If you
consider your website a money pit, you are not alone. Quite a few business
owners have told me that they have web sites because "everyone else has a
web site", but they haven't gotten any business from their web site. None.
Zero. Nada. Zip. Many of them have paid thousands of dollars to web designers
to create the web sites for them, and then the web sites just sit there,
gathering the proverbial Internet dust, and getting enormous traffic consisting
of three to five unique visitors a month.
Your web
site should not be languishing in one of the rarely visited corners of the Net.
Instead, it should be working 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year getting
leads and clients for your business. It should serve as marketing brochure and
as your best salesperson (who incidentally never sleeps, and doesn't require
either salary or commissions).
So how do
you turn your dust collector into a lean, mean sales machine? First, you need
to lay down the infrastructure for your online business. Here are three
guidelines your web site should adhere to before its initial debut:
- Your web
site must be easy to navigate, understand and use. When a web surfer comes to a
web site and doesn't understand what the web site is about in the first few
minutes, the surfer moves on to the next web site (trust me, there lots of them
out there. Approximately 2.7 billion at last count, give or take a few
billion).
If the
purpose and intent of your web site is not blatantly obvious, a surfer will
move on. If your web site is difficult to navigate, a surfer will move on. If
your web site is hard to use (for example, it is not obvious how to contact you
or hire you) a surfer will move on.
- Your web
site must discuss what you do and how what you do will benefit your customers.
Let's say Sue and Jane are both weight loss coaches. Sue's web site says that
Sue is a weight loss coach. Jane's web site says that Jane is a weight loss
coach who helps women look and feel better by losing 30 pounds in 3 months.
Which coach
sounds more appealing? The one who not only states what she does, but also
shows what is in it for the customer. The site must answer a fundamental
question: Why should I hire you?
- Have a
newsletter sign up box on your web site. The majority of your web site visitors
will not contact you about your services after visiting your web site, but they
will subscribe for a free newsletter. By subscribing, they give you permission
to send them your information-packed newsletter, which will also serve as a
reminder about your business.
Without a
newsletter, many people will visit your web site once and promptly forget about
it 10 minutes after leaving it. By having a newsletter, you are able to capture
these visitors, and tell them about your business again and again.
Take action
today! Take a critical look at your website and make sure that it conforms to
the guidelines outlined above.
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