MORE WEBSITE ENQUIRIES
You have invested time, effort and probably a considerable amount of money into your website.
It looks good. It explains what you do. You might even be receiving a reasonable number of visitors.
Yet your telephone is not ringing and your enquiry form is gathering dust.
Why?
If you keep asking yourself, “Why is my website not generating enquiries?”, the answer will usually be found in one or more of the following areas:
- Your website is not attracting enough visitors;
- It is attracting the wrong visitors;
- It does not quickly convince those visitors that you are the right person to help them;
- Your calls to action are not clear or easy to find; or
- You are not measuring what is happening, so you do not know which part of the process is broken.
The good news is that all of these problems can be fixed.
However, before we look at the solutions, let me tell you a short story.
The Day A Law Firm’s Telephone Stopped Ringing
Before starting my marketing consultancy in 2003, I was a solicitor.
Towards the end of my legal career, I managed the marketing for a law firm and built a website for it that was well ahead of most competing legal websites at the time.
The website contained more than 100 pages explaining the different legal services the firm provided.
It generated a lot of enquiries.
About a year after I left, I met one of the firm’s partners. He excitedly told me that they had replaced the large website I had built with a smart new five-page website.
I replied:
“And overnight your telephone stopped ringing.”
“How did you know that?” he asked.
Because all of those lovely pages explaining the firm’s services were the reason prospective clients found the website in the first place.
The website had gone from answering dozens of specific questions about the firm’s services to saying very little about anything.
It might have looked cleaner, but it no longer generated the same volume of enquiries.
There is an important lesson here.
A website is not simply an online brochure. It should be a client-generating system.
If yours is not generating enquiries, we need to work out which part of that system is failing.
1. Your Website Is Not Attracting Enough Relevant Visitors
Let us start with the obvious question:
How many people visit your website every month?
Do you know?
If you do not, this is the first problem we need to fix.
Your website visitor numbers should be one of the key performance indicators you review every month, alongside:
- Turnover;
- Gross profit;
- New enquiries;
- New clients; and
- Conversion rates.
If you want five new clients every month, how many enquiries do you need to generate those five clients?
If you convert half of your enquiries into clients, you need ten enquiries.
If one in every 100 relevant website visitors makes an enquiry, you will need approximately 1,000 visitors to generate those ten enquiries.
These figures will differ greatly between businesses, but the principle remains the same.
Begin with the end in mind.
Work out how many new clients you want. Calculate how many enquiries you need to generate them. Then determine how many relevant website visitors you need to produce those enquiries.
Life is so much easier when you know your numbers!
2. Your Website Is Attracting The Wrong Visitors
More website traffic is not always the answer.
You need more of the right website traffic.
There is little value in attracting thousands of people who have no intention of buying your services.
I call my preferred approach “easy life client attraction”.
Easy life client attraction means appearing in front of your ideal prospects at the precise moment in time that they are looking to buy your services.
That last part is crucial.
You want people with buyer intent.
They already know that they have a problem. They have decided that they need help. They are now searching for the right expert to provide that help.
These are the people you want your website to attract.
If your website ranks for broad, irrelevant or purely informational searches, you might generate plenty of visitors but very few enquiries.
Vanity traffic does not pay your bills.
The aim is not to make your website visitor graph look impressive. The aim is to attract people who could become good clients.
3. You Are Targeting The Wrong Keywords
Choosing the correct keyword for each page plays a huge part in attracting the right visitors.
Every important page on your website should have a clear purpose.
It should answer a particular question, explain a particular service or help a particular type of prospective client.
If one page tries to rank for every service you provide, Google may struggle to understand what that page is primarily about.
Your prospective clients may struggle too.
Think about the words that someone would use when they were actively looking for your service.
What problem would they type into Google?
What question would they ask?
Which words demonstrate that they want help rather than general information?
For example, someone searching for “mortgage broker salary” is probably not looking to employ a mortgage broker.
Someone searching for “find a mortgage broker” is much more likely to be.
One phrase has buyer intent. The other does not.
You can use Google Search Console to see the searches for which your website is already appearing. Look for relevant questions that have a reasonable number of impressions but where your website is appearing near the bottom of the first page or on the second page.
These can often provide your quickest opportunities.
Choose one clear keyword or question for each page and ensure that the page answers it properly.
4. Your Page Titles Do Not Clearly Explain What The Page Is About
When someone sees your page in Google, the title should immediately confirm that the page answers their question.
Clever or vague titles do not help.
If someone searches:
“Why is my website not generating enquiries?”
A page titled:
“Why Is My Website Not Generating Enquiries?”
provides a precise match.
The searcher immediately knows that the page is relevant.
The main heading and opening paragraph should then continue to answer that exact question.
The description shown in Google should also give the searcher a compelling reason to click.
These elements help Google and your human visitors understand the purpose of the page.
However, they only open the door.
The content on the page still needs to deliver what the title promised.
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Practical advice. No fluff. No vanity marketing.
5. Your Website Does Not Demonstrate Enough Expertise
When a prospective client arrives on your website, they need to decide very quickly whether you are an expert and whether they should trust you.
They are unlikely to spend hours investigating your business.
They may look at only one or two pages.
This means your website needs to establish two things quickly:
- Depth of expertise; and
- Proof of expertise.
I call this my 90 Second Website Trust Builder.
Depth Of Expertise
It always amazes me when an expert service provider has only one short page covering everything they do.
How can one page convince me that they really know what they are doing?
A service page containing a few paragraphs and an enormous photograph of the local landscape or office building does not demonstrate much expertise.
Your website should contain enough useful information to answer the questions your ideal clients are likely to ask before contacting you.
If you offer several services, create a detailed page for each important service.
If one service contains several distinct elements, explain those elements on supporting pages.
The purpose is not to produce pages simply to make the website bigger.
Every page must be useful.
It should help an ideal prospective client understand:
- Whether you provide the service they need;
- Whether you understand their particular problem;
- What working with you involves;
- Why they should trust you; and
- What they should do next.
When your website answers those questions thoroughly, it demonstrates genuine depth of expertise.
Proof Of Expertise
It is all very well telling people that you are an expert.
Some people will quite reasonably want proof.
Your proof might include:
- Reasons why clients should choose you;
- Reviews from satisfied clients;
- Detailed client success stories;
- Relevant qualifications or memberships;
- The length of time you have been helping clients;
- Results you have achieved; and
- Publications or media outlets in which you have been featured.
Do not hide all of this information on a separate reviews or “about us” page.
Your visitors may never look at it.
Add relevant reviews and evidence throughout your important service pages.
If someone arrives on one page and never looks anywhere else, that page should still give them enough confidence to contact you.
CLIENT RESULTS
What My Clients Say
Here is what three service business owners say about working with me and the results their marketing now produces.
“
One particular aspect of marketing was hard to get my head around but Nick made everything so clear and easy to understand. When you speak to him you will see, he knows his stuff!
Thanks Nick.”
Shan Phoenix - Geneva Wealth
“
Nick is an excellent marketing consultant. Well worth a chat. Every time I use him my results improve and I make money. Do the sensible thing and pick up the phone to him as you won’t regret it.”
Phil O'Connor - Whitewell Financial Planning
”
My website is now attracting the right type of clients and brings in a lot more quality, and easy to convert, leads.
Nick is clear in what the marketing priorities are to get me the results I want.
Carolyne Wahlen - Gap HR
6. Your Website Does Not Explain Why Someone Should Choose You
Take a look at one of your main service pages.
Does it clearly explain why someone should choose you instead of another provider?
Most websites do not.
They say things such as:
- We provide a professional service;
- We put our clients first;
- We offer a personal approach; and
- We provide excellent customer service.
Your competitors probably say exactly the same thing.
Instead, give people specific reasons to choose you.
You might explain:
- How long you have provided the service;
- How many clients you have helped;
- The particular type of client you specialise in helping;
- The results you have achieved;
- How your approach differs;
- What happens after someone contacts you; or
- How quickly you respond.
Make these reasons clear, practical and believable.
Do not make your visitors work them out for themselves.
7. Your Website Does Not Include Enough Client Success Stories
Reviews are helpful, but client success stories can be even more persuasive.
A useful client success story explains:
- The situation the client was in;
- The problem they needed to solve;
- Why they approached you;
- What you did; and
- The result you achieved.
This allows a prospective client to see themselves in the story.
They think:
“That is exactly the situation I am in.”
Nothing demonstrates your expertise more effectively than showing how you helped someone facing the same problem as the person reading the page.
Do not simply say that you achieve good results.
Show them.
8. Your Website Makes It Too Difficult To Make An Enquiry
Most businesses hide their calls to action.
They place a telephone number in the header, an enquiry form on the contact page and then hope that visitors will hunt around for them.
They will not.
Most visitors will look at only one or two pages before leaving your website.
Do not make them work to find out what to do next.
Every important page should include a clear call to action.
Depending on the service and the type of prospective client, this might invite them to:
- Call you;
- Complete a short enquiry form;
- Arrange an initial conversation;
- Download a helpful guide; or
- Ask a question.
The most appropriate call to action will depend on whether someone is ready to act immediately or needs more information before making contact.
This is the difference between what I call Marketing Now and Marketing Nurture.
Some prospective clients want help now.
Others are interested but not yet ready to speak to you. For those people, a genuinely useful guide can give them a reason to provide their email address and continue learning from you.
Whichever approach is appropriate, tell your visitor exactly what to do next.
Do not leave them wandering around your website looking for the answer.
9. Your Enquiry Form Is Asking For Too Much Information
When someone is ready to make an enquiry, make the process as easy as possible.
They should not need to complete an application form simply to ask you a question.
Ask only for the information you genuinely need to respond to the initial enquiry.
You can collect additional information later.
A simple enquiry form should be easy to find, quick to complete and work properly on a mobile telephone.
The more obstacles you put in someone’s way, the more opportunities you give them to change their mind.
10. You Are Not Measuring Telephone Calls And Enquiry Forms
If your website receives visitors but you do not accurately record what those visitors do, you cannot tell whether it is working.
You need to know:
- How many people visit the website;
- Where they came from;
- Which pages they visited;
- Which enquiries came from the website;
- Which telephone calls came from the website;
- Which marketing source generated each enquiry; and
- How many of those enquiries became clients.
You can then distinguish between a traffic problem and a conversion problem.
If hardly anyone visits the website, you need to improve your visibility.
If plenty of relevant people visit but nobody enquires, the website is failing to convert them.
If people enquire but do not become clients, the problem might occur after the enquiry reaches your business.
Without accurate measurement, you are guessing.
I do not like guessing when it comes to marketing.
Every penny you spend should be measured against the return it produces.
Vanity marketing does not pay your bills, so I will not let you do it.
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Would You Like A Predictable, Steady And Consistent Flow Of New Clients?
Discover the practical marketing systems I use to help service business owners attract more of the right enquiries and turn them into clients.
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Practical advice. No fluff. No vanity marketing.
11. You Have Stopped Adding Useful Content
Once your website properly explains your core services, continue adding genuinely useful content.
Answer the questions that prospective clients ask you.
Explain common problems.
Address the concerns that prevent people from taking action.
Share practical examples from your experience.
Good content helps Google understand your area of expertise, but it also helps prospective clients decide that you are the right person to contact.
The key word is useful.
Do not publish content simply because someone told you that you must post a certain number of articles every month.
Every new page should have a clear purpose and be relevant to the clients you want to attract.
Ask yourself:
“Will this help one of my ideal clients understand their problem, recognise my expertise or decide to contact me?”
If the answer is no, why are you publishing it?
12. Your Website Is Trying To Appeal To Everyone
The more clearly your website speaks to your ideal clients, the more likely those people are to make contact.
If your wording is so broad that it could apply to any business in any industry, nobody will feel that it was written specifically for them.
You do not need every visitor to contact you.
You need the right visitors to contact you.
Explain:
- Who you help;
- The problems you solve;
- The services you provide;
- The results clients want; and
- Why your experience makes you well placed to help them.
The right prospective client should arrive on your website and quickly think:
“This person understands my business and can help me.”
How To Find Out Why Your Website Is Not Generating Enquiries
If you want to diagnose the problem yourself, start with these questions:
- How many relevant visitors does your website receive every month?
- Which searches are producing those visitors?
- Which pages do they land on?
- Do those pages answer the question they searched for?
- Do the pages clearly explain why someone should choose you?
- Is there proof of your expertise?
- Are there reviews and relevant client success stories?
- Is the next step clear?
- Is it easy to call or make an enquiry?
- Are you accurately tracking every enquiry?
Your answers will usually reveal where the problem lies.
You might need more relevant visitors.
You might need better service pages.
You might need stronger proof.
You might simply need to make it much easier for someone to contact you.
In many cases, the problem is a combination of all four.
FREE BUSINESS GROWTH GUIDE
Would You Like A Predictable, Steady And Consistent Flow Of New Clients?
Discover the practical marketing systems I use to help service business owners attract more of the right enquiries and turn them into clients.
Get Predictable, Steady & Consistent Flow Of New Clients
Practical advice. No fluff. No vanity marketing.
Would You Like Me To Help You Generate More Enquiries?
I have been marketing service-based businesses since 1991 and running my own marketing and business growth consultancy since 2003.
I am a former solicitor and now work as a small business marketing consultant for the owners of expert service businesses.
My focus is simple:
I help you put practical marketing systems in place that attract your ideal clients at the precise moment in time that they are looking to buy your services.
No fluff.
No vanity marketing.
Just practical, measurable marketing designed to generate more enquiries and more clients.
If your website is not producing the enquiries you expected, I can help you identify why and show you precisely what needs to change.
Call me on 0117 290 8549 or complete my free online enquiry form and I will personally come back to you.
There is no cost or obligation.
Let us find out why your website is not generating enquiries—and fix it.
