You will also receive a complementary subscription to the high-content, high-value “Web Impact” e-zine about how to get more value from your business website.
(I will never rent, trade, or sell your information) * = required fieldIt doesn’t matter how much traffic you are getting – if you aren’t converting that traffic to customers.
If you have a product to sell, allowing customers to purchase online is an obvious way to convert traffic into cash. If you offer services, conversion for you might mean a call to set up an appointment. Sure, these are obvious and great ways to generate actual revenue from your website, but keep in mind that not every visit to your website will result in these types of actions.
The reasons people might be checking out your site are many:
As you can see, especially for first time visitors, people are most often not quite ready to buy when they first encounter your website – but that doesn’t mean they won’t ever be ready to buy from you. The question is whether when they are ready to buy, they will remember you.
Marketing studies have shown that it can take seven (7) to ten (10) exposures to your message before a prospect is ready to buy. So the key is to make sure that someone’s first visit to your site isn’t their last exposure to you and your message. You need an easy and efficient way to deliver these additional “exposures” without becoming a pest to your prospects or having to continually follow up with each one individually.
Capturing prospects’ contact information via a simple form on your website is a great way to keep in touch. However, you need to provide something of value to your prospects in order to entice them to give you something of value – their email address. Keep in mind that what you offer needs to be valuable to them but doesn’t have to cost you a lot to provide.
The best enticement for your target customers will depend on your business and prospects. Some good options include:
Whatever you choose, you will need to have a simple system in place to distribute the item once someone signs up on your website, and you will need to start regularly delivering your additional messages to your list of prospects. This often takes the form of an “e-zine” or newsletter, but doesn’t necessarily have to. They key is to continue offering your prospects something of value, so they will look forward to your messages rather than automatically trashing them.
Regular communication with your prospect list will allow them to get to know you. You won’t need to “sell” so hard when your expertise speaks for itself. With that in mind, it’s essential that your messages are friendly and authentic. Your prospects will want to work with you once they know you a little better. They will also want to refer others to you. This is where your website can provide real value to your business.
You will find that as your list grows, the same amount of effort spent on your regular communication will bring you more value. They key is to start as soon as possible and set it up so that sending your messages isn’t an onerous or overly time-consuming process. If you recognize the potential for growing not only your customers, but also your reputation, your strategic alliance contacts, and your referral sources in setting up this sort of communication channel, but feel unsure about how to do it (what email list service or product to use, what your business can offer of value regularly, or how to get all that writing done and the pieces put together), please contact me about how I can offer this assistance to you.
