Many of us have been involved in website design projects where the goal was to increase lead generation, but the results failed to meet our expectations. In working with many technology companies, I’ve found that there are some very common pitfalls that can prevent a website project from being successful.

This article will discuss the top five mistakes, and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1 — Assuming that visitors will find you.

So you’ve created a great product and built a website. Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for the orders to come rolling in, right? Well, sorry, but no. I like the analogy that building a website is like winking at a girl in the dark

Luckily, there are a few key ways to drive high-quality traffic to your site:

• Pay-per-click advertising. This refers to paid search engine listings on networks such as Google Adwords and Yahoo.
  
• Search marketing. It provides highly targeted traffic and can be very cost-effective when done properly. It’s also instantaneous.
  
• E-newsletter sponsorships. Purchasing an ad in an electronic newsletter is often very cost-effective. Dollar for dollar, these sorts of ads typically beat results from the print variety. Publishing an e-newsletter. Your own newsletter can be a great way to build an opt-in list of interested subscribers.
  
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Somewhat of a “holy grail” for Internet marketing over the last five years or so, SEO usually revolves around creating focused content pages based on a single topic (or keyword).

Each of these strategies should be carefully implemented and measured to ensure return on investment (ROI). With the exception of SEO, they have the advantage of being fairly “instant” to implement, while placing your prospect just one click away from your event Web page.

Mistake #2 — Building ineffective landing pages.

The first page that your site visitor sees is considered the “landing page.” In many cases it’s the site’s home page, but it may also be a page on a specific topic (ideally related to where the visitor came from). I believe that landing pages should serve a couple of key functions:

• Create an instant “this is what I was looking for” feeling
• Begin to build credibility
• Allow the visitor to effectively select his or her next click.

A very common landing-page problem that I see on technology sites (especially on home pages) is that they have too many links. This can confuse a visitor, and too many choices can have the effect of sending that visitor to the “back” button.

I’m a believer in the Pareto principle, which suggests that 80 percent of your site visitors are looking for 20 percent of your content. Your landing page, then, needs to provide rapid access to these key sections of content. Direct links to additional content should be placed downstream of the landing page — which has the effect of simplifying your site experience for the vast majority of your visitors.

Another key thought here is that you can provide additional focus on the links that you want your visitors to take. For instance, if you know that your monthly special does a great job of converting first-time customers, then you can increase its prominence and appeal by providing fewer competing links. You will also find that fewer links tend to provide a cleaner, crisper appearance, which will have a positive impact on the overall perception of your site.

Mistake #3 — Overly complex explanations.

One unfortunate requirement for creating great software is a thorough understanding of your technology and industry. This is unfortunate, because in the very act of becoming an expert, you lose much of your ability to explain details in the simple terms that compel people to buy.

In many high-tech companies, the sales brochure and the user’s manual are very similar. And while an in-depth technical review might work well as a user’s guide, it falls far short as a marketing message.

One rule of thumb is that at least half of your marketing message should be about the problems solved by your technology, not about how they’re solved. In this age of increasing usability, the user and the developer are growing farther and farther apart. Your marketing message should be written to match the perspective of the user — not the developer, or even the technical user.

Personally, I like the “high-school history teacher” test. Is your marketing message understandable by someone who is intelligent but has no prior knowledge of your technology (for instance, a high-school history teacher)? For maximum persuasion, your value proposition should rest upon the actual benefits of what your product provides, not on its technical specs.

Mistake #4 — Telling too much, too soon.

One of the problems with selling technology is that you often end up dealing with different buyers — say, the economic buyer, the technical buyer, the user, and the decision maker. These people are making four different purchase decisions based on varying criteria for varying reasons — a situation Mike Bosworth calls “the complex sale” in his great technical-sales book, Solution Selling.

Each of these buyers is looking for specific information, and the temptation is to create a website that is highly detailed, in order to cover all the bases. This has the effect of making a site too big and too complex (in both number of pages and amount of content on each page).

When you tell too much, too soon, you’ve lost control of the sales process, because your prospects don’t need you anymore — you have nothing else to offer. You’re left just waiting to see if they call you back (and they usually don’t).

Instead, I’d suggest that you clearly separate business-case and technical information. For example, on your product overview page, begin with a few paragraphs about the benefits offered by the product. Then list a few of the main features, with a link to a detailed product feature list. Naming downloads and other information to identify who they are intended for (i.e., “executive overview” vs. “technical specs”) helps visitors select the information that matches their interest level.

Mistake #5 — Failure to engage with an offer.

I’d suggest that every site seek to initiate a transaction with its visitors. For e-commerce sites, this is obviously a sale, but in the software world, most solutions are too complex and expensive for a simple online credit card purchase. The goal there is typically lead generation, and the transaction is usually the completion of some sort of “request more info” form.

Generally speaking, it makes sense to sweeten the pot with some sort of value provided in return for the visitor’s contact information. This is the offer. The best offers have high-perceived value to the visitor and are low-cost to deliver.

There are three very common types of offers, and it’s worth taking a quick look at them:

• Information Offers
  Information offers include items such as how-to guides, planning sheets, or checklists. They can be particularly effective when your product or service includes an element of proprietary knowledge.
  
• Free Trials
  Free trials can be very compelling offers. (After all, who doesn’t want something for free?!) However, they should only be used for products that are very easy to use and show results quickly; otherwise they may backfire.
  
• Free Giveaways
  These are perhaps my least favorite offers. There have been so many of them over the last few years that they can appear too good to be true. They can also have so much “fine print” that they put off visitors.

Conclusion

Learning from the mistakes of our peers and competitors is a great shortcut to success, and perhaps it will help you take a step toward diagnosing the problems of your own website. The good news is that these problems aren’t too hard to fix; just being aware of them will help. In future columns of The Conversion Coach, we’ll address some more specific issues and go into greater detail on how to increase your website conversion rate.

Mat Greenfield, a consultant, author, and speaker, has been in Web marketing since 1998. He is recognized as a website conversion expert by industry organization, including Register.com, Constant Contact, and Inside Sales.com. Mat can be found online at www.ConversionResults.com.