They told you to build a website, so you did. They told you’d you get customers if you had a website, but that hasn’t happened.
I’ve been involved in building and marketing thousands of websites since 1999, but I realize it’s easy to get in a bubble. So I turned to 19 friends — experts at web design, SEO, copywriting, marketing and usability — to get their explanations why some websites succeed while others fail.
Their advice creates a clear plan for anyone looking to launch a site or improve existing pages.
1. Solve problems.
“Most websites are written around how great you are and not what problem you solve,” says Chris Brogan, New York Times best-selling author of nine marketing and business books. ” ‘You want better skills and strategies for business? We’re here to help.’ See? “That’s the challenge. Make your buyer the hero.”
2. Focus on results, not features.
So says Jacob Cass, who runs the popular design blog JUST Creative. “Instead, tell your potential customers the benefits that your product or service will do for them,” Cass says. “A classic example of this is a drill. Customers don’t want a drill, they want a hole in the wall. So focus on the quality of the holes and how easy it was to create those holes — not the actual drill itself.”
3. Focus on your customers, not yourself.
“Your website isn’t bringing in customers because it’s focused on you and not your customers,” says Ann Handley, author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller “Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content” and Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs. “Instead of focusing on what you do or what you sell or why you’re awesome, instead focus on why your customers should care. How do you help them? How do you shoulder their burdens? Ease their pain? Make their lives better/richer/smarter? That is your story.”
4. Build your brand.
“People are more likely to buy from you if the quality of what you sell is matched or surpassed by the quality of your brand identity,” says David Airey, author of branding best-seller “Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities.” In other words, build a reputation around your company, products and services, that is bigger than any of those things. That reputation will pull you toward greatness.
5. Get to know your customers before they need you.
“People don’t randomly click on stuff and buy stuff,” says Larry Kim, founder of WordStream, the world’s largest pay-per-click software company. “They favor the brands they know and love. Repeat visitors (people who have heard of you) have two to three times higher click-through rates than new visitors (people who are just getting to know you),” Kim says. “So figure out ways to get in front of your target market before they decide they need to buy your products/services.” Doing so will dramatically bias outcomes in your favor.
6. Help people to know, like and trust you.
“Your homepage covers only the ‘know’ part,” says Lior Frenkel, whose e-book “Value For Money” explains why that’s not enough. And Frenkel knows plenty as New World Early Adopter at FRNKL. “Trying to sell your services/products too early won’t get you great results. You first need them to like and trust you. You can do that by having an awesome ‘About Me’ page, by having them follow you on social or through getting them to subscribe to your newsletter.”
7. Give them a reason to come back.
“Your website isn’t bringing in customers because you have given them no reason to come back,” says Kelsey Meyer, cofounder of Influence & Co.
“If your company blog is updated just once per month and consists only of employee updates, why would a potential customer care about returning to your site?” Meyer asks. “You convert leads into customers by earning their trust and educating them on why they need your services. Focus on producing content on your site that educates and engages your prospective customers so they keep coming back to learn more.”
8. Attract the right crowd.
“If the wrong people are hitting your website, it’s all for nothing,” says Paul Jarvis, who writes about the intersection of creativity and commerce for Fast Company, Newsweek, Forbes, LifeHacker and BuzzFeed. “For example, if you…
