About this Episode
As business owners and marketing leaders, we all know how crucial a website is for driving growth and attracting customers. But today, simply having a website isn’t enough. To truly stand out and convert visitors into customers, your site needs to incorporate key elements that build trust, provide value, and guide prospects through the buyer’s journey.
At IMPACT, we’ve worked with hundreds of businesses to optimize their websites for maximum effectiveness. Through this experience, we’ve identified four essential components that every high-converting website should include. In this episode of our Endless Customers podcast, IMPACT’s Lead Web Strategist Mary Brown shared these critical elements and explained why they’re so important for business success.
Let’s dive into these four website must-haves and explore how you can implement them to take your online presence to the next level.
1. Transparent Pricing Information
For many business owners, the idea of publicly displaying pricing information feels risky. You might worry about scaring away potential customers or giving away your competitive advantage. However, our experience shows that sharing pricing details is actually one of the most effective ways to build trust and qualify leads.
As Mary explains, “Sharing your pricing is about transparency, and transparency builds trust. And trust is, of course, the proponent of business. That is the currency of business.”
We get it – your pricing might be complex or highly variable. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid the topic altogether. Mary suggests: “You can still talk about pricing without a price. You can say, ‘here are all the factors that make our pricing go up and down. Here are some ranges that we can give you.’”
By providing this information upfront, you’re demonstrating honesty and respect for your prospects’ time. You’re also allowing unqualified leads to self-select out of your sales process, saving both parties from wasted effort.
“If your price might be $20,000 out of someone’s range, tell them that,” Mary advises. “You don’t want to deal with those people either. If they can’t afford you, don’t waste your salespeople’s time.”
The data backs this up too. Mary notes that when clients add pricing information to their websites, “They immediately see that as the most clicked element on their website.” It’s consistently one of the top three most-visited pages, regardless of industry or pricing structure.
So don’t be afraid to put your pricing front and center. Your transparency will be appreciated by serious prospects and will help streamline your sales process.
2. A Comprehensive Learning Center
Blog posts are great, but a true learning center goes beyond just written articles. As Mary emphasizes, “Your learning center is a one-stop shop for all of the top resources that are going to help someone along in their buyer’s journey.”
This hub should include a variety of content types:
Blog posts
Podcast episodes
Webinar recordings
White papers
Ebooks and other downloadable resources
The key is to make this content easily searchable and filterable. Allow visitors to sort by topic, content type, or even buyer persona. This empowers them to find exactly what they need, when they need it.
“By building this resource hub that is searchable, filterable, you’re allowing people to have complete control over what they’re looking for and when,” Mary explains. “And it’s any type of resource imaginable.”
This approach caters to different learning styles and information preferences. Some people prefer reading, while others might gravitate towards video or audio content. By offering a diverse range of resources, you increase the chances of engaging every type of visitor.
While having a robust learning center might have been a differentiator a few years ago, Mary warns that it’s quickly becoming table stakes: “Everything is so on-demand now that when it comes to creating that on-demand experience, it will just be the norm. So if you don’t have it at a minimum, then you will be left behind.”
3. A Clear “Good Fit / Bad Fit” Section
This might seem counterintuitive at first. Why would you want to tell some visitors that they’re not a good fit for your business? But as Mary explains, this level of honesty can be incredibly powerful:
“This is going to freak people out because we’re actually going to say who’s a good fit to work with us and who is not a good fit to work with us. But it’s disruptive, right? Because not everyone is doing it. And we have to be disruptive right now. There’s so much content out there and there is so much noise.”
By clearly stating who you serve best (and who might be better suited elsewhere), you accomplish several things:
You stand out from competitors who try to be everything to everyone.
You build trust through radical honesty.
You help unqualified leads self-select out of your pipeline.
You attract better-fit clients who resonate with your specific expertise.
Mary suggests taking it a step further: “We’re not just saying, you know, ‘Get out of here, we don’t want to talk to you.’ You can point people in the right direction for something that might be better for them.”
This approach might feel scary at first, but it often has the opposite effect of what you might expect. It helps your prospects know that you are here to help, and they will come back to you later when they do fit into the ‘good fit’ category.
4. Clear and Compelling Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Mary is passionate about the importance of strong CTAs: “You have to have a call to action. Period. End of story. You can’t fight me on this.”
But what makes a CTA effective? Mary outlines a few key principles:
Be specific and clear: “There can’t be a question as to what you’re asking people to do. If you want people to book a demo, say that.”
Start with a verb: “To be actionable… specifically start with a verb. I have seen calls to action that will be for, you know, ‘Ten questions to ask your next accountant.’ That’s not the A in CTA. You’ve got to tell people what to do.”
Offer variety: “We talk about how our primary call to action, that direct call to action, is the marriage proposal. It’s serious. But we also want to have a little cup of coffee too. I’m not ready to give you my time with sales yet, but I’m interested. Maybe I’ll give you my email.”
Test and iterate: “You’re not going to get your strategy right on day one. This is something you should be testing and iterating all the time.”
Implementing These Elements on Your Website
Now that we’ve covered the four essential components, where should they live on your site? Mary recommends:
Pricing: Include in your main navigation
Learning Center: Feature prominently in main navigation
Primary CTA: Place in main navigation
Good Fit / Bad Fit: This can be a dedicated page, linked from key areas of your site
Mary emphasizes the importance of a “sticky” navigation that follows visitors as they scroll: “We want that to be available to everyone every time because these things are all critical pieces of the buyer’s journey.”
The Bottom Line: Test, Learn, and Optimize
While these four elements are crucial starting points, Mary stresses that the work is never truly done. “A website is never done,” she says. “Test multiple times. Try one. You might do a test and it is negative… Keep trying to find the thing that really is clear and compelling and gets people to meet with you.”
This might feel overwhelming, especially if you’ve just invested in a website redesign. But as Alex points out, “A website is an extension of your business… Your website has to grow and change with your business.”
By continually testing and refining these key elements, you’ll create a website that truly serves as your best salesperson – building trust, qualifying leads, and driving conversions around the clock.
Connect with Mary
Mary Brown is the lead website strategist at IMPACT, and she has lent her expertise to website projects in dozens of industries.
Get to know Mary
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Learn more about how IMPACT’s team delivers the website your customers want
Keep Learning
Watch: Is a New Website Worth the Cost?
Read: How to Hire Your In-House Website Specialist
Test your site: Free Website Performance Assessment
