How to increase sales through development of a
fantastic website.”
Why it’s easy for you to take advantage of the
Internet
By Dr Jason Steele, Owner of SeyeneCo Web Design
The following article will help remove
those worries you have about finally developing a website for your
company.
Before proceeding please answer yes or no to the following questions:
1) | Are you unsure about your company needing a website? | Yes No |
2) | Would you like to understand how to generate great leads? | Yes No |
3) | Do you have a client base you’d like to expand? | Yes No |
Whether you’re just looking into why you should get a website, or
have already made-up you mind that it’s a great way to increase sales the
following article will provide you with the route to website success.
In the next 5 minutes as you read this entire article you’ll start to wonder
why it’s taken you so long to make the jump online? You’ll also learn:
- The benefits of having a website
- Where to start when looking for a great website
- To consider the objectives of your website
- To identify who the website is targeted at
- To sketch the structure of your website
- To consider the look and feel of your website
- How to get a great website address and hosting
- The cost of development
- How to choose the right web site designer
So why go online in the first place?
You’re probably wondering why your
company needs a website in the first place. You’ve lasted this
long without one, so why change things now? The single biggest benefit to
getting online is the fact that potential customers are desperately
looking for the very products and services that you offer. I guarantee
you that someone online is looking for the very thing that you’re trying
to sell more of.
Websites aren’t just for selling books and dvds, they are used to advertise
the benefits of doing business with your company.
Some of the benefits of developing a website for your company are:
- Selling Online – By developing an e-commerce site your businesses
can sell goods or services globally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. - Customer Service – Customer service is a vital part of the selling
process for any business. Your website can greatly reduce the cost of
providing your customers with the after sales service they require. - Marketing – By developing a website for your company you can
market the products and/or services of your business to a global audience
and attract new customers. - Communications – Your website can be used to distribute information
internally within your organisation, as well as to share information with
business partners, clients and suppliers on a 24/7 basis. - Recruitment – The Internet is the ideal place to recruit staff
for your company, and not just the technical positions, but for all vacancies
within your company.
Where do you start?
The successful path that you should travel
to develop a fantastic website is:
- Determine the objectives of your website
- Identify who the website is targeted at
- Consider the structure of your website
- Consider the look and feel of your website
- Get a great website address and hosting
Now that’s much easier than you thought isn’t it? So let’s start with the
first one.
Determine the objectives of your
website
I know this seems like a strange place
to start a website design process because everyone just wants to make money!
Granted there are lots of websites out there whos sole purpose it to make
money for their owners, yet there are other reasons for having a website.
Some websites show people how to save money, and others purely exist as
hobby sites.
Decide on your objectives.
Identify who the website is targeted
at
Unlike a new business you have the great
advantage of an existing client base. As the aim of your website will be
to expand this client base, one of the first things you should do is actually
talk to your clients about what they’d like to see on your website.
There’s little point developing a website that doesn’t provide the very
information that your client base is interested in. The new clients you
find online will be after the very same information as your current clients
are.
You might find that some of your clients would like more news about your
company, or perhaps the facility to download forms. As with business, the
way to make your website a great success is to identify what your clients
actually need and provide them with it.
The flip side to this is that you might currently be considering adding
something to your website that none of your clients need. An example might
be a customer management system that has all the bells and whistles, yet
would cost a considerable amount of money. Why not ask your clients what
they want on the website and possibly spend less developing it than you
expected.
Identify your target audience and their
needs.
three groups:
- People starting new businesses
- Established companies
- People who have websites that aren’t contributing to sales
The vast majority of people starting new businesses know that
one of their first steps is developing a fantastic website to advertise
their products and services. As such this group doesn’t need to be convinced
about the benefits of getting online: they are more interested in the
things they have to do to prepare for a website, and the ways to minimise
its overall cost.
Group needs:
- Information required for website
- Development process
- How to minimise development cost
Established companies want to know what benefits the Internet
and their website will bring them. They also want to know the process
of developing and launching a website.
Group needs:
- Benefits of having a website
- Development process
Companies with websites that aren’t generating sales or leads
want to know why. After the various problems have been identified the
options for turning things around is required.
Group needs:
- Reasons for their websites failure
- Information on how to actually generate sales and leads
Design the structure of your website
The core pages in any website are:
- Homepage
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Terms & Conditions
- Privacy Policy
Other pages to consider are:
- News
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Enquiry
- Links
With the core of the site completed, you next need to list all
the products and/or services that your company is providing.
If
you’re a service company then devote one page to each of the services you
provide.
If you’re a company that sells products then devote one page to each category
of product.
There will be exceptions to these rather basic rules, but hopefully you
get the spirit of what I mean.
You should now have a list of all the pages you’ll need in your website.
At this stage I like to draw a site map so that I can visualize how all
the pages will link together.
Sketch the site structure.
Design the look and feel of your
website
This is probably where you thought designing
a website starts. The look of your website should match the look
of your current advertising and marketing material. This probably
seems obvious, yet the number of companies we’ve come across who simply
don’t understand this basic principle would amaze you.
Imagine meeting someone at a networking lunch, getting their business card,
and then viewing their website later. If the website doesn’t share the same
styles as the business card i.e. logo, colours, fonts etc then this would
only confuse you.
Ensure your website looks like your marketing/
advertising material.
Getting a great website address
and website hosting
The main website address for your company
should probably be your company name .co.uk. You could
of course choose a .com address, but I think the .co.uk shows people where
your focus is. If you’re targeting the international marketplace then a
.com could be more suitable. It’s only an extra £10 to buy another url,
so this shouldn’t break the bank.
You can check whether the website address you’re interested in is actually
available by visiting Compila Ltd.
Simply type the url into the domain name registration box.
The web host is the computer that holds all the pages, images and files
that make-up your website. When a web address is typed into the browser
i.e. Internet Explorer or FireFox the relevant page, images and files are
then provided by the host.
Web hosting companies like Compila Ltd
can provide you with a web address, Email address and 50Mb of space for
your website for £20 per year.
Decide on a website address.
Remember to advertise your website!
Once your website is up and running there are two ways that people will discover it:
- Search engines
- Traditional marketing
Search engines will generate the bulk of the website traffic over time, but it can take months
for them to start doing this. So what do you do in the meantime you ask ? well you use
traditional marketing to let people know about your website.
Simply include your URL in all the company stationary, cards and literature – best leave off the
http:// part as most people know what www. means.
Advertise your url
Costing the development of your
website
The development cost depends upon several
factors such as:
- The number of page in the site
- The amount of text and graphics in the site
- Whether you supply graphics and text or whether the designer has to
do this
As a ball park figure each page on your website will cost between
£75 and £150 to develop. Obviously there are companies and individuals
who will charge much less and much more than this.
Get an idea of the cost.
Choosing a website design company
The worst way to decide which web site
design company to choose is through looking for the cheapest quote. Obviously
you want to develop a great website without having to invest more than you
can afford, yet the expression “pay nuts, get monkeys”
should be foremost in your mind.
Some things to definitely consider when deciding on a website design company
are:
- Have they created websites that you like the look of?
- Do their clients actually appear in the search engines?
- Will you meet with representatives of the company or is everything conducted
via emails and phone calls?
A great website should:
- Look fantastic
- Appear in a high position in the search engines
- Persuade people to actually contact or buy from you
You probably knew that a website should look great, but did you realize
that the majority of people who should find your site will do so via search
engines i.e. Google, Yahoo, MSN & AOL?
Put simply, this means that when somebody types a product or service that
you provide you ideally want to appear on the first few pages of
the results. If you don’t appear in the search engines then you
won’t be generating any new business. The process of getting a website to
appear in the search engines is referred to as search engine optimisation.
Once the visitor has landed on your site you have to convince them that
you can provide the product or service that they’re after. This is known
as writing copy for the web.
When choosing a website design company ensure that they:
- Develop great looking websites
- Can optimise a website for search engines
- Convince people to contact or purchase from the site owners
You can get the cheapest company to generate a website for you that results
in no sales, or you can spent a little bit more and actually make money
online.
Look beyond the cheapest designer when
building your site.
For an analogy a website is like a salesman. If the salesman looks good,
generates great leads and has a fantastic sales talk then your business
will thrive. If anyone of these three vital components isn’t effective then
you’ll get no extra business.
The look of the website is compared to the look of the salesman. The leads
the salesman generates is compared to the traffic generated via the search
engines. And lastly, the sales talk is matched to the web copy of the website.
For your website to be a success all three ingredients must be present.
You’re the owner of a
property letting company
based in Glasgow, where you have several properties on offer. You want
a website
to generate leads and provide potential contact
details of interested parties.
After doing some Internet based research you know that there are 121 people a month
looking for property to rent in Glasgow. Each property you manage to rent earns you £100
commission per month.
If your website is sitting at the top of the search engines for the phrase “property letting Glasgow”
then there’s a very good chance you’ll get all 121 people to visit your site. Taking a conservative conversion
rate of 5% then this means you’ll get an extra 6 sales per month.
Six extra sales per month at £100 each means that you’ll quickly recover the initial investment
in the website.
However, and this is the catch, if your website isn’t sitting in a high position in the search engines
for your targeted phrase then the number of people visiting your site will be lower, the sales will be
lower, and the commission will be lower.
So when evaluating quotes from potential website designer simply choosing the cheapest could be
an expensive long term mistake. You need to ensure that the designer you choose has the ability to
get your site rated near the top of the search engines.
So now what?
You now know how a website will increase
business for you, and how to create one. I talked you through:
- Deciding on the objectives of your website
- Determining who your website is targeted at
- Outlining the structure of your website
- Designing the look and feel of your website
- Getting a great website address and website hosting
- Costing the website development
- Choosing a website design company
Provided you follow each of these steps your company will have a fantastic
future online.
If you’re based in Scotland and desperate for that great website then phone
SeyeneCo on 01698 292 296 – we’re here to help.