Does Your Website Make You Money?
I always ask the question, “What is the purpose of your website?” and get mixed answers. The only right answer is, “To make me money.”
For many businesses, their website was sold to them as an advertising tool. Unfortunately, advertising is the last thing a website needs to do for you.
Mindset Shift
We need to look at a website as part of the entire sales process, and not just an introduction to it. The standard (read: old) sales process followed a simple timeline;
- Advertising makes the customer aware the product exists and where to buy
- Customer comes in to store and speaks to sales person
- Sales person magic happens
- A sale is made
For this to work, the advertising has to reach the customer in the first place. Which websites don’t magically do.
A website is as much part of the sale as the physical store and sales person are. The website can do the job of the sales person AND the store.
Advertise the Advertisement
Looking back to our process, we now need to advertise to get customers into our online store, and to speak to our virtual salesperson.
There are various strategies for driving traffic to a website. Some of these are the same for brick and mortar stores, and some are very different. Now that we understand that our website can serve our business in a different way, we can start finding ways to make more money from it.
Your Best Employee
Imagine having an employee who could cover all of these functions;
- Speak to multiple customers at the same time
- Demonstrate multiple different products (at the same time)
- Teach the customer something new about your products
- Generate leads from people who don’t buy
- Take multiple orders and payments
- Tell customers about upcoming events
- Be available 24/7
- Talk to anyone across the world
- Keep track of who went where, what they looked at and how long they stayed PLUS their demographics, where they are from and what device they used
- Collect data to help you be more effective and profitable
Also Read: Do you REALLY need a Website?
Simple Goals
Once you understand what your website can do, you can simplify the purpose into simple goals. Your website can do any or all of the following;
- Sell products
- Generate Leads
- Educate customers
- Provide a service
A clear purpose will be the foundation for the design of the user experience. It is your first step in moving from a website that gathers cobwebs, to a website that makes you money