Why your best salesperson is your website
One of the biggest problems business owners and executives have during the web design process is thinking about their websites as websites. That might sound like a riddle, but it’s actually a reminder that your website has a more important job than simply sitting online and bringing in visitors – it should be a good sales tool, too.
If you think of your website as a salesperson, you'll begin to think of it as more than just a glorified brochure. You'll even want it to be better designed, since you probably want your sales reps to look good.
To help develop your website into a salespersonask these four questions:
1. Does your website know everything about your business that it should?
2. Do you measure your website's success (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually)?
3. Do you offer your website "training" on your business fundamentals, new trends or economic changes in your local market or in the national business climate for your industry?
4. Does your website have all your current products, services and pricing?
You would never send a sales representative to prospective clients without ensuring he or she had all the needed information, so your informational expectations of the website should be no different.
How to make your website into a better salesperson?
Websites must evolve beyond brochureware. A brand's website is often the first introduction a potential customer will have with a company. Positive first impressions lead to higher satisfaction.
A website does not perform well as a tool in isolation however. Websites are typically touch points that live at the center of a broad range of marketing activities, including advertising, social media marketing, search marketing, blogging and other methods of gaining brand visibility.
Here are a couple of considerations in order to improve the conversion rate of your brand's website:
- Provide clear calls-to-action.
- Provide useful and relevant information based on the needs of your users.
- Keep the website design of a high quality and keep the design contemporary in style to build trust.
- Make it easy for users to find the information they are looking for.
- Make sure your information is up-to-date.
- Be compelling. Your website must demonstrate why your brand is the right fit.
- Make it easy to convert into a lead or buyer. Don’t hide your calls-to-action, contact forms or buy now buttons.
- Offer a clear and compelling reason to buy from your brand.
- Improve drop off points. Study your website analytics and user journey flows to find drop off points.
- Ensure your website adapts to desktop, tablet and mobile devices since buyers use all to search and evaluate