I was talking to one of our operators about a countertop company he was working with. The marketing numbers were getting better. Monthly website traffic had climbed from roughly 1,200 visits to more than 4,000.
More people were looking at the business. There were improvements in other measures, too. On paper, there was progress.
So I asked the question that mattered: had that turned into more revenue?
The answer was no.
That changed the conversation. Because the company already had thousands of people arriving at its website. What it needed next was a clear way to turn those visits into conversations with potential customers.
What happens after somebody clicks?
When we looked at the website, the problem was right there. The contact button was tiny. Much of the content was about caring for stone, which is useful after somebody buys. The site did very little to help somebody who was ready to talk about buying countertops.
The operator was discussing a website update with the business. There were conversations about search visibility, indexing, and making the site easier to update.
My question was simpler: will the changes actually bring people into the store?
If you already have 4,000 monthly visits and hardly any inquiries, that deserves your attention before you pile more activity on top of it.
I told him the next step needed to be clear. Show the client the progress in traffic. Then explain what has to happen to turn that traffic into customers. That should be the center of the conversation.
Give the visitor something to do
The recommendation we discussed was straightforward. Put a clear offer in front of the visitor. Make it match the offer that brought them there. Give them a simple form. Then have somebody follow up.
The offer could be the same promotion the business was already using in its advertising. A visitor should be able to understand it and ask for help without hunting around the page.
We also talked about what happened after the form. The operator had been putting inquiries into one CRM and setting up email and text notifications so the business could call people promptly.
That whole path matters. The ad. The offer. The form. The handoff. The call.
I was excited about this particular business because somebody looking at a countertop company's website may already be shopping for countertops. There was a real opportunity to make the next step easier.
Ask for the game plan
In a Loom to another operator, I described how I wanted him to use his conversion expertise: pull up the company's page, show the places where visitors are being lost, and lay out what he would change.
That's useful to a business owner. You can see the problem. You can understand the proposed work. You can decide whether you want that person to handle it.
When you're reviewing your own marketing, ask the same question I asked on that call: has this correlated with increased revenue?
If it hasn't, have somebody walk you through what happens between a person arriving and a person becoming a customer. Make them show you where that path breaks and what they would do about it.
That's the kind of conversation I want our operators having with business owners. Find the problem, make the next step clear, and give the owner a game plan they can actually use.