What makes a website successful? It depends on what the explicit
goal of the website is. If the goal is to make money, then a
successful site is one that makes you more money than it costs
you to maintain, manage, market and update.
So what should you do to ensure your website generates
substantial sales?
1. State Your Goals
In order for a website to make you money, you have to know what
its specific goals are first. Just like any good small business
consultant will advise you to create a business plan before you
start your business, a good Web consultant will suggest that you
create a website plan, with specific, written goals. “I want it
to make me money” is not enough. "I would like my site to
generate 1000 unique visits a month, produce 100 new leads a
month, and create 25 new sales a month” would be much more
useful, even if you don’t hit your targets.
2. Identify your Audience
You must know who is currently and will be coming to your
website. It is very important to have a clear picture of your
typical visitor. The more specific demographic information you
have, the better. That way you can tailor your website’s look &
feel, writing and calls-to-action properly.
3. Write Sales-Driven Copy
Once you know who your visitors are, you can craft your writing
accordingly. Clear, concise, grammatically correct verbiage is
necessary to make sales, regardless of your audience.
Furthermore, the less big blocks of text the better. Bullets,
headlines and very short paragraphs are much more likely to be
read online than large amounts of uninterrupted text.
Your writing should only talk about what you can do for your
visitor. It ought to explain to each reader why buying your
product or service will make their life easier, richer, more
comfortable, or make them more attractive, intelligent, or
successful. In other words, your website copy should very clearly
explain how you will somehow improve each reader’s life.
Therefore, the use of the word “you” is vital in any sales-driven
website copy. And your writing should be descriptive, action-
oriented and use active verbs instead of passive verbs. “You will
learn more by . . .”, “Buy Now” and “Get your Free download” are
examples.
So one secret of a website that generates sales is that the
writing on the site describes specific benefits the site visitor
will enjoy if they buy the product or service. It is action-
oriented, uses the words “you” and “yours”, and stays away from
simply describing features.
4. Include Calls to Action
Asking your visitor to do something specific is a call to action.
At the end of every site section or page, you need to include a
call to action. It can be as simple as, “Click here to register”,
“Contact Us Now” or “Go here to download your free Guide”. A
sales-driven Web page will describe specific benefits to the
visitor in its headlines, bullet points and short paragraphs, and
then ask the visitor to take an action at the end. Don’t leave
your potential customers hanging. Instead, compel them to do
something that will bring them closer to buying.
5. Learn from Brick & Mortar Retailers – Show Visitors Where To
Go
If you walk into any successful retail store and pay close
attention, you’ll notice that there are actually paths already
mapped out for you to follow. This is done on purpose by the
store designers to maximize sales. They lead you down paths that
they know will increase your chances of buying. They put things
in your way that tempt you to buy.
You too should create specific paths in your website that will
take full advantage of your sales and marketing efforts. If you
have a particular page in your site that acts as your sales page,
be sure to make the link to it prominent on your homepage, and
every page for that matter. This sales page ought to have a call
to action at the end of it that points to your shopping cart or
sign-up page. Don’t let your site visitors wander your site. Set
up the navigation in a deliberate way to generate more sales.
A good example of retail stores coaxing more sales out if its
customers is all the small-ticket items they sell at the checkout
counter. These impulse items are specifically there to attempt to
get a couple of extra dollars out of each customer who is waiting
in line. How can this translate into your website? At the virtual
checkout in your site, add other, less expensive, complimentary
items that they can click to add to their cart right there.
Tell your site visitors what you want them to do and where to go.
Stepping them through your site the way you want them to go will
increase and streamline your sales.
6. Don’t Distract your Visitors
If you point people to where you want them to go, thereby
increasing your sales potential, be sure not to distract them
along the way. Don’t include annoying animation or Flash unless
absolutely necessary. Don’t offer lots of superfluous links on
the “Buy Now” page, otherwise a significant percentage of people
who are about to buy will wander away via the extra links.
7. Include Compelling Images
People will almost always look at pictures before they read
anything. Images that invoke emotion are particularly effective.
If you’re selling products then you obviously will benefit if you
include pictures of each product. Product images should
communicate how they benefit the potential customer. If you’re
selling flowers, a picture of a bouquet on a table is not as
effectual as a woman in a front door beaming from ear to ear as a
man in a suit hands her that same bouquet.
8. Offer More Than Just a Sales Pitch
If you include free information on your site, interspersed with
calls to action you are more likely to build trust and comfort
among your potential website visitors. By offering free
information related to your product or service you’re showing
your visitors that you have their best interest in mind. You
can’t just say “We have your best interest in mind”, you have to
actually show it, and free, useful information does just that. By
allowing people to get used to you by first offering free
information, you make it more likely that they’ll buy from you in
the future.
9. Constantly Build Trust
People don’t buy from people or websites they don’t trust.
Offering free information is one way to accomplish this. Others
ways include offering a good return policy, posting a privacy
policy link on every page, and making it extremely easy to
contact you.
10. Nurture Existing Website Customers
Selling to someone who bought from you in the past is easier than
selling to someone for the first time. Treat existing customers
special by offering them discounts or designating certain site
sections only for their use. Include a bookmark feature on each
page of your site so that visitors can bookmark your site to
return again. Update your content regularly to entice return
visits. Offer ways for visitors to join a “Buyers Club”, to
register on the site to get custom content, or to join a frequent
buyers program. Once a person is comfortable on your site and
familiar with your business, they are more likely to buy from you
online.
By stating your website goals and learning who your customers
are, by putting yourself in the shoes of your site visitors when
creating, writing and managing your website, by pointing people
in the direction you want them to go while on your website, and
by building trust, you will see your website sales increase
substantially.
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