Must-Have Website Elements for Government Contractors
Even in the best of times, marketing to the government isn’t an easy task. And, when times are tough, it can be even more difficult.
As a government contractor, your website should be your most valuable marketing asset and act as an actual tool for your business and work as a visibility and relationship building machine.
An effective website has many jobs these days and should help you:
- Get Found — Search engine optimization (SEO) should be a priority to help government procurers, influencers, and end users find your business in search engine results pages.
- Build Trust — Your website needs to showcase your business as an expert that can help government agencies.
- Educate and inform — Help government agencies and contracting officers understand that you understand what their problems and challenges actually are and how to solve them.
- Nurture and convert — This is where the RFP generation component comes into play. It’s common for government contractors to be on one side of the fence and think that a marketing-driven website doesn’t matter because their work comes from RFPs. But that’s not true. In fact, to increase the likelihood of receiving an RFP, put enticing information, forms and CTAs in place. This will help to move contracting officers, managers, and coordinators of supplier diversity, purchasing agents and the directors of procurement services closer to the sale.
I’m not going to lie, after speaking with contracting officers in charge of selecting the procurement methods and conducting the procurement and consulting with government contractors over the years I can say that many websites aren’t created to increase visibility and build relationships. In some cases, websites are so poorly developed that it can be difficult to separate one government contractor from another.
Here are the actual website elements you must have:
- A Government Contracting Page — You need to make it clear that you work with government agencies and that you have a deep understanding of their challenges and needs. You want managers and coordinators of supplier diversity, purchasing agents and the directors of procurement services to feel special when they land on your site and this happens best when they can see your company credentials through your government contracting web page.
- Trust and Credibility Elements — As a small business that provides services to government agencies, I can almost guarantee you are being compared to others that provide the same services you do. To stand out, you must do your very best to include the following elements on your website: past project history, testimonials, government agency or client logos, small business & supplier diversity certifications, project results, capability statements, case studies, media recognition, and contract awards.
- An Optimized Website — Having your site search engine optimized allows you to show up on the first page of search results when managers and coordinators of supplier diversity, purchasing agents and the directors of procurement services are in the vendor research phase. If your website doesn’t show up on the first page of search results on Google, Bing or Yahoo, (especially when they search your company name) your potential opportunity might be in jeopardy.
- Contact and Code Information — As simple as it seems, there are government contractor websites that make it hard to reach and understand them. Make it easy for agents and purchasers to get ahold of you and identify your commodity codes. This is especially important for small businesses since commodity codes are used to classify goods and services that they may provide.
- Core Services — One of the things some government contractors don’t do enough of is listing out their core services on their website. This can be a point of new business but can also help boost relationship building because it provides a good user experience.
Need more tips on how to grow your business? Check out our Business to Government (B2G) Marketing Strategy Consulting.
