Making Your Website Convert Better

I was sent this newsletter by Jayne Reddyhof of Adword Advisor. I liked it so much I asked her permission to blog it and she kindly agreed so here it is!

The key point for me was this - do the work for them!

If you want to contact Jayne her email address is jayne@adwordadviser.com

Give Them What They Want

According to experts, only one out of every hundred visitors to your website converts to a sale. Sounds like bad news, but look at it this way: if you increase your conversion rate by only 1 percent (which doesn't sound much does it?) you will double your sales!

How do you do it? Your customers' watchwords are, "don't make me think" and "don't make me do any work – do it all for me"! So what does this mean for your website design?

Some key tips:

Make sure your visitors know what you do, the instant they land on your website. Don't make them have to guess; tell them right up front with a benefits-laden headline.

Help them find what they are looking for. Don't send them to your home page, or a link deep within your site, and expect them to do all the work. They were nice enough to click on your search ad - return the favour with a landing page that speaks directly to their interests and needs.

Be specific: the more relevant and specific your website is to your visitor, the more they'll buy from you. If they want to buy a toaster and they land on your homepage, which forces them to navigate around before they get to the right section, they'll give up. Either get people straight onto a relevant landing page, or simply have more, smaller, websites that are specific and relevant. You're better off with lots of smaller websites - one of which would be just about toasters and sandwich makers for example - than trying to be Argos!

Sell on emotion, NOT logic: people don't buy the sausage - they buy the sizzle! We are an emotional species and make 80% of our decisions about something on an emotional level. We then back up the decision with logic. So appeal to people's emotions via your website. Remember Apple's "Think different" marketing campaign; most people aren't buying just a computer when they buy an Apple, they are buying into a whole concept.

Your customers only want to know "what's in it for me?" If your website details how your grandfather set up the stationery business in a coal cellar, and that now you have 5 branches, you're wasting a selling opportunity. If it offers useful advice - "How to save 50% on your printer ink supplies...", then you'll score.

Keeping relationships alive during bad times

When times get tough, and for some times could not be tougher, one of the pieces of received wisdom that I hear all too frequently is to look after existing clients. This generally elicits a chorus of “Hear, hear”. Rightfully so as we all know that we need to look after existing clients. For most however that chorus is about all they will be heard contributing to building the client relationship.

Experience of dealing with creative agencies suggests that the message about building relationships with existing clients is somehow being corrupted as they frequently do the opposite of what has been suggested. Rather than make contact to establish a stronger working relationship, the typical response is to begin a process of getting in new business via new contacts. Various methods are tried such as Word of Mouth, networking, cold calling and Direct Marketing. All are good at generating contacts and all have general support. The problem is that they are being considered out of context.

When times are good, clients are willing to take risks, open up new channels, try new agencies, and experiment with radical approaches. We have all experienced it. Clients calling in to say that they are willing to hear that sales pitch, give you a piece of work to see if the chemistry is right, open up new avenues to market.

When the road starts to get a bit rocky however, the average client moves from proactive to reactive. They move from venturesome to risk averse. And understandably so if the cost of the investment is high and the risk of failure is also high. Any attempt to persuade them to try new things or move agencies will be seen by them as counter intuitive given their mindset. At worst it could signal the end of the relationship.

In times of shortage or when times are tough the answer must be to work even harder on existing relationships. Even if they do not generate revenue today, it will in the future.

You have to be prepared to adapt to tough times. Profits will ease; turnover will be down, but only for a season. When the tough economic climate eases, those agencies that have built deeper and stronger relationships will see the fruit of their labours.

So call that client, carry out client satisfaction surveys, invite them out for meals, invite them over to meet the team, go and pay a visit and ask to be introduced to their team. Have a think about what you could be doing to help them and then make that call.