Everyone’s got a website nowadays, but how many are effective?
How many are generating quality leads, building your brand and increasing your sales?
Have you had your website created with a ‘best practice’ checklist, or has someone just put together a few basic pages that you’re hoping will garner you some attention in the off chance that a prospect finds you?
Well, if you’re like most business owners, you’ll be somewhere between the two extremes described above. This guide is designed to help you get the most out of your web site, by making sure you avoid the main pitfalls many businesses are susceptible to.
Here they are:
Sin No. 1.
Not promoting the rear end off your site. How can you do that? By utilizing the following methods:
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Pay per click advertising (for example, Google Adwords)
• Submitting media releases to online PR directories
• Start your own blog and publish regular, value-added articles focused on your niche
• Join affiliate programmes
• Promote to your subscriber list via emails and viral campaigns
• Use banners, pop-ups or pop-unders
• Use SMS
• Social media
• Offline (think business cards, classified ads or notice boards)
• …and anything else you can think of!
Sin No. 2.
Going on about yourself.
Look at your homepage copy and if it’s not almost entirely about your customers and what you can do for them, you need a rewrite!
Sin No. 3.
No value.
Visitors might not always land on your home page and if there’s not something of value for them, wherever they land, you need to do something about it!
Sin No. 4.
No opt-in list.
You should be building a list to market to in future – to do this, you should offer something valuable to your visitors (like a free e-book, resource or guide).
Sin No. 5.
Failing to follow up.
A prospect will only buy when it suits them, so don’t ‘give up on following up’ until they either give in, or tell you to stop.
Sin No. 6.
Lack of tracking.
You don’t need fancy software – Google make it possible for you to track your traffic, for little or nothing. Find out where your visitors are coming from and at what point they’re leaving.
Any of these deadly sins can harm your business, but one or more in combination could be a real killer for you.
One final sin is to have someone who knows nothing about marketing online to hop on your site and tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing.
Instead, make sure you have someone who understands business as well as getting results online, take a look at your web presence and offer a considered opinion that’s rooted in experience, not speculation.