Three Things Every Website Should Do

When I started my company in 2002, I knew I needed to have a website. Why? To provide credibility! How can a company be "real" in this day and age if it doesn't have a website? So, like many companies, I published an informational website that explained "here's who we are, and here's what we do".

I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about my website. I certainly didn't think of it as a strategic weapon in my company's marketing arsenal. That started to change in the spring of 2004 when a newsletter was forwarded to me by a fellow member of the National Speaker's Association. The subject of the featured article was something called "internet marketing".

The article caught my fancy, so I subscribed to the author's newsletter. Over the next month or two I picked up an eBook and a CD that were recommended in newsletter articles. The concept of internet marketing really started to intrigue me, so I decided to do some serious research.

During the next four months I invested several thousand dollars and a couple hundred hours learning about internet marketing. My conclusion? I was missing out big-time with my company's website! In fact, I concluded that just about every business website would be vastly improved if it was re-designed to do three things:

1. Help visitors RAPIDLY answer two questions:

• "What does this company do?", and
  
  
• "Is there anything here for me?"

This keeps website visits from being one-shot deals. If you offer visitors the opportunity to opt-in to receive free, value-added information, and you provide truly useful information on a regular and consistent basis, you will earn trust and build relationships. This increases the likelihood that your website visitors will buy from you over time.

3. Motivate Action

If a website page is going to motivate a visitor to take action, the focus needs to change from you, your company and your products and services to your visitors and their problems.

Web pages that motivate action are not distant and aloof. Instead, reading them feels like a one-on-one conversation between you and the reader. The copy invokes the reader's emotions, plus provides enough supporting details to enable the reader to feel comfortable making a decision to buy online or to contact your company for more information.

This very specialized form of copywriting is called a "sales letter". You have probably received sales letters in the mail, or seen a similar type of advertising in television infomercials. Some sales letters and infomercials sound pretty "cheesy"; yet, for decades sales letters have repeatedly proven to be one of the most productive forms of direct marketing.

The biggest criticism you'll hear about sales letters (usually from corporate website designers) is, "This copy is much too long! Nobody is going to take the time to read that much information!"

You know what? The critics are almost right. Probably 95% of readers will not read any given sales letter in its entirety. That's OK, because sales letters are not written to appeal to everyone! They are written to appeal to specific individuals that have the specific problems the sales letter addresses.

Most people will skim a sales letter...IF it has a compelling headline or sub-headline that catches their attention. They may read a paragraph or glance at a few bullets. If the paragraph or bullets are compelling, they may read another paragraph. Once they have read several compelling paragraphs, they may decide to go back and read the sales letter from the beginning. At that point it becomes much more likely the reader will take the action the sales letter recommends.

Conclusion

If you want your website to generate online sales and/or leads, it needs to do three things:

Change the focus of your website from you, your company, and your offerings to your visitors and their problems -- and watch the online sales and leads roll in!

Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About It. To learn more about his book and sign up for more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020performance.com.

More Web Development Articles

A Beginners Guide to Server Side Includes
An Introduction to Server Side IncludesBeginner? That's OK!While much has been written about Server Side Includes (SSIs -also known as Virtual Includes) much of this information is designed for intermediate to advanced webmasters. This article is aimed at beginners.

4 Steps to Selling More With Your Web Site
Most web sites are more like stage sets than real buildings; they make a good impression and they look substantial at first, but when you open a door, you end up back stage in the dark. They don't generate large numbers of leads, help build relationships with prospects or generate the desired volume of sales.

The Top Ten Benefits of Having a Web Site
Do you need a web site? Are you considering getting one but are unsure? Here we take a look at the main reasons why a web site could be beneficial to your organisation.1) It will give you the competitive edgeIf you do not have a web site people cannot visit it ? an obvious point you might say.

What YOU Should Know Before Getting A Web Site!
Everyday thousands of new businesses make the leap and take their business on line, what about yours? If you haven?t already, I?ll bet you have thought about it and wondered how much more business you could be doing if you just went on line?and right about then, you wonder what it would take to get your business on line?Here are some things to consider:1. What do I expect my web site to do? The question you must ask yourself first and foremost is, ?What do I want my website to do??.

Why Your Brick-and-Mortar Biz Needs A Website
The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance, and has changed the way many of us do business. More and more consumers are now doing their shopping online and, unfortunately, some business owners have felt the pinch.

Having a Portfolio on the Internet Can Help you Infiltate the Workforce
If you?re an up and coming graphic/web designer just out of university, you?ll know it?s quite hard to break into the workforce. You have to contact employers one by one, spend your time traveling and lugging your portfolio to their offices.

Duplication vs. Individualism
How can we add Word Rich Content to our Websites without overtly duplicating others website content, and as an end product maintain our own Individualism?In theory Article Libraries are the answer to the above question. But, is it true that if you continually add like information to your site, you no longer maintain an individual posture?Not every article that is submitted to your site will fit the needs of your particular agenda.

Why Local Service Companies Should Have a Website
The Internet is being used by local service business to improve sales today. Sales are improved because a website gives a company more credibility and in some cases generates leads.

Your Content for Nothing and Your Clicks for Free
The first thing my business consultant (read brother-in-law) asked me, when I told him that I wanted to build a website and put AdSense on it was, ?Do you want to build a site to help people or to make money?? After thinking about it for a while I couldn?t imagine why I shouldn?t do both. Why not a website that helps people and generates money for me? My consultant looked at me like I had taken one too many falls off my bike, which he knew I road primarily to save on the cost of gas, but he proceeded forward.

Where on Earth is Your Websitee?
You've just finished congratulating your marketing team. After six months of concentrated effort you can now actually find your own company web site within the search engines.