USING YOUR WEBSITE TO SELL
A website is an essential component of your business. No website means you lose customers. Your website creates your ‘business face’ and establishes your credibility. What your website looks like affects how people perceive your business. You wouldn’t dream of arriving at an important meeting in a stinky stained t-shirt. A poorly designed website can be as equally distracting to your customers.
Do you need to spend thousands of dollars to make it right? Can my website successfully bring me business?
First, your customers have to be able to find your website. Is your business name the same as your website? Strange URLs can be very confusing. In terms of being found in search engines; 1) People on an average use 2.2 words in the search request; 2) Only 35% of website visitors will find your website through a search engine. Print media, email signatures, and word of mouth are still essential.
Second, design and visual layout is more important than you may think. Ease of navigation was found to be the leading factor in persuading shoppers to buy. If they can’t find it, they can’t buy it. What to do? Run a user test. Find an honest friend and watch how they explore your website. What you think is intuitive and simple may be totally missed by someone else.
Third, when you are describing your product or service there are two ditches to fall into. Overly technical language will leave your customer confused. Strong marketing language may glaze over product specifics and leave your customer wondering. Good marketing writing is a unique skill – it may be worthwhile hiring someone to write your website copy.
Finally, you have to develop trust and credibility with your potential customers quickly. Here is where your layout is important. Too much information too fast will scare people away, but … most users want information – that is why they are on your website. It is all about how you lay it out. Clearly identify who you are, what you do, your Return Policy & Privacy Policy, and use real photos of people, buildings & equipment if applicable.
As you address these issues you’ll be surprised to see how effective your website can be for you. Also, just to encourage you in the process – everybody’s website is evolving. Check out the Way Back Machine (http://www.archive.org) – they have been archiving snapshots of websites since 1996 – you’ll be surprised to see what the web used to look like.
