3 Techniques You should be Employing on Your Website

A very natural evolution in most businesses is the requirement for a website. The reasons for getting one are many, from image, to increasing sales. Many businesses also have a marketing budget, and their website becomes an intricate part of their business – as it should. Where many people seem to go wrong though, is that they treat their website as if it were part of their brick & mortar shop or office.

This is a HUGE mistake – even more so if you're spending money on advertising. There are some fundamental difference between real-world customer service, and online customer service.

Real-world:

• Depends on physical traffic which is limited
• Often restricted by predefined office hours
• Usually requires dedicated staff
• Requires a public venue, office, or store

Online:

• Virtual traffic is cheaper and more abundant
• There are no hours – it's 24/7/365
• Many tasks can be done by temporary virtual staff or outsourced
• No physical presence required

The biggest differences are in staffing and hours. I realize that this is mostly obvious, but why do so many people really not GET this? When they close their office, they pretty much shut down their website too.

There are many different tools and services which can dramatically increase the conversion rate of a website. This means more business without an increased spending in advertising.

Some of the major widgets & services you should be employing are:

Answering Service

If your office cannot answer it's sales lines 24/7, you're losing out on sales and leads. Having an answering service that kicks in when your sales phone doesn't pick up, will increase your leads significantly. Many people like to still use a phone and make a call. Give them a live person to talk to – even if it's just to take a message.

Online Chat

The information age has made many people shy of using phones. They prefer texting and chatting. Having online chat on your website can make a big difference. Although there are many chat plugins and widgets, and they're very easy to install and use, make sure they're manned 24/7. If you don't have staff to do this, use a service for off-hours, just like with a phone answering service.

Give-Aways

It should be a given these days that your website prominently shows your phone number, email address(es) and that it has one or more forms to collect visitor details for follow-up. However, you should be employing secondary lead capture mechanisms to build a list of less-but-still-interested visitors. A great way of doing this is with free give-aways on your website, that require a person's name and email address. This allows you to follow up at a later time, and it increases your chances of converting each visitor to a customer.

Most websites don't have a traffic problem – they have a conversion problem. These 3 techniques will make a significant improvement to your conversion rate, and business bottom line.