Anyone can make a website, but a successful one that drives engagement and increases sales must contain certain elements. From eye-catching designs to ease of use and other elements in-between, it takes a lot of diligence and savvy to make your site, products and services popular. If you want to increase online sales, you need to engage the visitors to your site. Below, 13 members of Business Journals Leadership Trust discuss what they believe are the most essential website design elements to include to increase sales and engagement through your website. 1. Photos of employees.One element that is key would be to include photos of your employees. Using stock photos will never truly capture the essence and soul of your company. Visitors can instantly tell when you have put just a tad of extra work into your website. – Jacquay Henderson, Square Peg Technologies 2. Digital freebies and guides.Definitely offer a digital freebie like a short e-book or guide related to your site. Capturing the emails of new visitors helps strengthen relationships. Also, if the quality of your free offer is good, they will be more likely to invest in any of your paid offerings. – Indya Wright, Artiste House 3. Site analytics.Invest in analytics for your website so you know who is visiting. If you can create an immediate touchpoint for a prospect visiting your website, you can help create more value and gain more customers. – Douglas Carter, Ironside Human Resources 4. User-friendly purchasing.Make it easy to purchase the product or service! It’s amazing how challenging it is to find the “buy” button on many sites. – Dorian Rader, OneTen° Capital 5. Short promotional video.A sizzle reel (short promotional video) on your home page will ensure that those landing on your website are immediately wowed by your accomplishments. Whether they click on your services page or read your posted case studies, a high-energy video of your best work will present prospects with what they want: Proof of your ability and authority. Then, increased sales and engagement can follow. – Lincoln Jacobe, 6 Pillars Marketing 6. User-friendly content strategy.Companies should ensure their website has a user-friendly content strategy with calls to action that are relevant to the audience you’re trying to reach. This includes nurturing campaigns that give visitors a sense of what you stand for as well as your services. Today’s market cares more about who you are and how you uplift your community versus product solutions alone. – Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications 7. Embedded newsletters.If you have a blog page, embed a newsletter signup form within the copy of the blog. I have seen this done a little aggressively (sometimes more than a few times), but usually one in the middle and one at the bottom is a great way to grab and convert visitors to your blog while building your email list for future nurture processes. – Christopher Tompkins, The Go! Agency 8. Simplicity and grace.In working with my website guru, I learned a few lessons that apply not only to websites but to life in general. He brought a common-sense approach coupled with a dash of delightfulness! He got rid of half the words on each page, then got rid of half of what was left! Clients love the simplicity and grace on our website. The result? Client engagement and sales skyrocketed! – Faizun Kamal, The Franchise Pros 9. Appointment scheduler.Implement an appointment scheduler like Calendly onto your site. This gives your potential partners full access to booking a time and date that works for them while saving your sales team the headache of scheduling, rescheduling and canceling appointments. Once we invested in Calendly, we saw an increase in both revenue and conversions. – Scott Scully, Abstrakt Marketing Group 10. Chatbots and live online support.One of the easiest and most effective ways to boost engagement and sales is to incorporate a chatbot (or ideally live online support) into the website. If a visitor can click to chat or call, they are far more likely to convert, regardless of the site goal or audience. – Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc. 11. Chat functionality, event invites.Make it easy for customers or visitors to engage. Provide a clear, easy-to-find “contact” page, utilize chat functionality and send invitations to local events or webinars through personalization technology. – Cindy Zhou, LogRhythm 12. Engaging lead magnets.Potential buyers visit websites to fill their needs or solve problems. Come up with an engaging lead magnet positioning your company as the best solution. Lead magnets are a “give-to-get” strategy and gated content. When leads provide contact info, they get something useful — a report, checklist, kit, sample, discount or special offer. One tip is having a follow-up strategy in place to make the sale! – Linda Bishop, Thought Transformation 13. Stimulating or engaging visuals.Ensure your website is visually stimulating from the first glance to ensure that it grabs the viewer’s attention. Immediately engage them in wanting to scroll through and get more information with the ultimate goal of converting them to a consumer in the first interaction. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising

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