By: Jacob Hanson
I’m going to give it to you straight. Your website is your greatest asset when trying to attract new leads and engaging educators—period.
Some ed tech companies use their website like an online brochure aimed to highlight every little feature and function, and only point visitors to purchase their product or solution. Thanks to tools like HubSpot and Google Analytics, we know that websites like this aren’t very effective and their bounce rates are often high. The reason? Educators don’t want to be sold to. They want a partner, not just a provider.
Many refer to a website as “the face of your company online.” While that holds true today, your website can and should be much more than that. It should demonstrate your expertise, thought leadership, and naturally engage educators so that they will interact with you and your content. The most successful websites are filled with a wide variety of content and blog posts aimed to give educators advice and show them you understand their pain points and want to help. Having a plethora of content that speaks to different audiences isn’t only the key to getting folks to your website; it's essential in keeping them there and converting them into leads, as well.
Make Your Content Google-friendly
You’ve got all this great content and resources. Now you need to make sure educators are able to find them on your website. How you do you do that? By identifying your top keywords and implementing search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. Click here to read our handy checklist, 8 Easy Steps to Optimize Your Content for the Ed Tech Market.
They Found my Website! Now What?
You can learn a lot about how visitors are referred to your website. Did they come from a search engine, social media, an email, or a recently published article? Where they came from can tell you where most of your audience is and what venues you should focus your efforts on.
Today’s tools allow us to watch visitors’ every move and analyze trends in navigation routes and behavior. You can learn by watching your visitors. If they get to your website and leave right away, that tells us that the first impression may not have been great. On the other hand, if there’s a page that’s getting a lot of views, it may be smart to add a CTA to get visitors to download a piece of content and move them further down the sales funnel.
Add New Content as Often as You Can
Unlike printed materials that are expensive and sometimes outdated (and often end up in garbage cans), your website is a living, breathing, lead-generating machine that can be updated on-demand. Whether you use your blog to attract new visitors to your site, or leverage the valuable content you’ve created to convert those visitors into leads, your website should act as a content hub designed for more than show and tell.
Content should not be product-related. Instead, provide advice and answers to educators looking for solutions to their problems. You may know that your solution is the answer to their problems, but you have to let them come to that conclusion on their own. Educators don’t like to be sold to, remember?
Follow the Hyperlinked Road
Everything that you have worked so hard to create—gated content, blog posts, published articles, and press releases—should be driving traffic to your website, but not just to your homepage! Articles, social media posts, and/or email campaigns should be leveraged to increase the number of eyes on a specific content offer or blog post. When visitors click a link that leads them to your website, they should see a post related to what they are interested in.
Once they’re on your website, the goal is to keep them there and convert them into a lead. Do this by using intriguing content that’s targeted at solving their problems. Include links to other blog posts on your website, content offers, landing pages, CTAs, and more! Visitors should be able to convert into a lead on nearly every page.
Armed with these tips, you are well on your way to creating a website that isn’t only flashy, but comprehensive and useful—a place where educators can turn to for advice.
Jacob Hanson is the managing partner of PR with Panache!
Thank you for sharing!