Is Your Company Website Costing You Business?

June 21, 2017

Hypothetical situation.

A person has a need for your service or product. They have found out about your company either through a referral from somebody who knows you or from an internet search. They want to learn more about what you offer, so they do what anybody does, and they go to the internet to look for your website.

The person reviews your website, clicks a few different pages, and then says to themselves, “Let’s keep looking”.

This is a common scenario. You may be the best at what you do, and your products may be the best on the market, but you will never have the opportunity to do business with that person.

They have made a determination of your business based ENTIRELY your website and they have moved on to your competitors. You have lost their business and you didn’t even know they were there.

That brings us to an all-important question:

Is your company website costing you business?

Bad Website = Bad Salesperson

Having a bad company website is the equivalent of having a bad company salesperson. If the website is poor in quality, if it is overly complex, if it is out of date, if the user experience is bad, then the website will cost you business. It is exactly the same as having a salesperson it doesn’t know your product, dresses sloppily, shows up late for meetings, and doesn’t care about the client.

Would you tolerate that? Would you tolerate a salesperson representing your company so poorly, that it actually costs you business? Certainly not!

Here are some of the critical website elements that must be in place in order to convert visitors into prospects.

Minimalism

If there is one philosophy to embrace the design of your website, it is that of minimalism. In the most basic terms, the simpler the website, the easier it is for your potential client understand what you are offering. Modern consumers understand that they have a wealth of companies to choose from and that they can vet them all through their websites on the internet. There is nothing keeping that on your website if it is complex and difficult to understand. If they can’t find what they want, they simply leave.

Your design should be minimalist and your copy should be minimalist. Keep it clean, simple, and get straight to the point.

Identify Need

Remember, when a potential client visits your website, it is the equivalent of a sales meeting. It is critical to establish trust with your potential client or customer by identifying their needs. After all, that is why they are there in the first place. They have a need.

It is not sufficient to simply list your services and assume that the potential client will be able to make the connection. You need to prove to them that you understand their situation. Oftentimes, visitors doing a preliminary search for a product or service don’t even necessarily know what their needs are.

Offer Solutions

Now that the website visitor has been shown that you understand their needs, it is time to offer solutions. This is the appropriate time to offer services, but ensure that you offer those services in relation to the needs what you’ve already identified. There should be a flow from identifying needs to offering solutions. This is where brevity and minimalism are critical.

Offer Support for the Solutions

So you have proven that you can solve the problems of the potential client, but you still need to show them that you are the company to choose. Why should they choose you over their competitors? We need to offer proof that you are the company to choose. Two of the most effective methods proving potential clients you are the company to choose our testimonials and case studies.

On our website at bushmarketing.ca, we offer dozens of case studies are potential clients to view. We also have (at the time of this article) over 30, 5-Star Google reviews from our satisfied clients. As a Toronto web design company, we understand how vital it is for our prospects to see the quality of our websites and the degree to which our clients are satisfied with our work. Powerful stuff!

Call To Action (CTA)

At this stage, hopefully, the potential client is convinced. We’ve identified their need, offered the solutions to their problems, and supported those Solutions with evidence from past clients. But there is one more critical step that is commonly neglected. That is the final instruction. now that they know all this we need to tell them what to do!

A call to action, or CTA, is a specific instruction to action for a potential client or website visitor. There are many different kinds, including filling out contact forms, calling the company, downloading white papers, signing up for newsletters, etc

Your website also needs to make sure that it has all of that contact information available. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, there needs to be a map. There should always be an address and phone number. If you are adding a contact form, make sure that the fields are specific to your company needs.

Additional Points

Now that we understand the big picture of what an effective website is like, here is some details that need to be tended to as well.

Speed. You have between two and five seconds to capture the attention of your website visitor. If your website takes a long time to load, you will lose them.
Brand consistency. Your website should incorporate the colors and fonts that you are already using in your brand materials, like your logo.
Updated content. If you are offering testimonials, case study, or you are blogging, make sure that everything is current. It is off-putting to see the latest entry on a website from a couple of years ago.
Spelling and grammar. Yes, it’s incredibly important. Do not trust spellcheck. Go over it all with a fine-tooth comb, and then show it to a trusted friend or colleague to review.
Simple writing. If you are writing your own website copy, don’t try to be fancy and don’t use 25-cent words if you don’t have to. Keep it simple, get to the point.
Mobile Friendly. Your website must be mobile-friendly. The majority of web searches occur on mobile devices, including tablets and phones. If your potential clients are unable to read your website on these devices, you will lose them.

Conclusion

Now that you have a better understanding of how a bad website can cost you business, you should be able to go to your company website and gauge its quality.