Converting A Website Into Effective Sales And Marketing Tool
Topics: internet marketing, seo, lead generation
While many companies use their websites only as online business cards, they can be turned into effective sales and marketing tools. More and more people are using the internet as their main source for information - and that information is greatly influencing their purchasing decisions.
The problem with most websites is that they don’t sell - and a large number are not even trying to. An effective website should have a modern design that communicates the brand promise of the company; it has to be able to generate leads from the website traffic and sell to those leads.
While a website is practically useless without visitors, it also does no good when companies are not able to take advantage of their website traffic - no matter how low it is. It all starts with an effective sales copy - the most important component of the website. A sales copy needs to give the readers information about the product or service and needs to convince them they must buy it, or take steps towards buying it. The words used in the headlines and body text have a significant impact on sales. The key to great copy is that it guides customers through the buying process. Creating a great copy often follows this formula: attention (grabs the visitors attention), interest (get them interested in the offer), desire (evokes desire for the services), action (directs efforts towards the one action the company wants them to take).
Even on top websites 95% of visitors won’t buy anything on their first visit, even though they might be interested. While there are many ways to approach this knowledge, a good idea is to set up a lead capturing system where you are offering your visitors something valuable that is related to your service, but doesn’t cost you much in exchange for their contact information. As an example an SEO company might offer to conduct free website analyses, a PR company might give away free PR tips and a website that sells meditation CDs can give away a couple of first tracks. By doing this the business starts to develop a relationship with its prospect, demonstrates expert knowledge and when getting something for free, people might feel they “owe” something in return. People dislike feeling indebted to someone else and have a strong desire to repay this debt.
This process of relationship building is essential to getting the customer to trust you, to try out your product without the pressure of a tough sell, and to form a marketing relationship that will allow you to later sell to your customers. In getting your prospects to subscribe to your free offering, try to sign them up for your newsletter in the process. Some experts say it takes at least 7 contacts with a prospect before they seriously consider making the purchase. A good idea is to split your free service (if it’s some information, like free tips or tactics) into 5 to 7 pieces and send them to your prospects over time, with either a few days in between the e-mails or all in a row (one per day). In the end send an email asking you if they liked the course or service and make them a special offer to make the purchase.
There are 5 main reasons why somebody might not buy from you: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust. The key factor that determines whether somebody will buy from you is trust - it is far more important than any of the other reasons. This has significant impact on websites and their success in getting their message across to the visitors.
Stanford University’s Persuasive Technology Lab has done research on this field and discovered the key elements that create trust on a website. These elements can be narrowed down to four main categories: transparency (people behind the business, full information about the company), human touch (staff bios, pictures of staff, blogs, newsletters), customer care (getting help online, putting the customer first, explaining each step of the sales process) and security (well-explained privacy policy, security certificates, no spam policies). A website that wants to have success with sales and marketing online has to do well in all of those categories.
Once your website has an impressive design that is aligned with your unique brand, you have a proper and well thought-out sales copy which is working hand in hand with your lead capturing systems and you have systems in place to sell to those leads, you can enjoy your new found success online.
Peep Laja is a search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing expert. He runs his own consultancy Panama Internet Marketing (panamainternetmarketing.com) where strategy is combined with creativity to deliver effective websites that convert visitors into customers.
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Pay Per Click; SEO Agencies Now Take The Lead (1)
This is a factor that has got many established paid search agencies perplexed, they do not understand how to create and order a landing page to get maximum relevancy for Google's landing page algorithm.
Pull Up Your Marketing Socks (2)
Make it the best first impression you can. 5. Always understand, define and remember your target market. This is self explanatory but you would be surprised how many business owners do not do this.
Tips For A Successful Direct Mail Campaign (3)
You can achieve this in two ways, either by creating a catchy slogan and tag line, or by providing valuable information that is more useful to a recipient. The first strategy tends to draw more mental connections between a consumers needs and your product, while the second builds trust with potential customers.
How To Increase Your Profit Through Backend Selling (4)
Lower revenue is better than no revenue. Of course, you have to be careful to do it the right way. If not, it will affect your credibility. Lubano Lim is a fun loving entrepreneur with a passion for helping others succeed.
How To Make Money Selling Your Equestrian E-Book (5)
Your favorite horse breed 3. Reviews of books you read, fiction or non-fiction 4. How to find a good riding instructor/ livery stables/farrier 5. Where on th internet one can find more info about horse nutrition 6.
Why Top Retail Marketers Use Coupons (6)
There are also a wealth of creative ways you can use coupons to increase your business. Once you have discovered how to use them remember to always include coupons in your marketing strategy.
Achieve Super Affiliate Status (7)
If you're target audience doesn't trust you, how could you expect them to purchase from your affiliate storehouse? Moreover, if you take time to learn the products and services you are recommending, it will be way too easy for you to establish a website that converts well, which will enhance your affiliate income in return.
Usability; The Future Of SEO? (8)
This is like a website with great optimisation but poor usability, customers will simply not use you products. The reason businesses would not prefer to completely re-haul their websites is due to time and expense.
Marketing Need Not Be Expensive (9)
Then see word of mouth work for you. 2. Be controversial. As you know, people and businesses in the limelight are either loved or hated. The public is rarely lukewarm about them.
Duplicate Content Checker: What It Is And Why You Want One (10)
You will want to begin by writing the original post that you want to have on your blog or website, and then you will want to alter your original post and run it through a duplicate content checker before you submit it for syndication.
Top 10 Cost Effective Small Business Marketing Tips (11)
Marketing by walking around You should walk around your neighborhood, talk to your existing customers and anyone else. Remember, they are your prospective customers. Word of mouth will start working for you James Copper is a writer for www.marketinglinx.com
Domain Strategies - Taking Advantage Of An Unknown Marketing Resource (12)
- Once you have registered the domain (you will receive an email with your information), sign in to your GoDaddy account and go to My Domain Names under the Domains tab.
10 Things You Can Do With Your Autoresponder (13)
2. Set your autoresponder to automatically respond to frequently asked questions. 3. Send news about special promotions or coupons for the products or services you offer. 4.
Internet Marketing Is A Good Home Business (14)
These systems run themselves and can be very profitable for business owners who are willing to make the effort to build the system. This article should have shown that there is are basically two work from home online options the one is through affiliate marketing where the products of other companies pay the bills and the other is where the entrepreneur actually stocks the products being sold or simply promotes products directly which can be drop shipped to the buyer ultimately.
Save Hours Every Week By Using A Duplicate Content Checker (15)
Remember that the duplicate content filter will find a copy of a web page that it determines to be an original, which this is determined by which page is indexed first along with a few other factors such as the relevancy of the domain name, and then it will filter out all other pages with the same content.
7 Power Tips To JumpStart A Stalled Web Site (16)
Test backgrounds. I once tripled sign-ups to my ezine by changing the background color. Test the small stuff. Once I compared two google adwords ads. I changed the spelling of one word in the headline - from midlife to mid-life.
The Happy Birthday Digg Effect (17)
It seems like the line between success and failure may just be those last extra couple of steps. www.whatithinkabout.com is full of unusual and unique ideas that will expand your mind and heighten your awareness.
How To Sponsor Downline Without Cold Calling Leads (18)
Email marketing has several advantages. Firstly, it is non intrusive as compared to cold calling. You do not have control over the people you are calling. Who knows?
Clickbank Scam Alert - Must Read (19)
All the products sold on Clickbank must provide instant access to purchases, so people can get their purchase within seconds of making the purchase. Their business model has allowed some well known personalities to become wealthy online, simply by selling a product on Clickbank.
Are All Autoresponder Leads The Same? (20)
After they have verified their interest, they then become a lead. These leads are typically more expensive because they are pre-screened for email delivery and interest. 2) Tier 1 Opt-In Business Opportunity AutoResponder Leads.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
Article Marketing For Plug In Profits Site Owners (1)
So if you are paying $2 a piece, don't expect too much. Usually, a more experienced writer will charge more per article. However, there is always exception. Some writers can produce wonderful content for a price of $7.
How To Have Passion In Your Blog (2)
Make it your passion. If you are feeling bored with your blog, make changes until it makes you happy again. There are many different ways that you can take what you have and love it.
The Ins And Outs Of Web Service Hosting (3)
It only has one stop, and it's not the happiest place on earth if you know what I mean. So what else does a fresh faced netizen like you need to know about the wild wild web?
Quit Your Job And Work From Home Selling Your Knowledge Online (4)
Yet, it is possible to quit your job and earn from home if you belong to such a specific category. Develop a good web site to lodge your information product.
Making A Great First Impression On Your Blog Visitors (5)
If you own your own business, leaving a positive first impression with your customers is crucial to your success and profitability. A negative first impression will threaten the growth of your company and cause you to inevitably lose valuable customers and sales.
What's Your Share Of Wallet? - It's All Based On One-To-One Marketing (6)
No wonder today's successful companies focus on retaining customers. If the primary goal is building long-term relationships and increasing customer loyalty, the resulting "share of wallet" will be higher margins and profitability.
How To Build Your Online Business With An Affiliate Network (7)
Affiliate Marketing Network If you are building your online business with affiliate network, you should adhere to certain rules. Some of these include: Build up a list of affiliate marketers and develop these.
Affiliate Marketing Not Just An Easy Fortune (8)
Most marketers lack an understanding of how to promote products and therefore fail when attempting to advertise certain services. To advertise properly you need to invest time and effort and be sure you have created an appropriate budget.
Can You Make Money Online Free? (9)
Affiliate Marketing Programs, Ok if you wanted to go into the affiliate game then you can of course try it out free of charge by placing free ads all over the place until you have lost the will to live.
The 101 On Forum Marketing (10)
If you look around there are forums that actually have areas specifically for selling products or services, a little research and investigation will point you quickly in the right direction.
Get Rich Online, Play More Golf, See The World, Better Business (11)
The fact is $20 online is nothing. It is most likely a scam, and the fact that it is $20, they know you will just get a little mad about being scammed, then say, "oh well, I didnt get rich." Now, what happens then if you spend $3000 online to start a business?
What Is MLM Marketing - Important Stuff You Must Know (12)
Generally, MLM companies depend on their distributors to distribute their products. Distributors not only earn a commission when they sold a product, but they can also recruit other distributors and earn a percentage of commission from their effort.
How To Work From Home And Earn Money With Your Own Business Website (13)
This prevents any misuse, spam mail, and identity theft. This helps you deal with your customers professionally. Further, visitors find a user-friendly website easier to use and deal with.
The Death Of Offline MLM (14)
What is the problem here? Well, if you want to be successful in any MLM, you will definitely need more than one to two downlines. In fact, you will want to grow you organization to hundreds of people as soon as possible so that it becomes profitable.
Autoresponders - Why Every Rich Guy Has One (15)
Would you like to make $1,000 per hour? That's what autoresponders can do for you. A great autoresponder is used by every millionaire who made their fortune online...
How Can An Ezine Help Your Business? (16)
It is kind of similar to the traditional newsletter with only one exception that it is send via e-mail. Sometimes the newsletter is made available on the publisher's website too.
Search Engine Marketing - What You Should Know (17)
Remember to make the secondary pages have just as high of a quality as your home page so that the majority of your traffic flow will be impressed and have the desire to keep coming back.
What You Should Know About Alexa Rankings (18)
If you want Alexa to rank your online sites then you need to always publish great quality texts. Words that are primary should be carefully implemented into the titles and subtitles of the web pages that are designed and published.
Serious Home Based Business Opportunity - Is It For Me And Tips For Surviving The Initial Phase (19)
Topics: serious home based business opportunity, serious home based business opportunities, mlm, business Perhaps you are a college student who wants to earn some extra money. Or you are a stay at home mum.
Fast Cash Secrets Costing Under $25 (20)
Your product can be one that you develop yourself or one that you find elsewhere and acquire the right to sell openly. The best one obviously is the one you develop yourself.
Permalink to Converting A Website Into Effective Sales And Marketing Tool