There are many ways to grow your business, one of which is to have an effective website strategy. In today’s marketplace, web presence is essential.
Most entrepreneurs I speak with have many questions about marketing their small business, particularly, their web strategy. The key point I try to get across is that your website is a marketing AND sales tool. If it isn’t generating leads or even better, sales, then something is wrong.
What is wrong? Well, a great web marketing company (ahem…) will do that analysis for you. However, you can do a simple evaluation of your website by asking yourself the following 4 questions to determine how effective your website is:
1) What attracts your attention on the homepage?
You have a very short window to grab the attention of the site visitor, some research suggest about 4-7 seconds. Determine what attracts your attention first as a site visitor. Where do YOUR eyes go? Is your design too busy? Too colourful? You want to make sure your site draws the site visitor to content that is compelling enough to entice the site visitor to stay on your website longer. The longer they stay, the greater chance they inquire about or purchase something.
2) Can you determine, in an instant, what the website is about, what it is selling or offering?
Again, your time is limited to get your message across. If there are too many distractions, a site visitor may not ever know what you are selling. Make it very obvious what you are selling or offering. You don’t want to frustrate the site visitor by making it difficult to determine what exactly you’re a selling. Otherwise, you will have a high bounce rate (LINK)
3) Are the benefits of the product/service visible and up front?
In the end, it’s always about WIFM… “What’s In-it For Me”. So tell them upfront or at least make it easy for your site visitor to learn how your product or service will benefit them.
4) What is the call to action?
If you have achieved 1, 2 and 3 then you better make it easy for the site visitor to act on the information they have just absorbed. The most you want is 1 or 2 calls to action. Any more and you’ll confuse the site visitor.
Be real. Grow your business.
Reality Business Consulting (RBC) (www.realityconsulting.ca) is a Toronto Web Design and Small Business Marketing Company that helps small businesses grow by designing profitable, creative and practical small business marketing plans and web marketing strategies, including WordPress small business websites. Having already successfully co-founded a technology and eCommerce company, as the principle of Reality Business Consulting, I understand the challenges and needs of a small business.
If you are searching for a professional and customer-focused small business marketing company with extensive work in marketing planning, WordPress small business website design, contact us for a “Reality Check”; a no-obligation, no-charge consultation.