Why Your Website Isn't Getting You the Sales You Need is your website optimized for sales?
By Luis Congdon Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
A high performing website is like having a 24/7 salesman. This sales rep works for you while you sleep, play, serve clients, spend time with family or work in the business -- every single hour and second of the day your site can be growing your business. If it's optimized, it's working like a well-trained salesman -- attracting leads, inviting potential clients to see your products, conversing with them, setting appointments and closing sales. It's a tireless worker that never sleeps, works all year round and serves as another pillar of your business success.
Related: 50 Must-Have Features for Small-Business Websites (Infographic)
On the flip side, if your website isn't optimized, you have an under-utilized selling machine. And with statistics showing that 97 percent of local businesses are now found online, it's a significant loss to your business to not understand why your website isn't collecting leads, helping you make sales, and building up your marketing engine. Whether you're in business to sell construction services, coaching, software, online products or anything really -- there's a high likelihood your potential clients are finding you online. But, getting seen is only part of the equation; what matters is what your website does once a prospect or lead finds you.
Your website has two primary jobs -- if it's not doing them, it's not optimized.
If your website doesn't do a few things, it's just a salesman that can't do its primary job. In my one of my many conversations with Ryan Stewman, the CEO of Hardcore Closer, he told me, "All salesmen are really in two businesses. They are in the lead generation business and the closing business. The best salesman knows how to generate their leads and how to close sales. And the best way to do that is through traffic on your website." In other words, if you have an optimized site, you can consistently generate leads and thus close more sales.
A superb website, like a top-notch salesperson, collects data and can use that information to follow up with leads and then turns that into profits. Let me show you how to accomplish that so your website converts and sells better than Billy Mays or Grant Cardone.
Related: How Mobile-Friendly Is Your Website? If You Don't Know, You're Missing Out on Sales.
Collect data; it's your website's most important job.
According to Nielson Research, most people will leave your website in under a minute, which means you have very little time to create a sales or conversion. If you consider your browsing habits, you'll discover that like most people your presence on any webpage (outside of social media and Netflix) is quite short. This means that once someone is on your site, the most crucial role won't be keeping them there, but instead, assuring that data is collected so the follow-up can occur. After all, we all know: "The sale is in the follow-up."
Here's what you need to create a high converting website.
Most websites don't convert because business owners don't know a site's primary roles, so they ignore implementing the mechanisms that would optimize their site. Most sites don't have Facebook Pixels installed and aren't optimized to collect emails.
Optimizing for these two essential elements isn't hard and can be done quite easily. A Facebook Pixel can easily be installed, no expertise needed, and once that happens every single visitor to your site has their data collected by Facebook, which will allow you to run low-cost ads to those visitors.
Related: To Maximize Results Stop Sending Anyone Anywhere Except Your Landing Page
Next, to assure your site is set up to convert as it should, you need to collect emails from visitors. You can do this by strategically placing email opt-in boxes on your site. For some examples of where to put the opt-in boxes, check out these high-performing websites. By collecting these pieces of important data, you ensure you can make those quality touch points through low-cost email automation software, ads and other marketing mediums.
As a consultant in digital marketing, I often think this is common knowledge, but a close look at many brands' websites has shown me otherwise. If your business hasn't optimized its website, let me ask you what billionaire marketing genius Jay Abraham asked me: "How many better, other and additional ways could you be doing something that would work as pillars in your business?" In other words, if your business has a website, it's just one more pillar of success that can help you grow and assure that if one of your other methods for business changes, you still have other legs to your marketing and will be less vulnerable.
Related Video: How to Make More Online Sales With a Low-Traffic Website
