Are you, like many other website owners, frustrated at the amount of time, effort and money you've put into your website, only to see few or no sales?
Like most business owners, you probably know your products or services inside out; you know the benefits of them, and what they can give to other businesses or consumers. And you probably paid good money for a website to promote them. You may even be getting hundreds of visitors a day to your website, but if this isn't converting into sales, what's going wrong?
Here are seven tips to help you attract BUYERS to your website, not just visitors.
1) Have a clear purpose
We all visit websites that leave us a little confused about what the business owning them actually "does". Is your website like this?
Statistics show that you have only 10 seconds to impress your potential customer - if they spend those 10 seconds with furrowed brow, trying to work out if you provide the product or service that they need, you'll lose them.
Action point : Make a list of the things you want to sell from your website, from the most important to the least. Does your website show this?
2) Make your home page copy sparkle
It's all very well telling your visitor how great your product or service is, but everyone wants to know What's In It For Me? Use headlines and bullet points to tell your reader how your products will benefit them.
Action point: Rewrite your home page copy to sell your products or services from the visitor's point of view, not yours .
3) Use testimonials
If you've supplied your products or services to happy customers, then include a testimonial on your website. If your business is local, and the person is well known, even better! If you can get multiple testimonials, include them on each page of the site, so your visitors read great things that your clients say every step of the way.
Action point: Email your top 10 clients and ask them for a testimonial - then put it on your website with a link back to theirs.
4) Keep your layout consistent
Make sure every page of your site is laid out in the same way. If the text on one page is centred, when all of the others are right justified, it makes your site look unprofessional.
Action point - check every page of your site has a consistent layout
5) Use colours and fonts for emphasis
Be sure that your site is easy to read - a local business site I visited recently had maroon coloured text on a navy blue background - NOT professional and NOT legible. Use different colours and fonts by all means, but sparingly and for emphasis, not everywhere.
Action point : check your site to see if it is definitely legible - and be honest!
6) Become a BUYER
Use your site as a visitor would - is it easy to find the information you need? Is the path from the front page to the order or enquiry form obvious? Are your contact details obvious? Sometimes it's easy to miss out important things - visiting your site as a buyer, not the owner, helps you to see what's wrong, and then fix it.
Action point : Visit your website once a month and go through the buying or enquiry process.
7) Ask others
At NikkiPilkington.com we have a great service that allows you to have 100 people visit your site and then make comments on it. They'll tell you what they liked about the design, how they rated the content, what put them off, what turned them on, and whether your site would convince them to buy your product or service.
For just £50 we'll send details of your site to 100 people that have an interest in your industry or product, and collate all of the findings into a report after ten days. The report will be delivered to you by email, along with the email addresses of any visitors that wanted to find out more.
Recent comments from our reviewers include: "Would have liked to have ordered, but link to order form didn't work", "Spelling errors make site look amateurish", "Great site, have added to my favourites", "No contact details anywhere on site makes me wary of buying from this company".
Action point: email Nikki at nikki@nikkipilkington.com to request your research campaign or to find out more, then act on the results.
Nikki Pilkington is owner of Milton Keynes based Internet Marketing Company Nikki Pilkington.com, and writes articles, hints and tips to help people looking to promote their website for free, as well as running paid e-marketing campaigns. For more of her articles visit http://www.nikkipilkington.com and sign up to the newsletter.
It may seem like the publishing industry's equivalent of Beanie... Read More
Profiles are one of the best kept secrets around regarding... Read More
Your business website is a critical aspect of being able... Read More
I can't think of any business alive today that couldn't... Read More
Losing website sales and traffic is sometimes simply a case... Read More
Although there are significant differences among the various types of... Read More
Fantastico is a 3rd-party cPanel add-on and can be purchased... Read More
Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users... Read More
I recently helped my mom to launch a website (www.mom2me.com)... Read More
Running an effective website is a continuous process. I have... Read More
What do you mean, you don't have a website for... Read More
What is the point of having a website, you may... Read More
Are you, like many other website owners, frustrated at the... Read More
Did you know that hosting companies overcrowd their servers despite... Read More
You have seen those web pages where they have the... Read More
Server Side Includes (SSI) with ASP People often... Read More
When used to describe a web site, the term "sticky"... Read More
In a previous ezinearticles.com article,"I Need real visitors, Not Search... Read More
Does My Web Site Require A Web Database?If your web... Read More
Making maximum profit from your law firm website is important,... Read More
Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world.... Read More
1. Many people are not getting good or complete advice.... Read More
How many Web Sites did you stumble over telling you... Read More
What to put your the website if you are an... Read More
#5 User Satisfaction: Learn what your visitors and site users... Read More
Why do some web sites reap huge benefits while others... Read More
A common dilemma most small and medium businesses face when... Read More
Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and... Read More
My life's greatest passion is a safari hobby. And what... Read More
Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as... Read More
When you purchase a new item from a Yahoo! Store,... Read More
We are clearly well past the innocent "golden age" of... Read More
Design and layout can make your communication come alive and... Read More
Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as... Read More
This article was prompted by some customer support work I... Read More
If you are looking for creating your online presence you... Read More
Looks like every client wants a Flash site these days... Read More
Many websites I come across don't have a single link... Read More
A while ago one of my clients approached me and... Read More
In the time that I have been using the Internet,... Read More
Why do some sites succeed while the vast majority of... Read More
People like to get immediate responses to requests. Autoresponders are... Read More
Making maximum profit from your law firm website is important,... Read More
If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More
Right after the thought, "I need a website," people usually... Read More
A website lets you put your products in front of... Read More
If you're fairly new to the Internet scene, you may... Read More
If your company own one or more stores, you might... Read More
So you have a good idea for a business and... Read More
The first step in setting up an online business...Starting an... Read More
Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can... Read More
Affiliate programs are a great way to earn an income... Read More
When marketing your website, it's important to know which of... Read More
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's... Read More
How can we add Word Rich Content to our Websites... Read More
Whether you have your own business already, or are looking... Read More
D.zigns dzignerwebs The Basics Before starting on... Read More
Q1.Why would I need a web site? A1.- Improve my... Read More
Although there are significant differences among the various types of... Read More
Often time I've browsed sites and seen the same thing... Read More
There are many different traffic analysis tools, ranging from simple... Read More
So you want to have a website. You have gone... Read More
1. Choose a big enough font size. A size 12... Read More
The popular search engine Google indexes over 8 billion websites.... Read More
QUESTION: Should I build and maintain my business Web... Read More
Thinking about starting up a business? The web is the... Read More
Web Development |