The fundamentals
of business are the same online as they are offline. Making income and
profit is vital to the success of any business. How are income and profits
generated? By SELLING products.
Is your
site selling your products?
If you
answered no, why isnt it? Weak copy, poor design/organisation, poor
customer focus, internal company issues, no site visitors ...?
If you
answered yes - Are you being objective? The vast majority aren't and
could be improved to sell more. You want to sell more right?
The difference
between a failing business and a successful one is primarily the quantity
of product sales. If you make enough sales and therefore income to pay
off your costs, you survive. To be successful you must go beyond this
survival point and get higher sales and therefore higher income and
profits. Whilst most offline businesses seem to see this situation clearly
and work actively to increase sales, it seems a large proportion of
businesses online don't or at least dont on their website.
For example,
retail stores are intensely focused on their customers. They are constantly
striving to improve and increase sales of their products to the customer.
They often work on an income per area of space basis. This puts the
emphasis firmly on maximizing their selling space and offering.
We could
learn from this approach online and focus on making sales and improving
our offering. Whilst introducing the same income per area equation is
probably too much for the online world and small screens, the greater
emphasis on sales and sales income should be welcomed. That doesnt mean
squeezing ads and text into every conceivable web space, it means maximizing
your web space with compelling offers, good communication, a clear message,
intuitive layout and navigation, focus on potential customers, etc.
All things that encourage and nurture website usage and ultimately make
sales.
So how
do you make your website sell your products? Well, of course you need
to be marketing your site and products effectively to get potential
customers to your site. Once you have these visitors, you need to actively
sell your products to them. Sales dont happen on their own, your site
has to sell them. That means the work has to be put into your site and
for it to say what your potential customers want to hear.
With the
aid of a few questions, you can identify weak elements on your site
that arent actively selling your products and do whatever is necessary
to make them sell. Lets be clear about it, your objective is to sell
as many of your products as possible in the shortest time possible.
(If you dont have a website yet, use the questions and their results
to build a website around).
Before
we look at the questions themselves lets focus your mind a little. Try
to think from your potential customers point of view. Think objectively
to see what they see. They have probably never been to your site before
and come with an open mind ready to discover what you have to offer
them. What are they thinking? Well... consider what you see and think
when you go to a website:
- What
do you look for?
- What
impression do you get?
- What
are they offering me?
- What
exactly is in it for me?
- Are
they talking to me?
- Are
they saying what I want to hear?
- What
would make me buy immediately?
- Can
Itrust them?
Now you
have your potential customers point of view fresh in your mind, look
at your website and ask the following questions (and any relevant others):
- What
do your potential customers want from you?
- Can
they see what you are offering quickly?
- Can
they see clearly and quickly whats in it for them?
- Is your
text copy strong and actively selling your products?
- Is your
site focused on your potential customers?
- Is your
site's text, layout and organisation assisting them?
- Do they
know why they should buy from you?
- What
do your customers think of your site and your products?
- Is someone
responsible for increasing website sales?
- Is that
person doing that? If not, why?
The answers
you get should start giving an indication of under-performing elements
on your site and responsibility for website sales. Once identified,
you MUST then look for ways to improve or remove them. Be objective
and ruthless! If any element of your website is not selling your products
- improve or remove it. Do not rest until all your site elements are
actively selling your products.
A common
problem area to look out for is weak text copy. Weak copy will not sell
and should either be transformed into strong copy or removed. If its
not selling your products dont hesitate to remove it. For example, if
your copy says "free newsletter" its weak copy and is unlikely
to compel anyone to subscribe to it. Either improve it or remove it
- make it stronger "subscribe today and get this benefit, plus
this one... its all 100% free".
Just like
you, your potential customers are busy and bombarded by sales information
continuously. Make your site work for them and stand out with compelling
offers and products that solve their particular problem. Make sure,
in no uncertain terms, they know your product can solve their problem
and how. If they go away happy, it gives them a mental message to take
away that they'll remember and identify you with, a sort of mental business
card.
Put the
effort in and you'll get the results. The new customer gets what they've
been looking for, to solve their problem, and you of course get more
sales. Everybody is happy.
Good luck!
______________________________________________
Peter Simmons
is editor of the DYNAMIQ EZINE. GET MAXIMUM RESULTS FROM YOUR WEBSITE!
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and more... START GETTING RESULTS RIGHT NOW with your $129 WEBSITE EVALUATION
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