Don’t Want to Grow?
Ignore This!
I’ve been in business long enough to remember when websites were optional. It was hardly ‘the good old days’ – we used to spend $20,000 a year on a Yellow Pages ad – but they were simpler times.
Of course we’ve all realised that’s no longer the case, but still too many businesses are overpaying for brochureware websites that don’t deliver an ROI. Would your business bottom line actually change if you deleted your website?
This week’s punchy Blackboard Fridays article and video discuss how to turn your website visitors into relationships. Thanks to my friends at Customer Frame, I also have an example here with an exclusive offer for your customer-led business.
Take the Customer Frame Blindspot Roadtest (no sign-up required) (only if you want more customers)
You might remember these guys from the book launch I hosted last year, or their guest hosting Blackboard Fridays episode 84. Not only do they have a luscious website I’m envious of, in practicing what they preach about putting the customer at the heart of your business they also do a great job offering free materials … in exchange for your email address and the chance to get to know you a little better. Seriously, visit the website and examine their landing page.
To demonstrate how this works, Sueanne has generously offered to help you bypass that signup, and complete the Blindspot Roadtest yourself. This is a 9 question quiz to help you recognise the blindspots in your operations which, when improved, will unlock more projects, more referrals, and more of your ideal clients.
- Click here to access the PDF version with no sign-up
- I’ve done this and recommend doing it as a discussion in your next team meeting or marketing/sales meetings
- But you can do it yourself in less than 5 minutes
- The test itself defines what high performing businesses do with their customer strategy. So this is super practical.
- Want more? Because you’ll bypass the sign-up, you are invited to email your Quiz results to Sueanne here, and she will offer you a 45 min review meeting to discuss your results, what that means for your organisation, and what your personalised business priorities should be. Thanks SC!
Whether you click that link or not… whether you accept the personal review meeting or not… can you see how Customer Frame are leveraging their website into creating relationships?I do something similar with my Feminine Energy for Leaders landing page and quiz.
What can you do to upgrade your website as a business resource that performs?
Blackboard Fridays Episode #69 – Do You Know Why You Have a Website?
Hi Blackboarders! Talking today about having a website. You see I’m old. I’ve been in business long enough to remember when having a website was optional. Those days have long passed.
But even though almost every business today does have some form of website, for many they’re really still unclear about why they have the website, what’s the purpose of that, the context, the reason, the actual outcome that you want?
If your website is so-called brochureware, it’s just a placeholder, a HTML business card, then you really are missing the opportunity to help grow your business. If you don’t want to grow your business, well, there’s not going to be a lot of value in this Blackboard Fridays episode. But for the rest of us, let’s get clear about why we have a website because today the website is not the end of the journey.
Why Do YOU Have a Website?
When most of us think about our website, we think about how we get people to come to our website. Now that might be because they’ve heard about us, the word-of-mouth referral. You probably know from personal experience that when you get referred to somebody, or you meet somebody at an event, checking out their website is one of the first things you do.
It gives you an idea of who they are, what they do, their brand promise.
Similarly, we often create lead generation activities which are designed to drive people to our website. Google AdWords, search engine optimization, Facebook Ads, giant billboards, whatever marketing strategy you might initiate, sending people to your website is the most common call to action.
But What Next?
How often have you actually thought about what that potential customer does once they get to your website? What is the next step that you would like to see them do?
This is the next aspect that I see many business owners failing to consider. You build a nice looking website that positions yourself really well… and then nothing else.
How can you avoid that mistake, take those people that are coming to your website and transition them into a known relationship?
Continue the Relationship
The exact answer to that question will vary depending on the nature of your business and your growth plans.
But the default starting point I suggest is “How do I get this visitor onto my database?”
At this point in their relationship with you / your business, they know you a little but you’re not in a position to really engage with them fully. You need to push a little to create opportunities that reinforce your brand promise and to actually start engaging them in the nurture sequence to generate them as a client.
If you think back to the Sales Hourglass framework where we look at the customer journey onboarding themselves as a client in your business, that’s where it starts right at the top.
This person who has found your website for a specific reason may be a lead, and if so they want to know your brand promise, they want to understand what makes you special, why someone would use you, and then they want to engage. They want to understand why they would work with you.
Now some people might come to your website with an immediate need, pick up the phone, make a call, and buy your product on the spot. Happy days my friend!
But for most of us in most business models, that sale takes time and takes trust.
You can only ensure that you have that relationship over time if you get them onto your database. From the database, as simple or as complicated and specific as you need to make it, communicate to your database to move them through, engage, get a proposal out to them, maybe sell a commitment product to get them on as a client.
The critical step that I see too many business owners forgetting, and too many website builders forgetting to tell you, is how you take somebody who’s gone to all that effort to find your website and turn them into a relationship that you can develop.
With love,
Jacob Aldridge
International Business Advisor
WhatsApp +61 427 151 181
