How often are your meetings about “Increase Sales – but No Extra Costs?” Maybe this is the topic everyone seems to be obsessed with – this is just the need of the hour. Everyone’s focus is to keep the purse strings tight but there is still the expectation to generate more sales. Addressing this issue has been a natural extension of what I and my colleagues always believed – that a website is a medium that could supplement your sales effort with less cost impact than other options. Our recent successful client efforts have generated value which is high compared to investment. This efficiency makes clients feel better prepared for the business environment they are currently facing.
So what answers have you come up with? – one matrix after the other, only satisfying you with a “something is being done” feeling. More often than not our tendency is to believe that complex problems are only solved by complex solutions. Somehow we tend to underestimate what we already have. Just look again at your website and you will know what I mean. You need to develop a new approach to your existing assets – including reaching of the potential of your website.
Change your mindset:
• don’t think of your website as just a set of pages
• it’s a potent sales star that is waiting to deliver for you.
List the efforts that you make on your offline sales:
• think of segments of your customers
• think of how your product/services address their pains and needs
• think of offers/promotions that you roll out periodically
• everything that is on your offline sales dossier.
Compare this list to what you have on your website:
• more often than not you will be amazed at the treatment that you have inadvertently given to your website;
• Your underutilization of it might even have you in disbelief.
Now take on the role of the visitor (do the same with some friends and colleagues):
• Chances are that you will find everyone struggles to easily reach the conversion (to customer) stage
• Piles of content suffocating the website
• Components placed without a specific purpose
• A kind of general misalignment that will be an eye-opener
• So unknowingly you are saying “NO” to someone who is interested in your product/services
• You leave them no option but to look for other providers who can cater better to him
• Potential sales are left on the table
We use our expertise at AftertheNet to provide strategic inputs to our clients so that they are able to harness the full power of their website. Central to our approach, we strongly recommend the same level of attention to both online and offline efforts. The results will be both visible and tangible. And the value you get far outweighs the investment of time and cost.
About Author: As a senior member of the team at
The Web Strategy Company and its parent
AftertheNet, Rick augments his work on client projects by writing articles on key areas of online marketing. His articles emcompass all key impact areas of online strategy with a particular focus on sharing knowledge of the fundamentals of core online tactics.
