Image by Danard Vincente on Flickr
Website marketing and website conversion are key pieces in having a website. Too often, we expect having a website will automatically mean I get more clients and more sales. That can easily happen, but the website needs to be a part of an overall marketing plan. Let’s review what a website will do and not do for us.
What a Website Will Do
Save time and money in answering miscellaneous questions
A website is a great place to refer people to for general questions. What do you offer? What are your hours? Where are you located? How do I sign up for service? These questions can be answered on web pages that describe your products/services. You also build trust with your audience by sharing your story, your company’s history, money-saving or time-saving tips, etc. on your website. We like doing business with someone we can trust.
Give you a place to refer potential clients and current clients
A web site is a great way to educate your clients. If they want more information about Product X, you can refer them to the Product X webpage. If they want to understand your Service A better, you can refer them to Service A webpage. A website is the ideal place to give your audience more detail about your services and products. Again, you are also building trust by giving them a place to research and digest this information at their leisure.
Gives you a larger audience
A website is seen around the world. Your audience suddenly becomes much larger. This is great if you are not location specific. If you are a retail business, it may seem that this isn’t necessary, yet in this age of technology, someone in another state or country can easily refer a friend or family member that is local to your business because they found you on the internet.
What A Website Doesn’t Do
Automatically brings in more clients
Although the end result may be more clients, a website doesn’t guarantee more clients. A website needs to fit in with your overall marketing plan. Offline marketing needs to promote your website. Your website needs to be on your business card, invoices, brochures, flyers, purchase orders, etc. Include social media as a part of your marketing plan. Be creative in how to get people to visit your site.
With millions of websites, your site is a small fish in a big pond. There are additional steps necessary for your website to perform well in search engine results. The going rate for search engine optimization is $300/month, often with a minimum of 12-24 months. (Onward! Studios is looking into cost savings options for this.)
Automatically increase sales
This goes along with the previous section. In takes a number of ‘touches’ before someone will buy from you. This is similar to traditional marketing. They may need to see your ad 7 times before they buy from you. It’s true with a website, too. The beauty of the website is that it’s there for their preview whenever they want. If this is combined with an effective marketing plan, you consistently provide the necessary touches to keep your company in front of your potential client.