Are the number of subscribers, leads, and clients your website is generating – disappointing? What are you doing wrong? Possibly one (or more) of the five things (reasons) below. Recognise any?
I remember my very first website.
It was for my first business venture – a secretarial service that provided administration and bookkeeping support to local businesses. Some 20-something years ago now.
While it certainly wasn’t anything like the websites and technologies that are available to us now, I was very proud of my 3-page website. It informed people about me, the services I provided, and how people could get in contact with me.
A very basic website – which suited my purposes and the expectations of my (then) prospective clients.
Fast-forward to today and the expectations of site visitors (i.e. your prospective clients) and website technologies have evolved in leaps and bounds.
No longer are small business websites just basic pages about your products and services, with a ‘Contact Us’ page, like my very first website.
For websites to succeed at a bare minimum they need to educate; they need to engage; they need to build a community of like-minded people (your ideal client) who regularly return to read and share your content because they value your expertise.
With the correct design, content, and marketing strategy, your website can continue to boost your visibility and credibility, as well as secure you subscribers, leads, and eventually clients for your small business.
If your website isn’t achieving these things, it may just be because you are doing one (or more) of the following five things.
1. Your website is nothing more than a static brochure
Is your website just a few sparse pages of promotional information?
When was the last time you updated your website?
The static brochure-type website and/or the set-and-forget approach just won’t work.
Your website is your shop front.
It’s the first impression someone will make about you and your business.
Create a website that engages and educates your site visitors with informative blog posts and resources (such as video, podcasts, infographics and images) you know they are interested in and looking for, so people are more likely to stay, return, and share your content with their community.
Not convinced? Read my article: How to increase your authority and client list with a blog.
2. No-one knows about your website
Unless you have a solid social media and marketing plan in place to get your ideal client back to your website, hardly anyone will find out it exists.
In my article Building Your Visibility and Authority in 3 Simple Steps, Step 2 – ‘Communicate’ speaks about the importance of reaching out to your online communities and sharing your articles so they can come back to your website to read them.
Have you seen a question on a forum that you have already answered in a blog post? Let them know you have a resource/answer for them and add the link back to your blog post so they can access it.
I’m regularly sharing information with my online and offline community, which includes:
- My social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Linkedin Group, Pinterest, and Google+;
- My database of subscribers through my weekly newsletter – Diamond Insights;
- My podcast community on the Ambitious Entrepreneur Show and Coaches Connection Podcast;
- Keynote speeches and workshops (by mentioning and referring to key articles on my website during my presentations);
- Biz Sugar Website; just to name a few.
Ana Hoffman from Traffic Generation Café shares her personal cheat sheet Promote Your Blog: 10 Steps to Ultimate Blog Promotion – a great step-by-step resource to get you well on your way to promoting your blog/website.
3. Your website is targeting the masses
Trying to create content that targets everyone will result in minimal subscribers, leads, or clients.
Why?
Because your marketing message is too broad, and won’t speak directly to the needs and desires of your target audience.
One of the key habits of building your credibility by following these 8 habits of a highly effective blogger, is to be focused.
Your website banner, your tagline, your content, and your articles should be consistent and relevant to the message and area you want to become known as an authority in. It also needs to be relevant to your target audience.
By scrolling through the blog posts and content on my website, you’ll see that it’s all about helping women entrepreneurs (coaches and consultants) build a successful business.
The topics I write about include Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Money Mindset, Personal Branding, Public Speaking, Networking, Personal Development, and Productivity. All these topics are associated with business.
You won’t see me writing about (say) Sport, Art, Music, Food, or Fitness. Even though I may be interested in these topics, the people who come to my website are interested in business-related topics. They’re not here to get a scone recipe, or some other topic that is not related to business.
Is your website focused on the needs and desires of your ideal client? It should be if you want it to generate subscribers, leads, and clients.
4. Your website is built on someone else’s real estate
Picture this.
You’ve built your website on either Wix, Tumbler, Blogger.com, WordPress.com (or some other free website/blog platform) and have spent quite some time setting it up and your information just right.
However after weeks, months (or even longer), you go to update your website, and horror of horrors – it’s gone.
It’s been shut down over night because you unknowingly did something that was against their policies. Or, they went out of business.
Sadly, this has happened. Small business owners who set up their websites/blogs on someone else’s real estate to find their online presence – shut down.
Invest in your own self-hosted website so you have full control over it and won’t wake up one morning to find everything you’ve worked so hard to create – deleted.
Still not convinced that having your own self-hosted website is the best option for you? Read my article Your Blog: Free or Self-Hosted. Which is best for your brand.
5. Your website looks unprofessional
First impressions count.
The same is true with your website.
Would you invest money with a business whose online presence and store-front was less than professional?
Of course you wouldn’t.
Neither will your prospective clients.
Having a professional website developed does not have to cost the earth. There are many highly skilled website designers and graphic designers who can develop a great online presence for you.
Question: What successes are you generating with your website? What do you believe is the reason for your success? Leave your comment by clicking here.
