Is Your Web Site Talking To Your Customer?
|
|
A while ago one of my clients approached me and mentioned thatthey were experiencing a serious problem with customerregistrations (obtaining customer names and e-mail addresses),on their web site. They still had a lot of traffic, but werefinding that the ratio between traffic and registrations hadbeen dropping steadily.
H'mm, click-thru conversion rate I immediately thought, beingthe clever fellow I am. Or..., maybe product description?Or..., benefits?
Now a little step back: The product this company sells isvery popular, especially within the higher middle incomebracket and above, in this country. The company decided toalso start selling this product on-line a year ago and the website immediately attracted considerable traffic from inception.The subscription rate was never really a problem as everyonewanted to know when new product ranges were to be released.The Marketing Director was also always very careful to followthe basic rules of internet marketing.
So what had gone wrong ?
Back to the present: I decided to have a quick look at the website before meeting with the Marketing Director. O, dear:Horror upon horror. The company had gone and changed the copyon the site.
I must say that I was very impressed with the great graphicsand graphic functionality on the web site. One could doincredible displays with the product. And the technicaldescriptions of the product - something to die for! For thefirst time I now knew precisely what materials were used inthe manufacturing process, how long items spent in variousstages and that some material originated from space research.Wow, to die for!!!
So what?
Where were the benefits?What was in it for me as a customer?
Worse was still to come:
This web site was boring the heck out of me as a customer!
This web site was talking down to me!
Woe is me!I felt terrible - like an idiot, after working my way throughthe site (this talking down business really made me feelstupid), but manfully prepared for my meeting with theMarketing Director and sallied forth with my trusted colleaguescalled What, Who When, Where, How and my trusted right hand Why.
During the meeting it transpired that due to a number of technical queries the company received via the web site, they decided to revamp the site. The new site was to be moretechnically orientated to cater for the technical customers.
Aha, my trusted colleagues said. And what percentage of your internet customer base is technically orientated. And what areyou actually wanting to sell - and to whom - and what do they want. Turned out that the company did not actually know what percentage of their customers wanted technical information. It was not a huge amount of people though. Turned out the company had not done any market research to determine this change. Turned out that someone had had a bright idea and changes were made without any research. Turned out the company tried to tell customers what the customers should want and need. Turned out the company ignored their customer.
H'mm - what did the company and I learn from this... again.
Sell the benefits of the product to the customer. A customer lands on a site - the customer has certain needs, be it hidden or overt. You need to satisfy those needs. This first question a customer asks is: What is in it for me ! Does this satisfy my need(s). What benefits are there for me ?
What my client did was to show the customers how clever the persons in the company is. It is the worst one can do. It talks down to the customer - look how clever I am !!! Let's talk about me, me, me and when you get tired of me, we'll talk about myself and I. What about the customer ? Rather talk about the customer - how this would meet his or her needs. How this product would reward all the hard work, be a status symbol to show off, how this product would save time.
Something else: This web site was downright boring. It did not talk to a person - in fact it was dead. It did not draw attention. Oh, attention - let me go down that track for a second. You want attention - you want a web site that talks to the customer. Ha - that means one has to constantly update content(copy) on a site. That is work that costs money.
Well, well, well, my colleagues say. Are you aware that the typical web customer reads/surfs about 20 to 30 sites per day. Are you aware that when a person is looking for something, they scan through a site. Are you aware that if you do not catch their attention with an attention grabbing headline you are going to lose them. Are you aware that you have between 10 and 20 seconds to grab their attention.
Your site must talk to your customer. Your site must grab the attention of the customer and you have between 10 and 20 seconds to do that. And what about keeping the customer coming back. That is a topic for another time, I think.
Back to my client: We compromised on a site that follows the principals I stated above, but also have a Technical area for those that wanted it. We built the site again with new copy.
Copy that addressed the needs and wants of customers.
Copy that was written from a customer's perspective.
Copy that sold benefits.
Copy that connected to customers as friends.
Copy that emphasized the "you" word and minimised the I/me words.
Copy that talked, connected and made the site talk.
And my client:
They are happy - their web site talks to their customers.
And the conversion rate:
Not going to tell you what it is, but it is high again and higher than before - for the moment, my client loves me.
And what is in this for you, dear reader:
Just one thing: "Make your web site talk to your customer"
Leon Williams runs eBusWiz and is "Actively living his dream". More articles can be found at: http://www.ebuswiz/blog
More information at: http://www.ebuswiz.com
and articles at: http://www.ebuswiz.com/articles
|
|
|
Created & Maintained by Empower! CMS Web Sites
Host2Sell Web Hosting | Emarketing Workshops | Site SEO Review | FREE NewsletterYou Need To Treat Your Website Like An Employee - Heres 5 Ways To Do It
People often come to me in a state of crisis and say their website isn't working. Usually they're in a cold sweat:"Mike, give me some practical things I can do to get more sales from my website!"You want practical advice? Stop treating your website like an object in your business and start treating it like an employee. Most bu...(related: Web Development)
Credibility - 10 Ways To Build It On Your Website
If you have your own business website and you are trying to sell something, then it is imperative that you ...(related: Web Development)
What Your Customers Say About Your Site! Part 1
The following is a list of patterns that many visitors follow, and you can use these suggestions to better your site.1. Your visitors often stay for less than 30 seconds. This is a very bad sign! There are a multitude of solutions for this. Often when a visitor leaves that fast, it's because something almost "forced" her (the average e-consumer is in fact a woman!) to leave. Frequent causes of this are ugly sites! I use the term ugly because many ugly sites are bringing in more money than you can imagine, but truley ugly sites, or ones with very hard to read / obnoxious text will force a visitor away.Your site may load far too slow! If your site loads slower than 20 seconds, you are literally driving away a third of your traffic. By the time the rest of the traffic ge...(related: Web Development)
Five Reasons You Have To Stop Your Web Site
That's right. Your method, behavior and strategy you are now using to manage your website may be justifiable reasons to stop it as soon as possible.Right now, there are millions of websites on the Internet, many of them are dead static pages with not or very few visitors. The owner of websites are paying lots of money and effort to make the website up and running and are giving service to visitors. From within these much of website owners, a little of them are earning money from their website or their website is beneficial for their business, most of the o...(related: Web Development)
Planning Your Website For Success
Most people know they need a website in order to publicise and promote their business but very few people know what they want in their website. Fewer still are those who can actually sit down and plan their websites well.If you don't plan ahead, problems will crop up later.For example, who is going to take care of the website? What are the costs involved? Will you have the time to maintain it or should you hire a webmaster?T...(related: Web Development)
How To Promote Your Law Firm Website On The Internet For Maximum Profit
Making maximum profit from your law firm website is important, but as a lawyer you might not have any clue about search engine optimization and Internet marketing for your legal site. However, it is not so difficult to poise your website to be successful online even if you are not experienced with Internet marketing and driving website traffic. All you have to do is review the following tips and include them in your website marketing plan. Before you know it you will notice that your website counter is recording more hits per day and telling you that your directories, keywords, and links are working.Tip #1 - Submitting to Law DirectoriesTake some time online to orient yourself with the myriad of law directories available. Register your domain name and the type of law you practice with as many law directories as you possibly can. By ...(related: Web Development)
Building A Great Intranet Taxonomy
While it may seem like a "quick and easy" task, defining the navigation structure and organization of your intranet site will be one of the most challenging tasks you will face in the course of your project. It is also one of the most critical success factors. The site structure, also referred to as the information architecture or taxonomy, is the foundation of your intranet. Creating an effective taxonomy is as much an art as it is a science. Use the wrong terms and your users won't be able ...(related: Web Development)
You Dont Know Which One
I still remember it very clear ... It was almost a decade ago that I wrote it in my notebook as an interesting quotation from a famous man at that time and even now and ever. Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet president, shared this so-called joke with some reporters: "Mitterand has 100 lovers. One has AIDS, but he doesn't know which one. Bush has 100 bodyguards. One is a terrorist, but he doesn't know which one. Gorbachev has 100 economic advisers. One is smart, but he doesn't know which one!"After all these years, After I found it and read it again, noticed how interesting it can be when we expand and continue it with the notion of web and marketting via web sites and/or e-mails. Yes, according to your log files, you have 100 visitors for your web site. One is a buyer, but you don't know which one! You ...(related: Web Development)
Content Management ? The New Standard In Web Design
The evolution of web development parallels the model of technology spending by companies today. The style and method has transformed along with the business spending trend. Content management has taken over as the latest fashion in design and modern web development style.Companies have become more concerned over the past few years with where their development dollars are going, especially in web design. Thus, web developers have had to adjust their methods and deliver products that fit the business model.The rise and fall of the "Dot Com" era paved the way for tremendous technolog...(related: Web Development)
What Works And What Not Works For Your Internet Business
"Build it and they will come."
--Filed of Dreams (1989)
If you are working on an Internet business, you may read a lot of information for how quickly you can make money online. The truth is that running online business is same as running traditional business. You need spend time to learn, to build your business. There is no "magic button" you can push and get quick money. But Internet business has larger potential compare to traditional business since you have global customers. If you follow right roadmaps,...(related: Web Development)
3 Essential Tools Every Website Designer And Marketer Needs
Appealing to others is really important when you have a web page. This is because you will not have any personal contact with visitors and cannot persuade them to buy from you or come into your store, not personally that is. Your web page is your medium for persuasion so you need to put as much thought and effort into the design of your website and how it will appeal to potential customers as you would into a physical store. Unfortunately, a lot of web designers and marketers don't think of their web pages this way and make a lot of mistakes that cost visitors and sales. Don't let this happen to you, instead focus on the importance of appearance and have fake visitors visit your site and let you know what works and what does not, anonymously of course, before you launch so you will have some r...(related: Web Development)
site-map - Copyright © 2006 Empower! Web Design | All Rights Reserved. | Web Development