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Have you ever been to a restaurant where the food was good, but the service was so terrible you vowed never to go back? Perhaps the waiters or waitresses were slow and unresponsive; or the place didn’t look very clean; or the atmosphere was just depressing.
In any case, it was not the core business – the food – that lost customers; it was rather the environmental attributes – the look, the feel, and the functionality of the establishment. While we are all familiar with this experience offline, many of us are blind to the fact that often we create the same negativity in our company’s web presence.
How to Design Your Website to Maximize Profits
Having the greatest product to hit the web won’t make any difference if your potential customers experience so much trouble with your website that they turn to your competitors instead. Here are five steps to a great web presence that will help you encourage your website visitors to stick around and become paying customers:
1. Establish your website goals.
Before you can have a successful website, you need to take the time to determine what goals you are trying to accomplish with your web presence. Take the time to plan your site content, your structure and your overall design to fulfill your site goals.
2. Get the design right.
Nothing is more likely to discourage a potential customer than a website that looks as if was designed by amateurs. Invest in a professional designer who knows how to make a website look stunning – it will be worth every penny.
3. Create a user-friendly site visitor experience.
Having the information a visitor is looking for on your website won’t help you if the visitor can’t find it. Make sure your site structure and design are intuitive for your visitors and that they facilitate the process of finding the information visitors need. Also be sure to use persuasion architecture to keep your visitors on your site and moving toward your e-commerce goals.
4. Establish and implement a web-marketing plan.
Now that you have an attractive web presence that is ready and able to convert visitors into paying customers, the next step is to start bringing those visitors to your website. Consider appropriate marketing activities that will help you achieve your website goals and allocate a budget that will allow you to judge your success.
5. Set up a data-capture and customer-retention strategy.
Once you have visitors coming to your site, you want to track what brings you the most success in achieving your goals and encourage those people to become repeat visitors. To do this, you’ll need software that helps you evaluate your data and identify which marketing methods are the most successful, which pages and links drive your visitors deeper into the site, and why your visitors might be leaving without helping you complete your site goals. Also, you’ll want to encourage your visitors to leave personal information so you can use email marketing and other methods to contact them again and invite them to return to your site.
It’s worth taking the time to get your web presence right. Online businesses are expecting a growth of 41% over the next year, double that of their offline competitors. Following these five steps to create a strong web presence that encourages visitors to become paying customers can have a huge impact on your company’s profitability.
If you would like help making plans to update or develop your new website, call 01491 614121 for a no-obligation consultation.
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There are several ways to get plenty of content for your website without investing time or money. These include article directories, product descriptions and manufacturers’ or users reviews. But are they really going to help your website?
Why Fresh Content is Vital for Keeping Customer Interest Peaked
In a highly competitive online environment, using old, worn-out content can be detrimental to your business. Here are some reasons why fresh, unique content can make a huge difference to your company gaining increased exposure.
1. Stand Out from the Crowd
If you have the same content as your competitors, it’s only going to be a matter of luck whether a customer buys with you or someone else (or if they ignore the clones altogether and move on to a more unique site). Creating unique website content gives you the opportunity to provide more value or a different perspective than your competitors.
2. Customise Your Site for your Target Audience
If you know your website visitors well, you should be able to hone your content and your product descriptions to appeal directly to them instead of using the cookie-cutter approach of generic content that can be found anywhere. You wouldn’t expect to see advertisements on Maxim Magazine for men conveyed in the same style as Woman’s Day; so why would you want to present your website information without targeting it to your own unique visitors?
3. Sound More Personal
A successful website is one that can create a relationship between your company and your site visitors. It’s very hard to create a strong relationship using generic text. Describing product descriptions and website content with your own voice and style will engage your site visitors, giving you a greater chance to convert them into paying customers.
4. Rank Better in Search Engines
If the exact same text is found on multiple web pages, search engines generally index only one copy. This means those great keywords and highly targeted Search Engine Optimisation information could be useless to you. By creating your own original text, you have a better chance of being seen as unique and it will help you rank well in the search engines.
5. Be More Trustworthy
Reviews and descriptions from manufacturers are good at telling the whole story about a product. Using your own personal insights about the products and services you sell can give your site visitors important information they need to make their buying decisions. Even mentioning improvements on weak points in your products can boost sales, because your visitors will realize they can rely upon your descriptions to be honest.
Creating unique website content is something any e-business can do, and the rewards can be compelling. There may be good reasons for using press releases or other widespread information on your site, but it’s best if you can add commentary or additional viewpoints to the pre-generated content to give it added value and to enhance your website’s unique voice and style. By doing so, you can set your business apart from the crowd and give your visitors compelling reasons to buy from you instead of your competitors.
If you would like a no-obligation consultation to explore the best way to keep your website updated, please call 01491 614121.
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Getting other websites to link to yours has two very powerful advantages: firstly, those links can drive direct traffic to your site, and secondly, links from popular sites can increase your page’s ranking with Google and other popular search engines.
Inbound links can drive a substantial number of paying customers to your website without costing you anything. But if you’re not paying, how can you convince other sites to link to yours? One powerful method is called link baiting.
The Advantages of Link Baiting, and How to Do It Well
Link baiting is the art of creating content people will want to discuss – and when they discuss it, they will include links back to your original text. Here are some ideas for creating remarkable content that will entice other websites to link to your home page.
Be Funny.
Everyone loves content that makes them smile, and the web is the perfect medium to pass on humour. So, if you can express something in a humorous fashion on your website, people will be more likely to tell their readers about it.
Be Original.
People won’t link to you if you’re just repeating what everyone else is saying. On the other hand, if you’re the first to cover a story or if you’re saying something new or unique, people will respond.
Offer a Different Perspective.
Another way to create unique content is to look at a well-covered topic from a new perspective. If you can bring something new to the table, even an old discussion can seem fresh and link-worthy.
Be Controversial.
A tactic which can be very successful, but which should be used with care, is to say something that will get people riled up. Go against prevailing opinion, disagree with an expert on a popular topic, or create a no-holds-barred article where you slam a common practice in your field. This will definitely get people chattering about your site as long as you don’t push it too far and lose credibility.
Be Flattering.
You can also get good inbound links by speaking highly about other bloggers, websites and practices. People love to hear good things about themselves, and they will often be glad to send traffic to sites that compliment them, especially if the compliments are sincere.
Be Simple to Understand.
Top-ten lists are very popular link bait. Why? Because they take a complex subject and make it easy for readers to understand. If you can create an easy-to-link primer on a subject, many sites will be glad to use your information rather than having to cover the topic themselves every time they refer to it.
Remember that driving traffic to your link-baited pages is only the first step. If you want to capitalise on that traffic, you’ll need to encourage visitors to continue exploring your site through clear calls to action and enticement to visit other pages. If you would like a develop an effective link strategy for your website, call 01491 614121 for a no-obligation consultation.
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When we receive offers in our email inbox telling us about ways to make lots of money with very little effort, we’re justifiably skeptical. After all, if it were so easy, everyone would be doing it, right?
And yet, the temptation to cut corners in our business practices remains strong. For example, the easiest way to build up an email marketing list is to buy the list from one of the many companies offering to sell contacts. However, the fastest and easiest way is usually not the best.
Boost Your Marketing Power with an In-House Email Marketing List
When you simply purchase an email list, you are pushing your marketing message to people who have no previous relationship with your company. The chance of your marketing message being read at all, or of those readers responding positively, is slim to none. People are so overwhelmed by advertising messages that they will simply delete or ignore advertising they are unfamiliar with. Think about your own email reading habits – do you ever open a piece of advertising email, and think, “Hey, that’s just what I happened to need right now!”, then make a purchase?
This is why it’s worth the extra time and effort to build up your own email marketing list. Your in-house email marketing list builds on the work you have done with your Search Engine Marketing and your website content to generate enthusiasm and build trust among people who are already interested in your products and services. The advantages of an in-house mailing list include:
Those who sign up to the list are excited enough about your offerings to want to learn more about them, which means the list has a much higher conversion rate than one you purchase from another company.
Because you know more about the traffic you generate, you can compose emails to be more appealing to readers.
You have far less risk of being identified as a spammer.
You have full control over the email list, which means you can be sure people are properly unsubscribed and that the list is accurate.
Save money – instead of paying another company for leads, you’ll generate them yourself. Your only cost will be the value of any incentives you offer.
So how can you quickly build up a good in-house mailing list?
Some great ideas include:
Build Your Reputation. If you create a truly useful, informative newsletter, people are going to tell their friends and acquaintances about it, which will grow your list naturally.
Make it Easy to Get Referrals. To help your newsletter spread virally, remind your readers to share it with their friends, and make it easy to do so with a ‘forward-to-a-friend’ link.
Offer an Incentive. People who are on the fence about whether to sign up for your newsletter may need an incentive to go ahead and join the list.
You can offer a monthly giveaway on your newsletter, a free download, or an informative white paper to entice people to join your mailing list.
Show the Benefits. Making older copies of your newsletter available online can help site visitors decide whether it’s worthwhile to sign up for your list.
Creating an in-house mailing list takes a little more time and effort than purchasing a mailing list from another company, but the benefits to your company can be enormous. If you would like to evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing activities, or wish to create your own email marketing strategy, please call 01491 614121 for a no-obligation consultation.
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As marketers have known for decades, a well-written sales letter can mean the difference between your company’s success and failure. A sales letter can attract attention, define your products and services, and persuade customers to buy.
Sales letters are just as important for online marketing as they are for offline retailers, so here are five steps to create a great sales page for your website that will convert more visitors to paying customers.
Creating Persuasive Online Copy that Sells
1. Know Your Target Audience
People respond well to sales letters that directly address their experience and unique problems. By taking the time to understand your target audience’s needs, you can write a very compelling sales page for your website. Remember to avoid talking about yourself, and what you can do – focus instead on your customers and how your products can solve their problems and benefit their lives.
2. Grab Your Readers’ Attention
Your readers are busy, and there are plenty of things online to distract them from your message. To keep their attention focused on your sales page, you need a headline that really catches their attention. Work hard on creating headlines that encapsulate your point and entice your readers to dive deeper into your sales page. Use subheadings throughout the sales letter to keep that momentum going from start to finish.
3. Make Your Sales Letter Easy to Read
Your readers simply don’t have the patience to plow through a long, difficult sales letter. Make it easy for them to keep reading by using:
A logical progression of ideas that are cohesive and convincing from start to finish.
Proven web-writing techniques such as bullet points and subheadings so your readers can quickly identify the information they need.
Plenty of white space so your readers don’t feel overwhelmed by large, boring blocks of text.
Words that are simple and direct. Remember, not all your potential customers may have English as their first language.
Topography and design that is clear and easy to follow. Avoid Flash and other splashy techniques that slow down your readers and which may not display properly on their computers.
4. Put the Readers First
When writing copy for web pages, it can be easy to focus on search engine optimization first. After all, search engines will drive traffic to those pages, so you want to ensure you hit your most important keywords and rank well in the results pages. Remember, however, that it doesn’t help to drive traffic to your sales pages if you can’t convert those visitors to paying customers. Learn to use keywords naturally, so you appeal to readers first and search-engine spiders second.
5. Make Follow-Up Easy
The best sales letters in the world won’t do you any good if your readers are left sitting with their wallets in their hands and no idea where to go next. Use strong calls of action and a good navigational system from your sales page to encourage readers to take the next step in the buying process, whether that is finding more information, signing up for a newsletter, or proceeding to the check-out area.
These five easy guidelines can help you create online sales letters that will greatly increase the profitability of your website.
Call 01491 614121 for a no-obligation consultation to review the effectiveness of your sales copy and website persuasion architecture.
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