Looking to increase sales to your business from your website?
If you are serious about getting new sales from your website then you need to have a plan.
The first problem is knowing where to start…
There are a lot of people out there looking to promise you the world, in exchange for a nice slice of your profits. The trouble is, there are no guarantees so you don’t know who trust and end up doing nothing. You are better off understanding that if you are a small business then its going to take time and effort (one obviously depends on the other). This logic becomes easier to digest when you consider how much time you put in to your business anyway, then its just about reallocation of existing time spent (I’m sure there must be an hour a day you are spending on something that is not working that you can refocus to the internet which has a lot more potential than traditional methods).
1. Where to start
Set yourself some SMART sales goals – only you will know what they look like but don’t make it complicated… Keep It Simple Stupid!!
To understand how you get to your new internet sales target, you will need to calculate the following to create some milestone metrics;
a. How many sales are you looking for each month
b. What is the average sale value of each new client
c. How big a prospect pot do you need?… You may already have a way of calculating how many prospects you need to get one new client but with the internet I would probably double it to be sure.
2. Use your existing network
You probably don’t realise how many people are in your network but try to think as broadly as you can. As well as existing clients, also dig out all those business cards or contacts from your usual prospects system. Throw in personal contacts (friends, church or tennis club etc…) then I’m sure you’ll surprise yourself. Once you have a list of current email addresses you can utilise, these details will then form part of you internet sales plan by entering them in to your blog post distribution list. There are some great widgets to help you do this on WordPress (I’ve found Jetpack – you get this as part of your wordpress.com free membership – to be the best so far).
3. Give them a reason to visit your website
Its all well and good having a beautiful website full of pictures and text telling your clients how wonderful you are but do your clients and more importantly your prospects really want to hear about that… unless your case studies are about how you helped customer X means you could help prospect Y in the same way.
I suggest you need to create an interesting article on a subject that your prospects are interested in. I suggest writing something every day if possible, or every other day if not (this number will depend on the figures you set out as your sales goals).
4. Remember your call to action
Prospects only turn in to sales when you ask them to buy from you. Whether you have an e-commerce site or you just want them to make an appointment, you need to tell them clearly what the process is and give them all the information and tools to make that happen.
Ensure your call to action is clear and simple – if you want them to send you an email then make sure your contact page is clear and has the right boxes to capture all the information you need to follow it up
5. Track and assess progress
I think the hardest part is to keep a track on progress and to be honest with yourself if things are not going to plan. If things are not going well then is it a lack of effort, or focus, or are you just missing the mark when communicating with your prospects?… BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF!!
Don’t be afraid of changing the plan if things are not going as well as expected but also you need to give things a chance (think back to your SMART goals… where they achievable and realistic?).
Good luck and don’t forget to post your comments and progress (if you decide to use this advice) back on my blog
All the best
Richard
