cost of the lead generated.

C: How much is that then?

M: The average number I give my clients is $20,000. A slow website is losing you up to $20k per month in new revenue. That number is dependent on the cost of your service though.

C: Understood.

The internet is technical. We cannot escape the depths of technical expertise required for online lead generation.

To simplify things, aim for blazing fast. To discover more about how, see my checklist

Vital 2 - Company Messaging

When a person lands on your site (from whichever traffic source), that person needs to know that they are in the right place.

Consider the following example…

Jane clicked on a link to an article that said _ “How we create custom mahogany furniture without chemicals”_. She read the article, she likes the article. Then she clicks to the homepage to check what the company does.

Upon clicking on the homepage the headline on the homepage says:

“We help people install premade furniture”

So… the article was about custom furniture. It was also about using no chemicals and being environmentally safe. It was also about manufacturing.

But the company is a furniture installer for premade furniture??

Huh…?

What would Jane do?

She will click away. She will never return. She may even tell her friends to NEVER use XYZ furniture installers.

This company has a positioning and messaging problem. This is an extreme example to make my point but it is not uncommon. Anywhere online people are creating content or making posts (to get traffic) to a service that has nothing to do with what they are posting about.

Before you even start to generate leads, make the decision that you ONLY want leads that may actually buy.

Otherwise… what is the point?

To do that, you must clearly state WHO you help, HOW you help them and these two positioning components must be featured in everything you do.

If you make visitors THINK, you have lost them

Vital 3 - Value In Advance

This is where the fun begins. If you remember from Vital 1, you need to position your brand for WHO you help and HOW.

Well.. this is where you double down on that in two ways:

While both of these are about “adding value” to website visitors, this step is about making sure you give value and there is a connection between what you do and what you say.

When people come to your site they need to feel like they are in the right place.

Vital 4 - Build an Email List

This step is the main one. Your website offers a unique, high quality piece of content that you can give away for free in exchange for an email signup.

It’s better if you have multiple options. You might have a checklist, a webinar, and a book. But the key is, they’re free.

This will help you build your email list.

An email list is the single most important asset a business owner can own.

Vital 5 - Don’t Upset Google

I’m just going to say it. Most SEO’s are scammers.

We do not do SEO for our clients but we have worked with clients who used “blackhat SEO” agencies in the past.

The problem they have is that their websites are blacklisted by Google.

What does that mean?

It means that no matter what you do, you will never get SEO traffic from Google. That is bad.

You have been warned.