I was explaining this concept to a client yesterday and thought I’d share it with you. I honestly believe if more business owners approached their website this way they’d all be making a lot more sales. It starts with the big question…
What is the purpose of your website?
This may sound obvious… and the answer may be something like “to make money” but humor me for a second and let’s define it a little more clearly. I believe there are two good reasons to have a website:
- To make sales
- To collect leads
And just to be clear “to make sales” doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing ecommerce online. It might simply be you want people to ring up to order something or come into the store. However I think it’s still important to be clear about what you’re selling and make an offer to your visitors.
Collecting leads means building a database you can build a relationship with and sell your products and services too later down the track. But if your main purpose is to make sales this can still be a very valuable secondary purpose.
The problem with purpose
Even if you’re clear on your purpose that doesn’t mean your website is. Once you’ve decided what your website’s goal is you need to sit down and work out if your website is actually leading visitors towards that purpose. So if you’re trying to sell a particular product how does your website lead the visitor to purchase?
Most websites end up a hodge podge mess of different content that’s all been thrown together in no particular order. The navigation can be confusing and the website doesn’t make it clear to the visitor what they should be doing. This is why most websites have so little traction.
Fixing your website
Once you know your purpose you need to decide what steps it would take a visitor to complete that goal. I believe the best way of doing this is to go back to our 6 Components of Selling and tick them off your list in roughly this order:
- Get the visitors attention
- Show the benefits of your product or service
- Make an irresistible offer
- Create trust and provide proof that what you’re selling works
- Reverse the risk with a strong guarantee or trial
- Give a clear call to action that the visitor can complete
Every page in your website should be contributing to one of these areas. Sometimes the information will all be on one page or maybe there are multiple pages to support the sale. That’s really up to what works best for your business.
The key point is you must ask yourself is
“How does this webpage get my visitor to the next step?”
What you do next
Ensure your website has a clear purpose and that every webpage supports that purpose. There should be no dead ends or places to get lost and your website should lead the visitor to the action you want them to take. When you close the open loops on your website your sales will increase.
