One of the ways of doing that is on the internet, yet most small business owners don't even get a call a month from their website.
The problem is that not only do they not understand why that occurs or what to do about it, but frequently neither do their web developers...
the blind leading the blind.
Let's start with this analogy.
Your website is your internet billboard.
Your web developer "turned it on for you.
" It's certainly on, but it's setting in the middle of a corn field turned around backwards where no one sees it.
Your Website -- Your Internet Billboard -- How Well Does It Work? First, a billboard has to be "on the highway" where people can see it as they drive by.
When you turned on your website it's likely that it's not really on the internet highway, at least it's not where anyone sees it.
You have to ACTIVELY do something to get that billboard in front of the thousands, or 10's of thousands of people looking for what you do.
That might look like getting a search engine position, writing articles, pay per click ads, or even you handing your business card out to others (which isn't the recommended way...
we'll discuss that later).
In any case, if no one sees your internet billboard it doesn't matter how good your website is or isn't.
Once someone sees it, the next most important thing is "what percentage of those that see do what you want them to.
" That might be buy something, but more likely than not, it's the opportunity for them to get to know you, like you, and trust you...
developing that relationship where they WILL buy something.
Do you have a process on your website to help them through that? The Marketing Formula -- Which of the 3 Variables Is the Problem Let's take a look at the "marketing formula.
" Which will help you understand what I'm talking about above.
Marketing is quite simple, yet very few really understand it to the point of making it work for them, especially on the internet.
Marketing is nothing more than:
- Number of people who see your market (your website)
- Times
- The conversion rate of your website (the percentage of those that do what you wanted them to do)
- Equals
- The number of people who show an interest in what you do (leads)
Or if you sell a low priced product you'll have to spend less time in the "getting to know you, like you, and trust you part" and will likely make a sale right there on the website.
But the formula still applies.
According to the marketing formula, if you don't have traffic to your site you have zero in that first part and zero times anything is still zero.
That's just one of your problems.
The other is that most website conversions are also zero, or extremely low.
99% of them in fact.
I've asked hundreds of people who've attended my local workshops, and online teleseminars "How many people call you monthly" and the answers is always zero.
When I ask them "So, how long has it been since you got a call?" The answer has been consistently "longer than 10 months.
" I assume that even a poor website will have 100 people visiting the site monthly.
So, if it's been 10 months since you got a call, that would be 1,000 people that have drifted by.
And one call at this point, would be 0.
1% or less.
I said that we'd discuss the fact that most people use their website as an online brochure.
That means that they hand their business card out, or make some cold calls, and send those contacts to the website.
I figure that handing out 10 business cards a week is probably the upper end of the local marketing activity I see from small business owners.
So, if we apply that to the marketing formula it looks like this.
- # of people who see you (10)
- times
- website conversion rate (0.
1%) - equals
- 10x.
001=.
01 per week, OR one every 100 weeks that will call you
Now, let me shock you even further.
Do you believe that every one of those 10 you handed your business card to will actually go to your website? I'd bet it's about 20% or less.
So, that means that only 2 go to your website.
Now, applying that to the formula above 2x.
001=.
002, or one every 500 weeks.
So, basically it's zero, right? Over 99% of All Websites Don't Work, Low Traffic, AND Low Conversion And that's NORMAL for most small business.
But it doesn't have to be.
In fact, let's run some realistic figures.
At least these are realistically achievable if all of the pieces are fixed.
Let's pick a recent client of mine, Jennifer, who is a Mary Kay lady.
(I don't care what business you are in, this applies, believe me.
I've seen it happen over and over.
).
Jennifer told me that she had one call a year from new prospective clients from the national Mary Kay website.
That should shock you too.
But, when I went to Google Keyword Tool and looked up Mary Kay Kansas City it showed that there were 1,000 people looking for a Mary Kay rep monthly.
That would be 1,000 people x 12 months =12,000 people a year, and she has only one call.
In her case the problem wasn't the Mary Kay website and it's conversion, it was the fact that no one was finding her.
With 1,000 people a month looking for her right here in Kansas City, and I assume a 5% conversion rate is a decent starting point (but only if a website is written so that it truly deals with what that person is looking for, and that's a marketing skill.
Most web developers are great only at writing the software to run the site, not at marketing.
1,000X5.
0%=50 50+ people should be calling her monthly.
As long as the traffic is going to the website, and she's getting 5% conversion from what the website says and how it says it.
I helped her get some things pointing at her web page on the Mary Kay website and within 2 weeks she had 72 people on her site, and 10 new clients.
She's done that consistently for months, once we got both the traffic and the conversion of the website working.
How Many ARE Searching for You Right Now, Find Your Answer on Google Keyword Tool I have a suggestion.
Go to Google, and search for Google Keyword Tool.
Type in the search words you think people will use to find you.
Google will tell you how many people have been searching for those keywords, and will suggest some others you might use.
It's likely that you'll see that there are thousands to 10's of thousands actually looking.
Now assume that 5% of those should be yours, and ask yourself Is it the traffic, the website conversion, or both? What are you gong to do about it? It's likely both.
Just check your current traffic and then divide the calls per month by the traffic and you've got your conversion.
Then discover which needs to be fixed.
And go get it fixed.