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Almost all businesses these days have a website, although it is surprising how many people think that simply putting one or
two simple pages up will bring them in more business than they can handle. The quality of websites range from the excellent and well
thought out, to the really amateurish.
Simple sites like this might have worked in the early days of the web, but now like everything else you have to compete in a crowded market
space, so after all it is the electronic version of a shop, and you want to appear as professional as possible.
Always remember when a visitor clicks into your site you only have a few seconds for them to get a good first impression and decide
if they want to keep reading. |
The real reason for having a website, is it gives you a 24hr, 7 days a week storefront to show what you sell, and because you have no direct interaction with your visitors you have to encourage them to call you, or at least leave you their contact information.
The website you are reading this on is an example of a passive website, in that all it requires of the user is to turn up with their browser, start reading and then possibly call us, or send us an email. The online visitor doesn’t have to part with any of their personal information to view anything on the site, it almost akin to walking into a shop to browse, and passive websites hope that they will have something which catches the reader eye for them to go further. Of course a passive website doesn’t mean a static website, because if nothing changes the visitor only ever has to visit once to see everything, it a bit like the difference between a theme park and a country house. People go to the same theme park time and time again because the rides keep changing, but unless you are a fan of old country houses once is usually enough.
Most truly active websites are usually associated with an activity or a directed advertising campaign, in that they may let the visitor look around the door a little, but to get inside an actually experience anything they need to hand over some of their personal details and create an online identity on that site. Sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace all fall into this category and over time they build up a vast marketing database with very little effort. The other advantage of sites like these is that the users create the content, the webmasters can create the site, then the visitors provide the reasons for other visitors to register and visit.
Becoming the next Facebook is probably unlikely, so for a business to have an active on-line presence, there are some basic pages that should be available on every website.
A minimum of an email address and telephone number. Ideally these should be displayed on every page, and unfortunately it is a fact of life that any published email address will over time attract the attention of spammers. It’s probably best to set up a dedicated email address for the site, and more importantly to check the mailbox EVERY day for new messages.
It’s surprising how many sites actually forget this, and simply publish a phone number instead. Having a page with a simple form can prevent you losing the prospect, because if they come across your site at the weekend, how may will actually remember to call you on Monday. Of course the other side to this is that the emails that come from the page actually have to be read by someone and responded to, there is nothing more frustrating for a customer than filling in the form, and hearing nothing for 10-14 days because no-one is monitoring the mailbox. That is guaranteed to really make the customer feel important.
Here is ours.
Companies in the IT sector here are usually more fortunate because they usually have an evaluation version of their product, but ideally you should be offering something to download from your site. It fulfils two purposes, it gives the visitor a reason to be there, and also if you insist that the visitor provides their details first before they actually receive the file(s) then you have a ready source of new leads.
A blog (or weblog) is a great idea, it allows even the most basic site to keep growing, and if you are prepared to spend some regular time keeping it up to date, it means that your visitors can find out everything your company is actually involved in at the moment. Keeping a consistent writing style and related subject matter, all helps potential customers see how professional you and your company are, and you can provide details of new products, prospects and happening here. The only trap not to fall into is to be too clinical, there are a lot of Blogs out there that can put a reader to sleep in a few seconds, and the trick is to allow your own personality to come through while you are writing, after all you want people to read it and come back frequently to see if anything new has been added. The opportunity to pass comments can also be provided so you can get instant feedback on new ideas.
A small simple forum on your site is often a great way to ensure visitors keep returning, and if you have a healthy customer base then this can be a great way for them to swap ideas and help each other, and for prospective customers when they visit they can get an idea of how popular your product is and hopefully go on to buy it themselves. One caveat though, consider this option carefully as an empty and unused forum is worse than having no forum at all, as no activity sends the wrong message out about your customers.
Once your website is up and running, it makes sense to include the address in all your company literature and anywhere you display your company name. Getting it indexed in Google or other search engine is a subject in itself, and you can then go on to advertise on a pay-per-click basis on most of the major search engines, although in the early days visitors will probably come from more traditional sources where they have seen your website address printed or displayed somewhere. It could even be an excuse for a mailshot to contact all your customers to tell them about your new website, although you could always make this more interesting by adding a special offer to the letter.
The way you receive the leads can be as simple as receiving an email to inform you someone has entered details on your website, but a more integrated approach is to pull this information directly into your CRM system. Most modern CRM systems will allow a new contact to be automatically created, and a response email automatically sent thanking the prospect for their actions, and then perhaps automatically notifying the correct person to deal with the enquiry. If you don’t have CRM and aren’t sure if you need it click here.
If you would like any more information on capturing data from your website call us on 0845-6448069, click here or email us at info@softstuff-consulting.com and we would be happy to chat over your ideas and requirements.
