Too many people think of a website as a box of letterheads or a box of compliment slips or packs of business cards in a stationary cupboard.
A website has a job to do. It’s not a brochure, or rather if it is a brochure, it shouldn’t be a brochure. So it needs to earn its keep, like an employee, like a sales person because it has to have a job.
This is where a lot of people go wrong. They just get a website but don’t realize, how it can help the business.
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So let me explain. A website has two tasks. It’s either self-stuffed or it generates leads. So you can sell the stuff to people later.
You can convert that into raising money if you are a nonprofit, for charities, etc. When I say self-stuffed, I mean get donations or achieve the goal. So that’s the thing, it’s what you are all about.
When it all comes down to it, generally most organizations and companies come down to money and stick them in the pocket of the company or the company owner or whatever.
So we need to get it do that. The way to do that is to give the people a reason. So, let’s assume you are not selling anything directly.
I have my Fire Protection Online which is just a direct e-commerce site. If you visit the site, we have things for sale, like amazon or Walmart, Tescos or Asos.
However, if you visit the Marketing for Owners site, there is nothing obviously for sale. Now perhaps there will be in the future. So what do we do? We grab the lead.
We grab the email and contact details of the person that is looking, that may be interested or is looking now.
And the reason they are looking is because they are in our target market. They may be interested in what we may have for sale in the future.
So we don’t want to hope that they come back one day and pick up the phone and call us. We want to be able to say, “Hey! Remember? You were here a while ago. We’ve got stuff for you!”
How do we do that? We need to ask for their name and their email. That’s all we need. We do not need a last name or a phone number or a fax number or anything else like that.
We actually just need a first name and an email. In fact some people don’t even bother with the first name.
Every extra step you ask someone to take is going to put some people off. We are very lazy! Or is that just me?
But every box and field that you have to fill is going to lose someone. So make sure it is minimal! Make it easy. Now the first thing is, don’t make them search.
So on your website, when you go to the homepage, don’t say welcome, we are, etc., etc. They know! They don’t care. That’s you saying ‘Yippee, look at us’. They don’t care.
They are looking for what they are looking for, they are not interested in you. Remember! That website is not for you. It’s not for your ego. It’s a tool. It’s an employee. It has to generate leads.
So, at the top we offer an eBook (but you could offer a short course, a report, a video series, etc) that is very interesting to your potential customer, that they would be willing to give you their name and email in exchange for receiving that free gift.
Now that free gift is at the top and center of your homepage.
Once they have done that, they get sent to the thank you page and then they can carry on with the rest of the site. But at that point, you have their name and email.
They can unsubscribe anytime because, you’ve had your website by the way linked to an email service such as Aweber, Mail Chimp and Infusion soft.
It’s a service that captures their email, and it keeps them in a secure database and when you wish to send them an email, you can use that list to contact them.
This doesn’t go through your own Gmail or your own email service. It doesn’t get you flagged as a spammer, if they don’t like getting your stuff.
You know how it is when you buy something from a company and then they hammer you with the emails?
Please don’t do that because your customer will tend to then look down at the bottom, and click the Unsubscribe.
We don’t do that. We send our customers valuable information. This is how you make your website an employee.
This way, it gets the details. Now you might say, “Oh! Hang on! What if they didn’t read the stuff on my website?” It doesn’t matter.
If they were interested enough to want to, they will go back to it and find it. They know how to find a homepage again.
They know how to scroll and look at the menu. But, you are then going to send them weekly emails, which is pretty much on topic about the subject that is on your website.
You are nurturing your lead. You are going to give value. You are not going to show off, you are not trying to sell them anything, you are just going to build a relationship.
So, it’d be like a rep. Do you think a rep goes in, first thing, “Hello! My name is Sunso from Joe blogs and sons ltd. I want to sell you this”.
No! You talk to them, you build a relationship, you get trust, you get them to know you, to like you, to trust you.
Once they are at a trust state, once you have told them enough, then perhaps you can throw in an email that says, “By the way (say you offer a service) we have a couple of openings for new clients. If you’d like to know more about what we do, well give you a free audit! (or a free something)”.
Again more free. More free stuff that doesn’t cost you anything. “If you’d like to discuss or you’d like to hear about special offers, etc– this would be on first come first served basis. Please call this number or please email me at … “.
That’s how you do it. It’s as simple as that. If you do this over a period of time, that list gets bigger and bigger.
Then you go back to value, value, value and then again, “oh! Another free opening. Last time we did this, we snapped top in minutes”.
Now you are creating scarcity, and making people think. “Oh gosh! Did I miss out? Maybe I should check that out? Let me find out about it!”
They are not committing, they are just asking. Then, just see how your website has become an employee, because, it got that lead.
Now you don’t have to have it just on a homepage. You can have it at the bottom of every article, on every page.
Now you have 3 places. How about in the middle of an article? What are you gonna do? Upset them? No! You are not going to upset them. We will teach you this.
So keep on listening to the podcast and you will learn more and more and more. And in fact, talking of freebies, I am going to be doing some free online live workshops as well as live teachings and live classes on how to do this, what’s needed!
So it’s really not difficult. Don’t you worry. I will look after you.
Tuesday Toolbox Tip
Now of course it’s Tuesday. So we have a Tuesday toolbox tip. This is where I tell you about free tools that helps you be more productive.
Today, let me tell you about Coffitivity. You know when you are working and you get distracted by noise and things going on, but sometimes you work in a coffee shop and the buzz, the hubbub, the noise of people around you just covers up that noise like a white noise machine?
Click here to instantly download our FREE Book
“The 71 Ultimate Marketing Tools”
Coffitivity has recordings of noises of coffee shops, of breakfasts of university lunch to help remove the distractions from your work time.
Just go and see, it’s great! I’ve actually used it. Coffitivity is good fun. Makes a difference. Go try it and let me know what you think. Okay! I will speak to you later in the week.
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Is your website acting like a good employee?