7 Simple Tips to Improve Your Website
Running a business is a difficult thing.
There are so many obstacles business leaders need to jump through to be successful in, not just starting a business, but maintaining it.
One such obstacle is creating and maintaining a website.
Many businesses fall victim to the common mistake of thinking that if they develop a beautiful aesthetically pleasing website, customers will think their business looks professional and will want to purchase.
But there’s much more to it than that.
After all, if that’s all you focus on, your website essentially becomes a very expensive business card. (Great for branding…not so great at generating leads and getting you sales.)
Actually, the hardest part of creating a great website is figuring out how to clarify your message. Especially for business owners who know all the intricate details of how the business is run.
It’s hard to take a step back and simplify all the complex things you can do into a few words, but that’s what you have to do to capture your audience’s attention. Research shows that if users can’t figure out what your business does within 3-5 seconds of visiting your site, they’ll leave.
All this puts a lot of stress on someone just beginning the process of building their site and can often stress even the most experienced business professional out.
That’s why, today, I’m going to teach you how anyone has the power to turn a website from a simple business card into a money-making machine!
By utilizing these seven helpful tips, you can make sure your company’s website does exactly what it needs to do… hold your audience’s attention and MAKE YOU MONEY!
#1: The Importance of a Strong Header
Seeing as it’s the first thing any visitor to your site will see, it only makes sense to start at the header of your page.
The importance of this portion of your site cannot be understated.
As noted above, since it’s the first thing visitors to your site will see, you want to make sure it makes a good first impression.
As such, you need to make sure that your header not only entices your viewers to continue scrolling your page, but — for those who have shorter attention spans — summarizes the goals of your site and lays out your ultimate message in a succinct way.
Ultimately, your message should be so simple that a 5th grader can understand it.
If my header says, “The Future Is Yours”, do you know how I can help you?
No.
But, if I changed that to say, “Outsource Your Accounting So You Can Focus on Growing Your Business”, you get a much better idea.
In addition, you’re also going to want to make sure to include section headers on the top of your page that allow people to reach the portion of your site they are most interested in without having to spend too much time scrolling your site if they choose to opt out.
Remember, you want to lead your readers further into your site, not push them away.
#2: Doom and Gloom
You’ve successfully created a strong header and the visitor to your website has decided to continue reading your site.
So now what?
Next, you need to make sure you clearly lay out what’s at stake.
Remind your readers of all the obstacles they’re currently facing and the terrible things that could happen if they don’t take advantage of your offerings.
This communicates that you understand the frustrations they’ve faced and helps position you as someone with a solution to their problems.
Lay out the details of what failure looks like and how their life could take a negative turn without your help.
Successfully completing this task will leave your site’s viewers concerned about their future and looking for answers to help lead them away from such impending circumstances.
(Are you depressed yet? Don’t worry, the next section is much cheerier!)
#3: Laying Out Your Value Proposition
Alright… You’ve discussed all the bad things that could occur to your reader without you in their life. Now it’s time for your value proposition. This is when you get to lay out all the positive things that could occur if your readers decide to take advantage of your services.
Feel free to brag about the benefits of what you are offering. Don’t get too cocky, though…
While it can be tempting to list out all of the great things you are providing, try to limit it to the top three benefits your customers will experience if they do business with you.
Rather than just talking about yourself, the key here is to focus on the customer and how much better their life will be after working with you.
Remember, most people only scan websites so clearly listing out a few of your product’s best attributes is going to have a much greater impact than going into detail of the many ways you hope to help.
The goal here is to follow up all that above negativity with how you and your business can help make sure your customer never has to worry about all the types of things you just reminded them of in the previous portion of your site.
This is also a great section to build a relationship with and relate to your reader. Let them know you understand what they are going through. You’ve been there and, as such, you have the answers to all their concerns.
Sympathizing with your reader’s situation will allow you to segway into the next portion of your site, establishing yourself as the person with all the answers to lead your followers towards success.
#4: Establishing Yourself as the Authority
Now that you’ve successfully built a repour with your reader, it’s time to explain why you’re the person they can trust to guide them towards the stress-free, happy life they want.
The key word here is GUIDE. You need to establish yourself as the guide on their journey towards success. For example, you could say “We’ve helped hundreds of small business owners simplify their business practices by taking accounting off their plate.”
You have the answers to all their concerns and you, and your business are the ones that are able to lead them in the right direction.
#5: Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty
Now comes the time when you need to explain the details of your services or product and lay out any fees or packages you wish to offer to a potential customer.
This is a simple, but important part of the process and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Ask for too little and you sell yourself short. Ask for too much and you run the risk of driving customers away. This is a decision that needs to be openly discussed with your team.
That being said, don’t be afraid to value your product at what you deem its value to be.
Fortunately, if you’ve successfully checked off the list leading up to this portion of the website, you should have no problem asking whatever price you deem appropriate (within reason.)
# 6: Your Plan in 3 Steps
Steps one through five are now complete. And as we come to the end of our list, it’s time to lay out the details of your plan that will make sure your readers know exactly what they need to do to purchase what you’re selling.
Make it obvious what the next steps are for purchasing. If you’re offering custom services, it’s probably not feasible to offer something as simple as “Buy Now.”
Give them a 3-step plan. Studies show that the human brain converts information to memory easier when the information is grouped in threes. So make it something like…
- Step 1- Create an account
- Step 2- Schedule Your Assessment
- Step 3- Start Running Your Business with Less Stress!
Allow them to visualize your plan of action and realize that you are a friend with which they can place their trust.
If you truly have a product or service that can achieve all the claims you’ve previously made, you should have no issues successfully completing the final portion of our checklist, calling your customer to action.
#7: Calling Them to Action
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of your website build.
At this point, you’ve managed to follow the above checklist and, as such, have a great website ready to help promote and sell your services to the world.
All this hard work, however, is pointless if you don’t finalize this process with Step #7, calling your customer to action.
This is the point in the process where you ask your customer to pull the trigger on their purchase.
They’ve heard all you have to say and the many ways your services can help them on their journey. You’ve laid everything out on the table and now it’s time for them to make a decision.
If you’ve done your part of this process well, most readers will more than likely want to purchase then and there.
If, however, your reader still needs time to think things over, this is a great opportunity for what’s called a transitional call to action.
A transitional call to action is some sort of content they can view in the meantime until they’re ready to purchase.
For example, they can download an article you’ve written on “5 Mistakes to Avoid When Outsourcing Your Accounting,” or a video you’ve created on how to organize your records for a smooth transition.
The key is to offer something that can keep the user engaged with your company while they’re making the decision to purchase. They can submit their email address to download your content, which drops them into your email sales funnel to continue the conversation.
By pointing them towards even more of your strong content, you will only reiterate your standing in the industry while further building a relationship with your reader that will solidify their trust in you. And that’s going to help you make that final sale in the long run.
In Conclusion...
There you have it. Seven simple steps to help your business grow your website.
By following the above list, you’ll be taking your potential customers on a journey to learn about your business with small, digestible bits of information that entices them to keep scrolling without overwhelming them.
With this method, not only will you have a better chance at building a strong website and making those coveted sales, but you will be turning those random site visitors in into lifelong, valued customers.
P.S. If you’d like more help turning your website into a powerful tool that has the power to reshape your company, give the experts at Rain Digital a call.
Their years of promotional experience have given them the tools needed to make any website a success.
And by bringing on a team of competent marketers to help you on this transformative journey, you will free up more of your time so you can spend it worrying about more important things (like what to do with all that free time!)
