What does a Great Inbound Marketing Website Look Like?

As the market is shifting and constantly changes, one of the questions many marketers asking is about inbound marketing and how does a great inbound marketing website should look like.

When I was 10, I built my first website.

It was a single page dedicated to the anime series Sailor Moon and, to use a phrase from that era, it was “the bomb.”

It had everything you’d expect from a glorious web presence of the late 1990s and early 2000s, built on the pioneering, but now defunct GeoCities.

There were animated looping GIFs I stole with a swift right-click save, large slow-loading images, and background music that auto-played at every refresh. Then, we can’t forget the unreliable “site visitors” count, and, of course, the same static, generic information about the series you could find on hundreds of other fan sites.

Today, it’s laughable. But, if we’re being honest here, it was pretty on-par with most websites online at the time.

Fast forward 20-odd years and, thankfully, the web space has dramatically changed and not just because websites now live in our pockets rather than just chunky desktop computers in our living rooms.

Who we are as consumers has changed as well, and marketers need to take notice, especially when it comes to their websites.

In websites we trust

Today, buyers have a relationship with the internet that wasn’t even a thought when I first logged onto GeoCities.

Now, the internet is the first place we turn when making almost any purchase. In fact, 63% of shopping journeys start online, whether you’re searching for a specific product or researching options.

Regardless of what that first search or step looks like, however, every consumer is hunting for the same thing: a brand they can trust.

Everyone is looking for a company with a product or service they can trust will actually solve their problems. Something they know will deliver on their promises, that won’t sell them what they don’t need or doesn’t work. Something reliable and worth their hard-earned money.

Especially, during the COVID-19 pandemic — when budgets are tight and so many people are feeling helpless — this trust is more important than ever. When it comes to your website, there are a number of ways of establishing and reinforcing this trust for 2021 — and no it doesn’t involve animated GIFs.

What does a great inbound marketing website look like?

Below I’ve shared nine critical elements that every great inbound marketing website should have. They not only make buyers’ journeys easier, they also help you establish the trust needed to actually make your ideal customers comfortable doing business with you.

1) Customer-focused messaging

2) A user-friendly design

3) Optimized site speed

4) Question-focused content

5) Premium content

6) Equal mix of text and visual-based content

7) Having a self-selection tool

8) Real-time conversations

9) Social proof

Read more here.