Why Your Website Is Losing You Business

You have spent thousands to tens of thousands of dollars promoting your business. You get plagued by radio reps calling you on a daily basis about why your business needs to be in front of their audience and the impact that a 12 month radio campaign can make on your bottom line.

You have met with multiple firms that promise to get you more website traffic from paid search, or through SEO (search engine optimization).

You have tried the newspaper, the yellow pages, local cable and even broadcast TV.

But for some reason, nothing is working.

Guess what, its you, not them!

It’s your website. The advertising may not be perfect, but often times at least 50% of it works to drive traffic to your website. From there… you lose business.

Why? Because you haven’t focused on a clear call to action… or you haven’t invested in a quality website.

I can’t tell you how many times I have met with business owners, who brag to me about how they spend 100k per month on their advertising… but when I put a ten thousand dollar website proposal in front of them, they balk!!

Can you imagine? You spend over a million dollars a year in advertising, most often focused on driving traffic to a website… but spending 1/100th on the destination is too much?

What a joke. I immediately stop wasting my time with these people because they will never get it.

You need to understand your customers to make sales.

It starts with looking at your website through their eyes.

Take a look at this site. This is a Philadelphia Orthodontist.

Dr-Tuncay

 

Now, I don’t know what http://www.rittenhouseortho.com/ spends on advertising, and quite frankly, it doesn’t matter. While Dr. Tuncay and his team have an aesthetically pleasing website, they seem to have missed the boat when it comes to looking at their site the way a customer would.

Imagine for a second, you are a prospect or customer of theirs. What is the first thing you would want to know? As a client… if you are visiting the site, it is because you need directions or to schedule or change an appointment, right? Of course. Yet this information is nowhere to be found.

Congrats on the doctor and his scientific discoveries… but what does that mean? As a prospect, I think of a few things. First, I want to know I am getting someone who can straighten teeth. Second, I want to see who I am working with. Finally, I need to set an appointment.

There is no clear call to action on any of them!! Dr. Orhan Tuncay is missing opportunities, but I’m sure nobody is telling him that unfortunately. He may be the greatest Orthodontist in the world, but people are lazy and its easier to hit the back button than figure out next steps.

Doing it right!!

On the other side of the coin we have http://www.phillybraces.com. Dr. Steven Cohen has a site with clear calls to action for both prospects and clients. I won’t go into too many specifics here… but see if you can find what Dr. Cohen’s site wants you to do next:

Dr-Steven-Cohen

 

Making Smiles Last A Lifetime… is that reassuring or what? Plenty of “straight” smiles on the homepage and plenty of clear actions to get you where he wants you to go. Nice Job!

Don’t Make Them Think!!

Next time you walk into the grocery store, look around for a second and see how many little things are present to make your brain work less. Items in the aisles are usually grouped together. Sale items are usually front and center. Look up and you will see what is in an aisle without having to walk down it.

Even the checkout is simple, they turn the light on if they are open, and it’s off when its not. They don’t want you to have to think, they want you to spend without thinking. Which is why the candy and gossip magazines are conveniently grouped where you pull out your wallet.

Your website should act the same way. Your website should always have a phone number clearly marked (unless you don’t have a phone for your business). Your call to action should be obvious, and your site should be uncluttered. http://www.harleysvillemattress.com/ does a great job with this.

You can call, visit, or shop online and it is all very obvious. You don’t have to think what the next step is or where to click.

Harleysville-Mattress

 

Why is it always the lawyers?

For some reasons, law firms and lawyers make this mistake all the time. They get so focused on how other law firms will look at their site, they forget all about the prospect.
Lets be honest, there is only one thing that a law firm website wants to do… set up a consultation! It’s quite basic. The firm makes money from client retainers and fees for handling cases. You can’t get any of these without first getting a prospect into their office to discuss the case and of course, their fees.

Enter exhibit #1 your honor:

Begley-Law

I’m smart enough to know I don’t want to pick a fight with a law firm. I honestly picked these guys because they seemed like a decent firm (not one of these firms that talks about work injuries, malpractice, dui’s, etc on their home page) The problem is, http://www.begleycarlin.com/ seemed to forget everything about what a client is looking for.

They have been practicing law for over 75 years apparently, and they prove that by showing a bunch of old white guys as their main focus point. Ok… great. Please note that the top of their website wasn’t edited by me or cropped in anyway.

They simply have no phone number listed at the top. Even their text is bolded weird… it has their firm name in bold, and the next area in bold is “it is just that simple”. Expect that people will scroll through your site, and they will stop at bold words and headlines. It needs to be something that will grab attention. Not being done here.

And what is a “Client Alert Signup”?

Four Simple Ways To Win More Business

1. Have an obvious Call To Action

2. Highlight the benefits of working with you, and make it simple to understand.

3. State what you do, clearly!

4. Ask a stranger what they think of your website. If they don’t get it, your prospects won’t either.

Following these basic steps will allow you to convert more online prospects into offline customers. The easiest way to make more sales is often sitting right in front of you, but it isn’t clear enough to notice.

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