Have you ever visited a website and were absolutely bored out of your mind?
Unfortunately, way too many websites are just big, fat sales brochures yapping on and on about every excruciating detail about the company – right down to a 500-word history on when and why the company was founded. Uggg!
Always remember that your website needs to be about your customer, not about you. Your customer doesn’t give a hoot about when and why your company was founded. All they care about is their problems and finding a solution.
Blah and boring websites are much more common than websites that work. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that most small business owners need to do a complete overhaul of their website in order to bring it from “blah” to “ta-dah.”
The good news is that there are simple and immediate solutions that you can implement in order to keep prospects on your website and convert them to paying customers.
Here is a list of five simple and proven ways to transform your website:
1. Create a clear purpose.
When a visitor comes to your website, your purpose needs to be crystal clear. Do you want the prospect to enter their name and email into a website opt-in form? Are you trying to sell a product or service? Are you interested in educating the prospect over time? Your website should be designed to efficiently guide visitors to the information that they are seeking. It must have a clear and direct purpose.
In the overcrowded world of the internet, you only have three seconds to capture the attention of your prospect. If your visitor is confused (even a little), they are going to leave your website in order to find a more obvious solution.
2. Highlight your benefits.
A prospect visits your site in order to solve a problem or improve their lives. It’s your job to convince them that your product or service will accomplish this. You can succeed in doing this by highlighting the benefits that your prospect will receive if they purchase your product or service.
Will your product make your prospect happier? Will it save them time? Will they be healthier or wealthier? It’s imperative that you convey to your prospect that if they purchase from you, they will receive an obvious and important benefit.
3. Keep it simple.
Time is a precious commodity in today’s world. More than ever before, your visitors are looking for a solution to their problems in a quick and timely manner. They don’t have hours to browse through your website looking for the answer.
Keep your web copy concise and to the point. You should use short paragraphs, bulleted lists and bolded and underlined text to highlight items of importance.
4. Give your visitors reasons to trust you.
As soon as a visitor comes to your site, it’s crucial that they feel that they can connect and trust you. There are a number of ways to increase the trust factor. Make sure that your contact information is prominent and easy to find.
Your website should be free from grammatical and spelling errors. Your site should have the look and feel of a well-established and successful company.
Research suggests that trust must be established for a prospect to either give you their information or make a purchase.
5. Offer your visitors options.
Whether you’re offering a product or service, your sales will immediately increase if you offer your prospects multiple options.
Giving your prospects three distinct price points to choose between is a highly successful model. For instance, if you’re offering a service, you can bundle your service into three different price points that will appeal to different buyers. If you’re offering a product, then offer a low price point, middle price point and a high price point.
When buyers have choices they feel more in control. They appreciate the fact that they are selecting an option that works best for them and their specific needs.
There are numerous ways to keep prospects engaged in your website and convert them to happy clients and customers. If you design your website with a clear and specific purpose, keep things simple, create a sense of trust and offer numerous benefits and options, you’ll soon find yourself with an abundance of new sales, clients and happy customers.
As a small business owner, you’ve probably realized that it’s a jungle out there! Your competition is fierce, your prospects are skeptical and your marketing budget is sparse.
