Forget Content. Conversion is King for Digital Marketing

by Andrew Schulkind

After 23 years in digital marketing – last month was our anniversary! – we’ve seen and heard a lot. Like the “content is king” mantra alluded to in the headline above.

And we’ve heard just about every possible reason from clients for why they want to build or update a website. Some have wanted to change the world. A few have be dead certain that once their site launched, riches and retirement would follow, probably within days. (And we could build the site for free and get in on the action if we wanted …)

But for most clients, the reasons boiled down to wanting to win more clients for their business.

And that phrase – win more clients – really does need to animate every conversation you have about your website and your marketing overall.

What Do We Really Want Our Websites to Do?

Is the content you’re publishing designed with winning clients in mind? Will it help attract them and nurture them as they progress through their buying process?

Does your website meet audience expectations for performance and organization?

Have you tied all of your channels together so that they reinforce your efforts elsewhere? Social media supports your website which helps your email marketing which drives traffic back to your website and so on.

I’m not sure there ever was a time that websites stood on their own as productive marketing tools. Sure, a particularly interestingly designed or informative site could generate word of mouth the way an especially inventive menu might for a restaurant. But most of us, particularly in the B2B world, need more than word of mouth to break through the noise. We need websites that nurture relationships. We must create the level of trust that allows prospects to suspend their disbelief and feel that we can help them.

Is your website helping you do that? That trust – the conversion of a prospect who may never have heard of you into a person willing to trust you with an important part of their business – is what is needed for your website to help you win more business.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Non Necessary".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Type	Duration	Description
__utma	0	2 years	This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and there are no existing __utma cookies. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
__utmb	0	30 minutes	The cookie is set by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and there are no existing __utma cookies. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
__utmc	0		The cookie is set by Google Analytics and is deleted when the user closes the browser. The cookie is not used by ga.js. The cookie is used to enable interoperability with urchin.js which is an older version of Google analytics and used in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine new sessions/visits.
__utmt	0	10 minutes	The cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used to throttle the request rate.
__utmz	0	6 months	This cookie is set by Google analytics and is used to store the traffic source or campaign through which the visitor reached your site.
YSC	1		This cookies is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos.

Cookie	Duration	Description
__atuvc	1 year	This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated.
__atuvs	30 minutes	This cookie is set by Addthis to make sure you see the updated count if you share a page and return to it before our share count cache is updated.
na_id	1 year	This cookie is set by Addthis.com to enable sharing of links on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
ouid	1 year	The cookie is set by Addthis which enables the content of the website to be shared across different networking and social sharing websites.
um	1 year	Set by addthis.com.(Purpose not known)
vc	1 year	This cookie is set by addthis.com on sites that allow sharing on social media.

Cookie	Type	Duration	Description
_ga	0	2 years	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gid	0	1 day	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
.ASPXANONYMOUS	1	2 months	This cookie is used by sites using the .NET technology platform from Microsoft. It enables the site to maintain an anonymous user-id to track unique users within a session without them logging in or otherwise identifying themselves.
GPS	0	30 minutes	This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location
uvc	0	1 year	The cookie is set by addthis.com to determine the usage of Addthis.com service.

Cookie	Type	Duration	Description
di2	0	1 year	This cookie is set by addthis.com on sites that allows sharing on social media. The cookie is used to track user behavior anonymously to generate usage trends to improve relevance to their services and advertising.
IDE	1	2 years	Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
loc	0	1 year	This cookie is set by Addthis. This is a geolocation cookie to understand where the users sharing the information are located.
NID	1	6 months	This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.
uid	0	1 year	This cookie is used to measure the number and behavior of the visitors to the website anonymously. The data includes the number of visits, average duration of the visit on the website, pages visited, etc. for the purpose of better understanding user preferences for targeted advertisments.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	1	5 months	This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website.

Forget Content. Conversion is King for Digital Marketing

Do You Really Need a New Website?

Do You Really Need a New Website? (Revisited)

Sales Matter, but There are Other KPIs for Your Content Marketing