Most marketers say increasing lead generation and traffic volume are their top website objectives in 2014, according to a recent report from Ascend2.
Some 60% of respondents say increasing the number of leads generated from their website is a top objective in the year ahead, and 50% view increasing traffic is a major goal, the survey of 336 B2B and B2C marketers found.
Other top objectives for websites: increasing visitor engagement (42% of respondents say it's a top priority), increasing sales transactions (35%), and increasing brand awareness (32%).
Regarding whether websites meet those objectives, 72% of marketers say their current website is "somewhat successful" and only 8% rate their site as "very successful."
Below, additional key findings from the report.
Most Important Pages
- 57% of marketers surveyed say they optimized their website's homepage in the past year.
- 44% optimized their product/solutions pages in the past year.
- 27% reworked their lead generation forms.
Page Elements
62% of respondents believe the call-to-action on a page has the biggest impact of any visible element.
Personalization
- 77% of respondents do not use personalization on their website, 18% use it moderately, and 5% use it extensively.
- Of those sites that include personalization, 36% have transitioned from manual to automated practices that dynamically generate pages based on IP, behavioral, and other data.
Optimization
- 49% of respondents say their company outsources all or part of its website optimization program.
- 47% perform tests on their website pages for optimization purposes.
About the research: The report was based on data from an online survey of 336 marketers conducted in May 2014. Respondents came from a mix of locations (64% US, 36% international) and categories (42% B2B, 29% B2C, 29% agency).
