10 Deadly Website Mistakes Made by Service Business
Owners
I'm online for much of my business day, which means
I get to visit many, many websites in the process of helping my clients learn
how they get more clients online. I'm also asked to provide feedback about the
effectiveness of websites, and as I specialize in working with owners of service
businesses, I see several common website mistakes made over and over again by
service companies.
If you want to get more clients from your website, here are 10 mistakes to
avoid:
1. Business appearance as a nameless, faceless corporate entity.
I just want to scream when I can't find any information on the person/people
behind a company, and my preference is to be able to have a visual
representation (photo) of the people with whom I'm about to do business. One of
the key components to your success as the owner of a service business should be
the quality of service you personally provide, whether you're a chiropractor,
website designer, pest exterminator, accountant, or printer. People don't do
business with business cards or websites -- people do business with other
people. How can someone get to know, like, respect and trust you in order to
decide to do business with you when they can't peer behind the corporate
image? I realize many smaller business firms employ this strategy to appear
bigger than they actually are to their client base, but I prefer being able to
pick up the phone or drop an email to someone I personally know within a company
to help me solve my problem, rather than trying to penetrate a faceless
corporate facade.
2. Lack of a clear call to action on the home page. Have you
ever been to a website and been completely overwhelmed with all the directions
you can go from the home page? I have, and I become so frustrated that I leave
in short order. Or, perhaps you thought, "This business sounds like one I'd like
to stay in touch with -- what do I do next?", and you can't find the answer to
that question anywhere on the home page of the website. The most effective call
to action you can have on your home page is to offer something for free (ebook,
ecourse, newsletter, survey results, report, toolkit) that is so attractive to
your target market that they will give you their name and email address to
receive your offer.
Many times the call to action is to telephone or email the business for a free
consultation. I think that call to action is effective to some degree,
especially if someone is shopping for an immediate solution to their problem,.
Overall, however, I think people want more time to make a decision about doing
business with you in terms of determining your credibility and making a decision
about whether or not they trust you before deciding to have a personal
conversation with you. Expecting someone to call you upon first meeting you
(viewing your website) is not very realistic. However, if they've seen enough
on your site to want a little more, there's a greater likelihood of them parting
with a tiny bit of info (first name and email address) in order to get a better
experience of you anonymously and without a great commitment. Once you have
their contact information, they have become a prospective client and you can
market to them as you would to any other prospect in your business.
3. Little website content that demonstrates your expertise. I
often visit websites in which the company boasts how proficient they are at
solving my problem, but when I look for proof of what they know (articles,
resources, recorded content), I come up empty-handed, as the website is simply
an online brochure describing the company's products and services. If you've
been in business for awhile, you've got a good idea of the problems that your
customers face. Don't look upon providing information on your website as giving
away your solutions for free -- think of it as developing a better-educated
consumer for your services and products. Will you lose customers because they
read your information and implemented the solution without hiring you? That's
possible, but most prospective customers are unable to do it on their own and
will need your expert assistance to help them solve their problem.
4. Inability to "test" your service at less expensive price points.
Many service companies expect that their website visitors will part with a large
sum of money to hire them just after meeting them. This rarely happens, unless
your prospective customer is in an emergency situation. For example, if you're
an exterminator and someone has just discovered his home is infested with
termites, he may part with $1200 upon meeting you if he's confident that you can
quickly and reliably solve his termite problem. However, this scenario isn't
realistic for those of use providing optional purchase-type services, like
coaching, training, consulting, website design, printing, etc. Potential
clients like to "buy in" at lower price points to "test" your expertise and
reliability before handing over $5000 for a year-long consulting contract, for
example. Andrea Lee, in her book, Multiple Streams of Coaching Income,
http://www.msoci.com,
suggests several price points in the creation of your marketing funnel:
a. free/complimentary/gift (like the free report you give away on the home page
of your website)
b. $4.95 -$50
c. $50 - $200
d. $200 - $500
e. $500 and greater
Creating services and/or products at these various levels will help prospective
clients "sample" your expertise at a price point that's comfortable for them,
and you, as the business owner, can "move" them through your marketing funnel
until they buy your top-level service.
5. Missing or hidden contact information. You've visited a
website several times and think that the site offers the ideal solution to your
problem. However, you've got one question to ask before making your purchasing
decision. You seek the location of the company, the phone number, or an email
address, and all you find is a contact form to send your question. Website
owners are often reluctant to have their contact info readily available on the
website, as they fear having their email address harvested by spammers, or
having their phone number added to a telemarketer list. There are ways to
lessen the likelihood of either issue, like by using an email address encoder
like NATATA Anti-Spam Encoder,
http://natata.hn3.net/, or the National Do Not Call Registry,
https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx (applies to residential numbers
only), or a live online chat help system, like LivePerson.com. Make it as easy
as possible for potential clients to contact you.
6. Hidden prominent benefit or feature that makes your company unique.
When I'm doing online research for a particular product or service, I want to
know right away what makes any company unique or different from their
competition. Several months ago I was speaking with the owner of a fencing
company and was confused about why people would buy fencing online and have it
shipped, as the shipping cost would negate any savings they might realize on the
product over buying it locally. I learned this company offered free shipping on
purchases of $2500. I replied, "That's great, but how would I know that?" The
offer was buried in an internal page of the site. I encouraged the company to
put the offer in a prominent place on the home page so that prospective clients
would immediately know the unique feature of doing business with this company.
7. Creation of a website that looks like every other business website in
your industry. Sometimes I cringe when I go to the website of a web
design company that serves a niche market, like dentists, for example. When I
look at the company's website portfolio, every single website looks virtually
the same, except for color variation or changing the graphic on the home page.
Granted, if I'm seeking a dentist in Houston, there's little chance I would
stumble across a dentist in Dallas with a similar website. However, what I
frequently see business owners do is to scope out the websites of their
competition and format their own site in a similar fashion, but with their own
information. My online searches for a product or service often make me yawn
because I see website after website that essentially says the same thing --
nothing stands out enough to rouse me out of my stupor. Don't fall victim to a
cookie-cutter website -- make sure that your personality is prominently featured
throughout your site. Give visitors a great experience of "you" when they
visit. And, flagrantly flaunt your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) so that
your visitor instantly realizes why they should do business with you instead of
your competitor.
8. Lack of additional resources. One of the ways I gauge the
usefulness of a website is if they have incredibly useful resources to help me
research and/or resolve my problem. I've bookmarked websites and subscribed to
email newsletters solely on the strength of a website's resource page. One of
the things that my clients love about working me with is that I have a mental
Rolodex of resources -- they ask a question about doing business online, and 95%
of the time I have a ready resource to give them that helps them solve their
problem. A number of these resources are listed on my website or featured in my
email newsletter. Many times, I receive no compensation for the resource I
recommend -- I just know that it's the best source of which I'm aware to do a
particular task. Your clients want the same capability from you -- the more you
know about your industry and its problems and how to find solutions, whether you
offer the solution or not, the greater the perception of your expertise, and
consequently the greater value you offer your client.
9. No testimonials or case studies to demonstrate how you've helped
others solve problems. One of the easiest ways you can create customer
confidence in you is to list testimonials on your website. Testimonials that
simply say you're great and wonderful do little to establish your credibility.
You need testimonials that clearly state how someone's life, business, career,
etc. is different and improved after working with you. Those are the ones that
make a difference to your visitor. Case studies outlining a problem and how
your service helped solve it are also very powerful in convincing a potential
client that you can do what you claim.
10. Website that is "you" focused. There's a very funny country
song sung by Toby Keith called, "I Wanna Talk About Me" in which the refrain, in
part, says, "I wanna talk about me, Wanna talk about I, Wanna talk about number
one , Oh my me my, What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I
see..." Do you spend all of your website real estate talking about yourself and
how wonderful you are? Your visitors need to know a bit about you, but what
holds their interest is the knowledge that you understand their problems and
issues and have ready-made solutions that resolve these problems. Make your
website about your visitor, not about you.
Your website can function as an attractive online brochure, or it can be a
client-generating tool to help you grow your business. Businesses in almost
every industry can benefit from a website, and the majority of those can
critically evaluate their website again this checklist of mistakes so that they
can increase their client prospects online.
(c) 2009 Donna Gunter
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Internet Marketing Automation
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous
online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to
automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.
Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get
results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by
claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==>
http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com.
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