The Key Differences Between a Digital Sales Brochure and a Lead-Generating Website
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The Content Team,
HALSTEAD.
Originally published on October 16, 2015. Updated on December 19, 2022.
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Investing time and money with a graphic designer might result in a large website with all of the right design elements, including attractive colors and fonts, a professional logo, and content about what your landscape or pool building company offers. Still, these features alone aren’t going to result in lead generation. A beautiful website doesn’t drive traffic; it’s simply attractive, and unless it includes all of the right components that drive traffic and lead to conversions, that’s all it is.
Brochures function the same way; they’re visually pleasing, but they don’t provide much value to your prospects beyond what services you offer. If that’s all your website does, then you have a digital sales brochure, not a lead-generating website that’s a component of a larger marketing strategy.
What’s the Purpose of Digital Sales Brochures for Landscape Contractors and Pool Builders?
Digital sales brochures serve a purpose, even if it’s not lead generation. They are useful in specific situations after you’ve made contact with a potential lead. As a silo approach, they do not generate paying customers and are not a results-based marketing tool. However, a professionally designed digital sales brochure can help a potential lead envision life with a luxurious inground pool or outdoor kitchen in their backyard.
Successful landscape contractors and pool builders may have a digital sales brochure featured on their websites so they can share it with prospects, but it’s a small part of the website, not the entirety of it. Instead, these firms have invested in an effective content marketing strategy that transforms their websites into lead-generating machines.
How Can Landscape Contractors and Pool Builders Know if Their Website Is Effective?
The conversion rate is the biggest indicator of whether your website is effective. If you’re not getting conversions, then your website is not serving its intended purpose of generating leads. If your landscape construction or pool building business website is literally a copy of your brochure, it’s a digital brochure and not an effective website.
A common misconception is that hiring a graphic design firm to design your website and write the copy will ensure a website that converts. Unless the design firm employs green industry experts to create the copy, it likely won’t connect with your target customer. The website may be attractive, but it won’t convert.
When set up with Google Analytics, websites offer insightful information into the effectiveness. They’re a results-based marketing tool that you can adapt and change with concrete data to inform your decisions.
Your landscape and pool contractor business website works 24/7 as a virtual storefront and sales representative, but only if it is part of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. And when it is, it’s highly effective. By creating brand awareness and becoming the hub of valuable content that helps establish credibility, a website serves an important purpose.
Essential Components to Build a Website That Converts
Building a website that converts requires more than just helpful content, which is where the design element comes into play. While aesthetics are a component, it must be intuitive and user-friendly.
A Focus on the User Experience (UX)
The most important factor for B2B visitors is a seamless experience when visiting a website. Even if you don’t offer commercial landscaping services, 61% of all users will try a different website if they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, proving the importance of creating a positive UX.
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WEBSITE FLOW AND ENGAGEMENT
A user-friendly website flow makes your website easier to use, more engaging for visitors, and results in more time spent on your website. With straightforward navigation and calls to action (CTAs), you’ll see more conversions leading to increased sales.
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RESPONSIVE WEBSITE DESIGN
With nearly 55% of global website traffic generated by mobile devices, having a responsive website design is no longer an option but a necessity. 73% of web designers believe that a non-responsive website is why visitors leave a website. Having a responsive website design is one way that improves the UX by displaying content in a visually pleasing format designed for a mobile device, making the content easier to consume.
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WEBSITE LOADING SPEED
The number one reason that website visitors abandon a website is its slow loading time. A website loading speed of 10 seconds increases the bounce rate by 123% compared to a one-second loading speed. Investing in an efficient website design can be the difference between having a website that converts and one that doesn’t.
Professional Photos and Videos
The landscape and pool-building industry is largely visual. When you’re designing and building stunning fire features, expansive paver patios, or custom inground pools, you not only consider how the homeowner will use the outdoor space but how it will look.
High-quality photos and videos highlight the aesthetic and help prospects imagine life with a beautiful outdoor space of their own. Professional photos and videos feature vibrant colors and show your project in the best light, helping sell the value of your services. Plus, while people only remember 10% of what they read three days later, they’ll retain 65% of the information if paired with a relevant image.
Savvy landscape and pool contractors invest in professional photography and videography services because the content can be repurposed. Not only can it be used on their websites, but they can use it on their social media channels, in emails, traditional marketing materials, blog posts, and more.
Professional Copy and Content Writing
Your business website serves as a hub for the content used in your marketing strategy. Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3x as many leads as traditional marketing by serving to attract potential customers, a stat that proves the necessity of having high-quality copy.
Professional content writers are experts at communicating in an engaging and informative manner. Their professional-quality content makes reading a blog or article a pleasing experience for the reader and helps establish your brand image.
Top firms have websites focusing on the customer rather than their businesses. Prospects want to know how they can benefit from your business. When your content meets a need or answers a question, it serves the important purpose of educating the consumer and establishing you as an industry authority. At HALSTEAD, we’ve found that combining a creatively designed website and professional copywriting by industry experts is where lead generation and conversion begin.
Resourceful Blog
70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles than through an advertisement, likely because the content helps meet a need. Plus, marketers with blogs are 13x as likely to drive positive ROIs compared to traditional marketing, which explains why 59% of marketers consider blogs their most valuable tool. Resourceful landscape or pool-building blog content doesn’t feel like marketing but rather helpful customer service that leaves prospects with a positive impression of your business.
Once you create evergreen content, you can use it repeatedly. Content is an investment that continues to build over time, but fresh content still needs to be created and posted frequently. The length of your blogs and articles can vary in length, generally anywhere between 500 to 2,500 words, but no shorter. Blog posts should be optimized, and it’s essential to remember that blogging is a component of an inbound marketing strategy, not the entire strategy.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
While some allege that SEO is dead, the data says otherwise. Considering 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, getting your website content to appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) should still be a priority.
While keyword stuffing may have worked in the past, it can hinder your SERP ranking today. The most effective content is written for the user first and optimized for SEO second. Effective SEO has become a combination of branding, content creation, ad spending, backend SEO, and website strategy. The result is highly-qualified leads that convert.
Lead Generation Forms
If you do not see conversions from your website, it may be because your website visitors don’t have any way to engage with you. Including forms gives visitors the opportunity to share their contact information with you.
77% of buyers will provide basic contact information for high-value content, making gated content a viable method for getting leads into your sales funnel. For example, a website visitor could fill out a form in exchange for your ebook about luxury poolscape tips and ideas. You’ll now be able to nurture this lead with automatic emails containing relevant content about luxury poolscapes and everything related to these features, allowing you to stay in touch.