What is the number one mistake that you could be making right now with your website, that is killing your business?
Martin here from Jammy Digital, where we help business owners like you to make your mark online. If that’s exactly what you want to do, then click on the subscribe button, and then click on the bell icon to get notified, the very next time that we release a video.
Most common website mistake
So what is this big mistake that we talk about? Well, we’ve reviewed hundreds of websites, maybe even thousands of websites over the years, and we see the same mistake happening over and over again. And this one thing is the reason that so many websites fail. So you could be out there, and you could be promoting your business on social media. You could be going out to networking events, or maybe even spending some money on advertising. But when that visitor reaches your website, they’re not converting into a lead, or an email subscriber. They’re just not interested. You might not even be getting the visitors that you need.
Why do websites fail?
And this one mistake will stop you in your tracks, and stop the customer in their tracks as well. And this one thing is, you treat your website like an online business card. Essentially what you’re doing, is you’re saying, “We’re really awesome. Come and work with us. Here are all our services. Goodbye.” That’s what you’re essentially saying. You’re in sales mode, and people just don’t like being sold to. That’s the top and bottom of it. You wouldn’t like it either, if you went into a shop and the first thing somebody did, was try to sell to you, that is what you’re doing on your website, when you have things like, hire us, buy now, get in touch. Without actually giving some value and some trust upfront, what you’re essentially doing is saying, come and see how good I look, which is not going to deliver leads and sales.
How to fix your website if you are making this mistake
So what can you do instead? What you should do instead, is treat your website as a customer service tool. There’s a few different things that you can do.
Treat your website as a customer service tool
You can change your language. So rather than actually have your services right there in black and white, like we offer editing and proofreading services, why not switch it around, and put the emphasis on your visitor? Like, are you struggling to get your book finished? We might be able to help. You’re showing that little bit of empathy, and people will stick around a little bit longer. Yes, that’s me. I’m struggling to get my book finished. What can I do? That’s the first thing that you could do that could potentially lead to a sale.
Focus on the problems you solve
Another thing you could do is to focus on the problems that you solve, the problems that you help your visitor solve. So on the about page for instance, don’t just talk about you and when you graduated, nobody cares about that. Talk about, these are the issues that most of our customers face, and here’s how we can help. Yes, have a little bit of information about yourself. People want to know who you are, and what you do, and where you came from. But ultimately they care more about their problems. So where possible, always try to say about us, and how we can help. That’s a great way to write an about page, for instance. About us, and how we can help. And you reframe your mind to say, we know you don’t care about us, but you only care about us enough to be able to verify that we know what we’re talking about. Everything else should be focused on, you’re struggling to get your book finished.
You’re struggling to get a deadline in the diary. You’re struggling to get this off to your publisher. Whatever the issue may be, you can absolutely reposition it, and talk about the problems that you help people solve.
Deliver helpful content…consistently
Another thing you can do is create helpful content. People will find you online more if you create helpful content. They’ll find you in search engines. They’ll share content that you’ve created. If you help someone get off the starting block, then they may well eventually hire you later on down the line. Too many business owners just hold back all of their knowledge in the hopes that people will hire them. You need to use your website as a customer service tool, to build that trust element, and eventually when that customer is ready to buy from you, who are they going to go to?
When they’re ready to invest money, are they going to go to some randomer, who doesn’t offer helpful content, who doesn’t talk to their problems that they’re facing, who only talks about themselves? No, they’re going to hire you, because you’ve spent the time showing that empathy, creating a website that’s more of a customer service tool, rather than an online business card. And that’s the number one mistake that people make, and hopefully now you’ve got some ideas on how you can prevent that from happening to you.
What now? How else can you improve your website?
If you found this video useful, then you’re going to love this. We’ve created a 54 point checklist that goes through loads of different things that you can do in order to improve your website, even more than what we’ve been talking about in this video today. So go to jammydigital.com/54ways, and get access to our very own, brand new checklist.
Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.
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