Monday, 19 October 2009
How Much Is Your Website Costing You?
Although it’s gotten easier and cheaper to get a website up and running these days, getting your website working efficiently is still a challenge. Part of the work I do as an online marketing consultant involves reviewing and auditing company websites to boost sales.
With the average website converting only 2% of its traffic to profitable sales, there’s usually room for improvement with every website. I want to share three key reasons websites under-perform with you, but first let’s consider the pro’s and con’s of reviewing your website for weaknesses.
As daunting as it may be to commit the time and resources needed to improve your website, it’s really a question of paying now or paying….now. Every day your website could be turning away potential clients.
In my experience, the gains in website efficiency far outweigh any cost or time investment needed to improve a website’s performance. To help get you on your way to improving your website and reclaiming some of those 98% of lost potentials sales, here are 3 key areas of website weakness.
1. What’s the point?
A lot of corporate websites struggle with a crowded and confused homepage. Every time the marketing or sales department wants to promote a new produce feature or service a new link is usually added to the homepage resulting in a something that looks more like a phone directory than a clear, professional sales resource.
The key is to carefully decide what the primary goal of your website is. What is the one, most important action you want visitors to your homepage to take? Focus on this and build the homepage around it.
2. Me, me, me, me
Of course you need to tell website visitors about your company and about what you do, but don’t get carried away. People visit your site for them, not for you. If you’ve got a great new ad or interesting corporate backstory, make sure people can find it but don’t sacrifice the key goals of your website to corporate egotism.
3. Computer Says No
A lot of text on corporate websites read like some sort of legalese contract or like a computer from some 1970s futuristic movie. Make your content accessible and clear. Be conversational and speak to prospects in a human and sincere voice. A good sales person knows that they have to let their personalities and passion shine through when they’re making a sale, why deprive your website of a voice that sets you and your company apart from the competition?
If you can fix these aspects of your website, you’ll be well on your way to boosting that paltry 2% conversion rate. Good luck!
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