The thing that bugs me more than anything else is simply this — website complacency. Now, the reason for that is I make all of my money online. It is quite simple, I’ve done it for quite a long time and it’s not that difficult.
However, the vast majority of people who get a website for their business just goes to a designer, a web company, and they just say, “I need a website, knock yourself out.” there’s no plan.
There’s not one thing. It’s just sort of an afterthought, “Oh the internet! Oh yes, I better have a website!” And that’s not how it works! Please, don’t do that! Please, please, please don’t just go to your local web designer because what do they know about web marketing?
Yes, they’re a designer, but I’m sorry and I don’t mean to insult web designers because obviously there are some fabulous ones! But in my experience, the vast majority have absolutely no idea what the website is for.
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Yes, they’ll make you a home page. Yes, they’ll make you a contact page. Yes, they’ll make it look nice. But beyond that, ha! No idea and they don’t know how to think about search engine optimization.
They don’t know anything about lead capture. They don’t know anything about content creation. For them, it’s a design project. That’s. Their. Thing.
Lovely if they’re doing logos, but not for your website. I sit there watching a TV and I’d see adverts for 1&1 websites and it shows how easy it is for any business to build a website and the price is like $20 a month or something like that — which is a very low price.
You can do it all yourself. All the templates are there! But that’s not what the website is for. It’s the stuff that’s in it! It’s not the design, it’s the content! It’s like this — if you wanted to put a book out there, you have to write it. You wouldn’t concentrate on designing the cover first, would you? It’s the content!
The cover comes afterwards. People will not buy your book because, “Oh! That’s a nice cover!” they want the content! They want to be inspired. They want to learn from things whatever it is and on subject.
Weekend Challenge
So let me give you a weekend challenge now. I want you to have a look at your existing website because the vast majority of our owners have websites and have no idea how they can be improved.
We have all the information, by the way, it is not that difficult. Quite often, you don’t have to do much. Take your existing content, use that as a starter for the new one. And then, take it from there.
We’ll show you how to build it from there. It might sound daunting, but it’s not.
Step 1: Grab a pad and a pen and just start writing. Now, the first thing is, I want you to look at is your homepage of your current website. Does it have your logo in the top left hand position? Does it have your phone number in the top position or even in the footer?
Does it have links to your social media such as Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn? Does it show your address? Does it have a link to an ‘About Us’ page? Does it have a link to a ‘Contact’ page?
2. Let’s look at your “About Us” Page: When you read the ‘About Us,’ does it say, “We are a blah, blah, blah, blah company. We do this. We do that. We do this and the other.” or does it actually tell you who you are? Or does it tell the visitor, rather, who you are?
Is it about you? Does it mention names? Does it say when you were established? How you came about being? What your mission statement is, if you’ve got such a thing, or your purpose for being. Y
Is it about us or is it about another generic list of features, that no one is interested in, by the way. They came to your about us page to learn a bit of the history and get to know you and get to like you.
3. Now, let’s look at your “contact” page: Has your contact page got a phone number? Has it got a fax number? Has it got an e-mail address? Has it got a physical address or is it just simply a form? If it’s just form, you will not get trusted.
Just a form, you think to yourself, “No one wants the address, just a website!” They want to know where you are. We’re not all Amazon. When someone buys from you, they want to know that you exist in the UK.
That you are in a normal place and make sound like you’re a real company with real premises. Do you understand? Would you buy from someone that hid their address? What are you hiding?
4. Next, let’s study those social media profiles: When you click on them, do they actually go directly to the page or do they bring up some kind of ‘Share’ or ‘Tweet this!’? People want to look at your Twitter profile. They want to look at your Facebook or your LinkedIn.
If you don’t have anything on there, take them off and get something going, right? People want to know who you are so let’s get these websites going!
5. What about lead captures? Lastly, how many lead capture opportunities are there? And by lead capture, I mean, in a form where someone enters their name and their e-mail address and clicks the ‘Submit’ button. How many are there?
If there’s one, is it on every page? Is it better than ‘Sign up for a newsletter!’? Please don’t have ‘sign up for a newsletter’! Anything else! Oh please!
That’s it! That is your challenge. I just simply want you to look at your website to see if it follows best practice for marketing or if it follows best practice for your web designer’s portfolio. Which do you think is going to work for you?
If you want to know how to improve your website even more, come to marketingforowners.com/join — It’s The Owners Club. Totally free. Registration is free… that’s where we give you all the good stuff we’ve got.
You don’t have to sign up for things anymore. All of these are only available for members. All of the good stuff is hidden behind those closed doors. It’s free. Why wouldn’t you? Why’d you think we can do? There’s nothing for sale! Trust me, I’m a doctor!
Well, I’m not actually, but trust me anyway. I’m Jon! Anyway, have yourself a great weekend, I’ll see you next week!
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