Five Benefits of a Client-Centred Website

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

Thanks to the Internet now you can create something that didn't used to exist. Now you can create an actual hub for all your marketing efforts. Your website can be the headquarters of all the marketing effort you put out to generate new business for you.

What the cricket does that mean?

All it means is that wherever you put your message out, you want the respondents to come to your website and start discovering you through the web. This is important, especially if you don't want to be contacted by people simply requesting more information. The "more information" should be on your website and people must be able to help themselves. Ideally, you want to be contacted only by self-qualified prospects who are ready, willing and able to do business with you. Otherwise your website should be like a self-serving restaurant. People come and pick up what they need. Basically, they put in their names and email addresses and download your report, your audio or whatever free stuff.

It all must be done without your having to lift one single finger. Well, or even one toe. And even if you have a chronic overdose of fingers and toes, well, 20 more or less, you can use them for pursuing other fiendish activities...

So, let's see what a good website can accomplish for you. And here I'm not talking about a website with dazzling graphics and flash animation stuff. I'm talking about good sales copy with lots of great and valuable information content that generate new business.

Let's see...

1. Improving your credibility - The more people can find out about your company and the merchandise you offer, the more they will trust you. This is as obvious as a liver sausage. Yet, when I look at so many websites, and all I can find is a Flash intro and skimpy content which hardly ever goes beyond a few bullet points, I wonder how these people have been misled about what to put on the web. Would you send out a salesperson on a call with this instruction: You can't talk more than 200 words. After uttering the 200th word, you must pack up and leave. If this approach doesn't work in the real world, why do so many business owners try to make it work online?

2. Enhancing your visibility - As one of my Internet mentors says, you can have the most spectacular store with the most amazing and best designed shop window, but if your shop is hiding in basement where all the traffic you can expect is just a couple of tramps looking for a quiet corner to pee, then you have a problem. A good website can give you global visibility. And maybe your products and services are sold only locally, but you can create and sell related information products globally. I may not do in-person consulting in Iceland but I have a client there and we've been happily working together using Skype (ww.skype.com), and have three customers there who've bought information products from me.

3. Offering instant information - How many people do you have on a weekly basis who contact you for more information? What happens? Expecting new business, you exert manual labour to send them more information. And then what happens. Based on statistics, 97% of them disappear in thin air and you never hear from them. 97% of your effort is down the drain. We are living in the information age and people want to have that information at the speed of greased lightning. They are not interested in chasing you for bits and pieces of info. They don't want to wait 3-4 days to receive your stuff in the mail. If you don't offer this information right now, then your competitors will. That's why websites with minimum information are doomed.

4. Warming people up to you - Business is like sports in a sense. Before football players go from the bench onto the field, they have to warm up. You can't expect people to read a five-line bio (even if you have a Harvard MBA) on you and plunk down $ 25,000 for your consulting services. Just think. How much investigation do you do before buying a home theatre system? Or even a $ 1,500 computer? Do you buy it based on five-bullet point product description? I doubt it. Prospects need to warm up both to the system and the merchant they buy it from. And no, price is not the number one deciding factor. Good and well-presented information is.

5. Shrinking your sales cycle - Since people can self-serve themselves with all the information they need without the harassment from a hard-nosed commission-hungry peddler, they become more receptive to your offer. Now there is no time wasted on "Send me more info" or "Let me think about it" type messages. They can get everything they want from the website and whenever they're ready to buy, they do so.

So, hopefully you see why it is vitally important to have a good website. A website that actually contributes to your business not just an eye-dazzling website but a smart website.

And remember! Don't sell harder. Market smarter. Both you, your employees, your clients and prospects will find it more enjoyable, profitable and attractive.

Recommended Tools And Resources...

Website Toolkit by Robert Middleton

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