How to make your website sell
Websites haven't quite replaced brochures and other traditional marketing tools. If your salespeople need effective leave-behinds or you need remember-me handouts after a speech, brochures might be the answer.
But websites matter, and they need attention: You must get people to your site, and the site must sell them once they arrive.
Mike Tatge and Randy King can help.
Tatge is president of JumpFly, Inc., an Elgin company that deals solely with pay-per-click advertising. As a practical matter, PPC centers on Google AdWords, the paid ads at the top and down the right side of Google search results pages.
King is co-founder of Web Rocket, LLC, Wheaton. Web Rocket produces videos for several purposes, including websites.
Adwords first. The beauty of PPC is that you control your advertising cost on a daily basis by paying a predetermined amount each time someone clicks on your ad and is transported to your website.
If, for example, you choose to pay $1 every time someone clicks your search page ad and limit your costs to $10 a day, you can keep your adwords cost to $300 a month.
That allows for just 10 click-throughs a day, however, a fairly limiting number of prospects. You can experiment with do-it-yourself PPC by clicking Advertising Programs on the Google search page.
JumpFly's role is to “understand your business and bring the right people to your website,” Tatge says. Figure $1,000 a month, or more, to support an effective PPC campaign.
The cost means “you need a business that will make enough money per client,” Tatge says.
Consequently, Tatge says PPC works best for Realtors, lawyers, accountants and others whose products or services bring a high return.
Once adwords get prospects to your site, selling should begin. For King, “The site must be as sticky as possible.”
Good navigation is important. So are compelling graphics and focused content — some of which, King says, should be video that “advances site visitors along” in the sales process.
If you're the focus of the video, “Talk about what your business does that makes you get out of bed in the morning,” King suggests. “Give your elevator pitch.”
King, though, has other ideas. “Use video to capture the client who sent you a testimonial letter,” he says. Replace look-alike biographies on “about us” pages with partners talking about their experiences.
Landscapers and interior designers can show off the results of their work, King adds. Doctors can explain procedures.
Videos should run two to three minutes. Cost, King says, will be about $1,500 for what essentially is a website commercial about your business.
There's another reason to consider videos, too: They increasingly appear mid-first page on search results. Google, King explains, “loves relevant video.”
• Contact Jim Kendall at JKendall@121Marketing Resources.com.
© 2011 121 Marketing Resources, Inc.