As marketers, we know how to sell a product. But have you considered that your website is a product also? Apply some of the techniques that you know so well in marketing to “sell” your website to your customers. Make it customer focused rather than company focused, by trying these techniques:

1. Avoid the “It’s All About Us” Syndrome: The website, surely, has to describe your services and sell your product. But it doesn’t have to do that to the exclusion of meeting your customers’ needs. Can your customer find what they need at all? Can they get their questions answered? Can they get further help from a person if needed? If your website is filled only with words telling how wonderful you are, you’re making it harder for the customer to solve their problem.

2. Provide topics that the reader needs: The website should catch the reader’s attention because there’s a benefit for the reader to be there. In fact, you can even provide topics that explain what the reader needs. Whether you are listing reasons why they should use your services, or you are sharing blogs, the reader needs to see the WIIFM – the What’s In It For Me.

3. Don’t lose credibility: Be sure any claims you make on your site can be backed up. Have customer testimonials, real examples, demonstrations, and/or pictures. If the customers doubt your intentions, they won’t dance with you anymore.

4. Engage the readers: Provide places for the readers to give your company feedback, whether through a link to your Twitter or Facebook site, or through a forum.  Readers are more likely to come back to your site if they feel they are not only gaining information from it, but also contributing to it. Related Links, Live Chat, or membership privileges all engage the visitor.

5. Make it an Easy Sell: We’ve all been on those websites that took so many clicks to find what we were looking for, we gave up. Make the sections easy to find, easy to click, and easy to get back from.

Use these techniques to build a website that focuses on the customer’s needs instead of the company’s needs, and see if you don’t get better responses to your website.

Monday, October 5th, 2009, 10:53 pm   |   Advertising, Marketing Techniques  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback