The key in making your website start working for you is to take the website from an online brochure, catalogue or business profile to being an active part of your marketing. You want your website to create business for you.
So how do you make your website work for you? You need to decide what you want people to do once they visit your website. This all ties back what your sales process is.
A few years ago we were looking to purchase a car. Me being me, I did a lot of research online and looked at all the pretty pictures and specs. Step one complete, the “prospective buyer” is finding out more about the product. So what is Step 2?
A few of the websites I visited seemed to have decided that Step 2 was to request a brochure. This does seem like a good next step because I needed to put in all my information in order to get the brochure which meant they then knew who I was, right?
Maybe, maybe not. For some prospects this is a logical next step, especially for a “cooler” lead that needs to be “warmed up”. I however fell into another category - I was highly motivated and ready to act. What I wanted to know was how I could book a test drive? Makes sense huh?
Unfortunately I discovered that no where, on any of the car websites I looked at, was there anywhere which told me what I had to do to book a test drive. That’s right, NO WHERE ON ANY OF THEM! I couldn’t even find a “To book a test drive call this number.” In the end, because I was motivated I rang and booked test drives with a number of yards and yes, I did buy a car. The sales process in the dealership was faultless, but it highlighted to me that gaps in your online sales process can potentially be costly.
When deciding what the conversion goal is on your website you need to look at what it is you are selling, who you are selling to and how complex your sales process is.
If you are selling $5 widgets that’s an easy sell. You want a great shopping cart that makes it really easy to buy then and there. You want a call to action that tells them exactly what they need to do to buy. “Buy now” is good for this.
If you are selling something like what we sell, which is websites, the sales process is considerably longer and more complex due to the cost and commitment required when building a new website. Our clients need to have trust and confidence that we will supply a website of value that works. Building that trust takes time. We’re so lucky to have happy clients who refer us and this makes such a difference in building this trust.
Yes, occasionally I’ll get a phone call out of the blue of someone unknown to me that wants a website then and there, but most people take time to make this kind of decision.
The average sale (of any type) takes 6-9 contacts before the sale. The higher the value, the more contacts required. Your website and online marketing is a valuable tool in helping you with making these contacts.
Your website succeeds or fails within the first 3 seconds. This where the decision is made whether to stay in your website or go straight back out of it. This is reflected in the bounce rate in your website stats which you want to be low. If the visitor has remained in your website for 3 seconds your next objective needs to be to get them to stay as long as possible.
You want them to journey through the website as if they are on a choose your own adventure story. So how do you do this? You do this just like you do with anything reward good behaviour. Make them want to click on another page. Give them a carrot that will get them to do what you want them to do.
The key to any carrot is the WIIFM (what’s in it for me). What do they want from being on the website and how can you fit that into your sales process?
I don’t know the percentage, but I’d guess there are very few people who buy a car they have never test driven. I’d guess that the number of people who buy a car without reading the brochure is considerably higher. Therefore the conversion goal for any car yard needs to be to get people to test drive the car. That’s the key part in the sales process. That needs to be the objective of the website.
What do you need the visitor to your website to do to get them into your sales process? For me it is the opportunity to sit down and talk to the person about their website and find out what they need. This needs analysis allows me to put a recommendation together for them about the options available to them. This is my test drive. I get to show the potential client what we can do to help them. My primary conversion goal on the website is to get the person to book a FREE, no obligation Needs Analysis.
My secondary objective for those cooler leads is to begin communicating with them and my newsletter allows me to do this. My secondary conversion goal for the website is therefore to get people to sign up for the newsletter.
It’s that simple! I make sure that I have calls to action through out the website to make it as easy as possible for me to convert these visitors.
If you would like help with what your conversion goal needs to be for your website and how to get the right calls to action please contact me and we will begin the process of getting your website working better for you.