A pretty staggering figure eh? Incredible really, when we place so much importance on generating members and revenue from our ‘window to the world’. So why is this and what can you do to ensure you are not in that 80%?

There are many reasons why a website fails and it’s not always the business owners fault. So many websites are designed to look attractive, with good-looking images and easy to read text; these sites are based mainly on style. Now style is important and I love a striking, eye-catching site as much as the next person.

However, as an Association leader you want more than style, you want performance, you want members, event attendees and above all you need your site to generate revenue and a return on your investment.

So, in order to help you, I decided that this week’s blog should be about sharing the top four features every site should have to help make you money! And to demonstrate these features i’m going to use some business examples for us to learn from.

1. “A Quick Call-To-Action Above the Fold”

A strong call-to-action is about having a clear instruction to do something; for example, to join, contact or register. Having this towards the top of your site, ‘above the fold’ (the first thing you see at the top of your website when it loads) is extremely important in capturing your visitors’ attention.

It needs to be punchy, effective and clear. As in the example above.

2.     “Email Newsletter Signup”

Data, data, data is the mantra that Association leaders swear by. You need to capture the information of those potential members viewing and visiting your site.

Email marketing is still one of the best marketing tactics for the biggest return on investment. We recently sent out a particular email campaign that resulted in over $18,000 in sales in just one day! What other reason do you need to develop an email marketing strategy yourself and invite people to join your email-marketing list.

Here’s a good example of a request to ‘join us’ (as well as some very well placed call-to-actions!).

Display your request prominently for your website visitors to sign up for your ‘newsletter’, ‘industry tips’ or ‘advice’.

3.      “Irresistible Lead Magnet that can be rapidly consumed”

Lead Magnets are another way of collecting email addresses and should not only be an essential part of your marketing mix, but should prominently be displayed on your website.

A lead magnet is an offer, usually of high value to your client or buyer that is offered in exchange for their contact information. Killer lead magnet examples include ebooks, videos, checklists, webinars, free courses etc. Your customer will get a taste of what your services or products have to offer, that you are genuine and helps position you as an expert.

Once you have this along with their contact details you have permission to market to their inbox and generate those sales!

4. “A lightbox popup to capture those before they leave your site”

This is where you can really ramp up your marketing strategy and capture those visitors to your site. Some see this as an intrusive piece of marketing; others believe it can increase your sign-ups by 2300%.  The trick is to make your popup interruption compelling and worthwhile.

It should have a compelling headline, a strong sub-headline, three benefit driven bullet points, a high quality image of your offer and above all a value-driven call-to-action button.

So there you have it, four tips to make sure that your website isn’t one of the 80% that fail to deliver revenue for your Association. If you enjoyed reading these and want to get your website homepage working for you, then download our ’47-point homepage checklist’ we created with our sister organisation, Advance Web Design. It’s packed with even more points to unblock your client flow and you may even double your leads in 7 days!

Let us know how you get on or give us a shout if you have any questions.

Enjoy!

Michael