Marketing

Stop ignoring the majority of your traffic and update your website

By | September 22, 2016

The majority of your website is likely not ready to buy

Those ready to buy and those who are thinking about buying – who should you appeal to on your website? If you guessed those who are ready to buy, you are wrong. Don’t feel bad, this is still the most common website strategy mistake.

The truth is that those who are ready to buy are a much smaller audience, and even though you don’t want to ignore them, your website should be geared toward those who are thinking about buying. If you can start a relationship, you are much more likely to be top of mind when they are ready to buy.

Changing your perspective

At the core of this issue is a lack of perspective. What I mean is, the marketing and design of the website is easliy created solely from the perspective of the company or product. Owners and stake holders often completely forgets about the audience of people who have not decided to become customers, but who are great potential.

I’m sure these websites have people visiting who are ready to buy but the reality is, the majority of those website clicks come from people who are—at most—only thinking about purchasing. When all they see is the loud ‘BUY NOW!‘, you are eroding the trust you want to build with potential customer. They feel sold to when they are really looking for information.

Removing the blinders

Something important to understand and consider when developing a website is your buyer’s journey. Knowing what prospective customers are interested in, how they collect information, and how they are influenced is the way to formulate an effective website.

The three main stages of the buyer’s journey are: awareness, consideration, and conversion. When most people first come to your website, they are in either the awareness or consideration stage. That means they need more information and need to be lead more before a sale. It’s only when trust has been built that prospective buyers will choose to become customers and move to this final conversion stage.

This change of mindset leads marketers to create a website that is inviting to all audiences on the buyer’s journey. It should be able to entice people who are not quite ready to act as well those ready to act.

How to start

The reason I see so much web marketing is not geared for prospective customers is because the concept of the buyer’s journey is easy to talk about but often times hard to implement. Here are a few ways to create a more inviting website:

  • Blogging: When companies engage the discussion online, it opens up barriers between customer and company and allows there to be trust.
  • Social media engagement: Similar to blogging, social media is a way to help people along the buyer’s journey and choose your product. The more they know and understand about your product or service, the more they will commit.
  • Call to action: This is a great way to create engagement with your customers on your website. It’s okay that people aren’t quite ready to buy yet, but create an engaging relationship with your audience where you are seen as a resource for great information.

Exlpore this topic more by reading our inbound marketing philosophy. Before you start the process of creating a new website, be sure to download the free resources below.


We all know how important a website is to a business’s online strategy, but what does it really take to have a great website that drives visitors, leads and revenue? Download our free guide, 25 Website Must-Haves for Driving Traffic, Leads & Sales.

Jeffery James
Jeffery James
Jeffery is the Creative Director and Principal of Spire2. He brings marketing expertise from a variety of industries. He excels at understanding clients' corporate objectives, translating them into brand positioning and executing marketing materials that exceed expectations.