Web site not making the expected sales? Here's why ...
Just spent a few grand to "construct your web site" and nothing's happening? Welcome to the club. The big club.
The reality is, it's too early in the internet game to expect an avalanche of sales. Right now it's just snowing out maybe even just flurrying. History will prove that to be true. But the internet is the future of sales. Just because your site isn't working doesn't mean the internet isn't working. The internet is on its way to the moon you just may not be a passenger. Pity.
Meanwhile, what can you do? The easy answer: KEEP BUILDING. And the hard answer: SEEK PROFESSIONAL HELP.
Success on the internet is a delicate balance between your company's planned allocation of time, resource budgeting, and graphic appeal, and your visitors' thoughts, perceptions, and actions as they visit.
To get better, you must first discover your weaknesses. Lack of sales is not a problem it's a symptom. The problem is that you have not uncovered or admitted your web weakness(es).
Here are the most common mistakes that occur on the web sites of companies trying to do business on the internet, and not getting the results they were hoping for. But don't just read them; rate your own web site as you go along.
Hard to locate your web site. Just because it's there doesn't mean anyone can find it. You may be on Yahoo but lost on web TV. Register on search engines and develop relationships with people who run similar sites that will link you to theirs (and vice versa).
Wrong stuff on web site. Information about you and your company, instead of information the customer can use or be interested in. Your first-page presentation is critical to keeping someone interested enough to go inside.
Your stuff is interesting to you but boring to everyone else. All your employees and sales team love the site, but there's no value to the prospect, therefore no interest (reason) to buy anything.
Can't grab surfers' immediate attention. Ask me, challenge me, engage me don't introduce yourself until I'm interested. Make it fun. Make it exciting. Make it challenging. Hook me or lose me.
Hard to navigate or understand the purpose of your site. Illogical layout means hidden stuff that you know where to find, but remains a secret to the rest of the world. No stated objectives, teasers, questions, or obvious benefits to the surfer.
Self-defeating graphics. Graphics that take too long to load. Graphics that don't tie in a message. Graphics that just sit there (no animation or movement). Use all the technology you can to get your site to load fast, mean something, and move around.
One-way communication. Most sites have no immediate ability to send someone an e-mail message or ask a question. Hint: questions lead to sales.
No reason to visit the site more than once. Change parts of site often. Most sales are not made on the first call. You must get three or four exposures to break down the barriers of resistance and lower the risk of purchase. Give value incentive to visit your site often, and you'll start to make sales.
No daily changes. Have a daily message, fact, quote or info bit to keep people coming back until they like you enough to buy.
No real long-term web plan or web master. Most people have an "everyone's doing it, let's try it" or "we gotta be like the competition" mentality. You must have a five-year web plan and hire (appoint) a web master, or don't bother. Reactionary web sites don't have the same impact as proactively planned ones.
Didn't ask for the sale Duh! No offer to buy, or hard to buy, makes it a self-defeating objective.
Guideline clue: The internet is not a place to sell the internet is a place to create the atmosphere to buy.
Success clue: Pretend you're a customer. Try to place an order, get a question answered, leave someone a message. See what I mean?
Reality clue: The web is an infant, under five years old. Where was radio at five years? TV? Learn how to crawl as the web grows. Eventually you will be walking, even running.
Craig Mazser of Interpath.Com (Raleigh, North Carolina) said: "We are fixing and upgrading more sites than we are creating. People have been disappointed with their initial results from the web, but only because they went in with the wrong set of expectations and the wrong set of graphics."
"The web wasn't built in a day," Craig said, grinning. "And neither will anyone's response to their web site. It takes time, but the engine is on track and gathering momentum."
If you decide to wait until the web matures, you will still be an infant. America will do billions of dollars of business on the web that's a given. The only variable is, what share of those billions will you capture?
