Your Website is a Beast!
You have a website, good! If you don't, what are you waiting for? Get one. You need one, your business needs one, everyone needs one. But today's post is for those that already have one.
So that's the case, your website is a beast. The question is whether it's a sleeping beast, hibernating, wasting away or whether it is a hungry beast; ready to eat, ready to run, ready to hunt and devour!
Unfortunately, I'm willing to bet your website is a sleeping beast. It's waiting, sleeping, bored, just getting by.
It's OK. I've heard all the excuses
I know all the reasons why people don't use their blogs. I know all the reasons why businesses don't update their website. I have heard all the excuses why store owners don't run bi-weekly or monthly promotions and coupons. I know all the reasons why you're not running an email subscription campaign.
I have been doing web projects for over 18 years. For multi-billion corporations, all the way to single one-man shops.
They always underutilize their website. Every. Single. Time. And I can't blame them, there really is an unlimited number of things you could have a website do. But at least you need to make sure it's working for you all the time, generating leads, converting leads into buyers and keeping everybody in touch via email and social.
Most website owners think of the website as a burden. But once I'm finished talking to them, every stakeholder I talk to changes their mind. They can at least envision their website as a powerful beast working tirelessly to increase revenue!
Of course they want their website to turn into a Beast!
What makes them change their mind? What clicks for most people (no pun intended)? I think the main thought that convinces people is when I tell them this:
Your website should be your hardest-working employee. Especially when we talk about the website being its only salesperson capable of working 24x7x365 tirelessly, practically forever. It can do it at all hours of the day, in any language you want, it can accept whatever currency you want.
Let that sink in.
Your website should be your hardest-working salesperson because it sells everything you offer, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in auto-pilot. The operative keyword here obviously is should.
At the very least, your website should promote your business on a weekly basis with fresh content that can be shared to a social media network, an email list, and with existing customers. But it can also be so much more.
Ask yourself if your website is working hard for you, or if it's a burden, a type of annoyance or thorn on your side. This happens a lot more than most people realize, but we've seen it all, if your website doesn't bring you joy and a smile because it's generating leads and sales, then you need to read this whole article.
Here are more examples of what your website should do for you.
It should be your hardest-working marketing staff because it could implement your marketing campaigns from top to bottom, social, email, PPC, SEO, SEM, all of it. The website could connect the sales to the brand and to the consciousness of your visitors to drive revenue.
It should be your hardest-working customer support representative because it can contain answers to all possible questions your customers could have. Because it can provide self-serve support for downloads, account changes, returns, refunds, education, product support, and more.
Your website should be your biggest liaison for social media, PR, and sales. Daily content should be friendly, educational, sharable, abundant, free-flowing, interactive when possible, and promote the marketing and sales goals while supporting a dedicated tribal community to foster positive customer support interactions. And the website can do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Some thoughts to consider
- If you're not using your blog, you may have a sleeping beast.
- If you're not sending emails inviting the readers back to your website, you may have a sleeping beast.
- If you're not proud to tell people about your website, you may have a sleeping beast.
- If you haven't sent an email with a new sale or coupon in the past 30 days, you may have a sleeping beast.
- If you aren't selling a product on your website, you may have a sleeping beast.
Leading by example
We're going to be working on our own website to make it our hardest-working employee and show you what we do along the way.
It's time to do what we advise (with great success by the way) to our clients to do and do it for ourselves. If you'd like to join us in this process, please make sure you are signed up for updates here.
Photo credit cover photo by Erik Mclean from Pexels
