Website Design and Sales 101

Posted on May 15, 2008
Filed Under Sales |

Designing and promoting your website usually includes discussions about imagery, textual content, SEO, sitemaps, home pages and internal and external linking. Conversion, of course, is discussed usually in terms of a “call to action.” However, precious little time is given to the real basics of selling. The internet and web sites haven’t changed anything about the way real people think, act, react and make decisions.

There are 5 reasons people actually buy something:

1. Money – make more or save more.
2. Time – save time.
3. Convenience – make it easy to use, easy to do.
4. Pleasure or Confidence – enjoyment and / or security – peace of mind, sense of well being.
5. Reliability – assurance, warranties, guarantees of customer satisfaction. A track record. References.

While your products and services need to be presented with specifics that yield any combination of the above ‘reasons to buy,” your website, in and of itself, must hold true to this principle as well. Website visitors are impatient by nature and must realize, almost instantaneously, that there is one or more reasons to buy and therefore stay on the page and explore the site further. Do you offer a value position that is economically based? Do you increase efficiency or save time? Is the site easy to understand and navigate? Does it make sense? Do you provide a pleasurable experience? Is it secure? Is it reliable? Do you clearly show your commitment to customer satisfaction and that you stand behind your products?

There is content and then there is content. Are you really speaking to the visitor in the language of the visitor; that is, are you giving them reasons to justify the click that got them there and are you compelling enough to keep them there and lead them to a favorable buying decision.

After all, what is the job of your website?

By Arthur Cooper

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