Strong Websites Drive Sales: Strengths and Weaknesses of 305 LSP Sites

A strong website that delivers a clear and compelling message, tailored to your specific audience can help drive sales. It must succeed in both its content and its technical structure. In June 2017, CSA Research examined 305 websites from language service providers in depth. This number included all 191 of the top and regionally ranked providers from 2016 (see here for the 2017 rankings). The results show how successful websites stand out from the competition.

Our deep dive into these websites and online offerings revealed the following:

• Step up your differentiation. When our analysts looked at these sites, we found few that really sold themselves as different from the competition. Most conveyed that they offer language services, but not why prospects should choose them over any of the thousands of competitors out there. Differentiation means emphasizing what you do well in every aspect, from branding and taglines, to site navigation, to the graphics you choose.
   
• Focus on solutions, not services. Many LSPs list the services they offer based on their internal structure for how to deliver translations to their clients. However, prospective customers come looking for solutions to their problems. Sites that articulate how you meet their pain points in their terms are more effective than those that merely provide a menu of discrete services. Look at packages of solutions tailored to your target audiences.
   
• Use “gates” to convert visitors to customers. Gates are explicit decision points in your site that ask visitors to tell you something about themselves and their needs and then route them to targeted content. These can be questions, such as “Need international marketing?” or “Do you need to support your customers in other languages?” Clicking on these leads to pages that address their answers and to other gates that further refine your message. The goal is to build a narrative with prospects that shows them that you are the best provider for their needs and that reinforces your solutions in their minds.
   
• Invest in a top-notch customer experience. Many LSPs claim they want you to get in touch with them, but then make it difficult to do so. Broken contact forms or ones that require too much information keep tire kickers from turning into customers. By contrast, sites with functioning chat that is staffed around the clock and simple paths to acquire more information without seeming too “salesy” encourage prospects to reach out. In other cases, outdated or confusing navigation leads visitors to stay away. Find ways to help them to start the dialogue with you and have a positive experience. 

Your website is vital to your marketing strategies, yet delivering a compelling message that sets you apart can be tough. Understanding how other providers deliver their value proposition can help you identify strengths to promote and exploit in your online presence as well as weaknesses to remove. The data gathered in “Benchmarking LSP Websites” will help you examine your online presence to find strengths and weaknesses in both areas so you can obtain more from your investment.