Grey Matter : 11 Web Site Concepts that will Move Visitors to Your Doorstep : LeftBrainRightBrain Marketing

You Drive People to Your Web Site - Does it Return the Favor? - Part 1 : 11 Web Site Concepts that will Move Visitors to Your Doorstep

By Drew Zagorski
September 2 , 2008

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As a business owner and marketer, you’ve likely invested a good bit of cash in driving folks to your web site. You’ve got your URL on your business card, packaging and proposal covers, your flyers and ads, and countless other places. The question is: Does your web site return the favor by driving people to your doorstep? Or does the deal end at your web site?

In part 1 of this topic, we’ll cover the first 5 concepts you need to weave into your site to help move site visitors to the next logical step – calling you or visiting your shop. We’ll present the remaining 6 concepts in the September 16 column.

1. Begin at the beginning - Positioning

If you’ve been a reader of the Grey Matter for a while, you’ll be familiar with the concept of Positioning. Positioning is about perceptions – your customer’s perceptions. Positioning is that place that you occupy, or want to occupy, in their minds. Your Positioning let’s your customer know that you understand what’s important to them and how you can satisfy their needs.

So understanding how you want to be perceived by customers is where everything starts. When you’ve defined that, you have the foundation of your story. And stories are what engage people, not pithy tag lines or bullet lists of features or regurgitated platitudes about the fact that you offer great prices, quality and service (though these things do have their place). Well crafted Positioning results in a story that leads your site’s visitors away from thinking “So what…” to thinking, “Hmm… yeah, I need to check this company out. They get me.”

Positioning allows you to be clear about what you are and specific about what you’re not. It allows you to engage the visitor in your story, which will pull them into and through your site. If your Positioning isn’t reflected throughout your site, people likely won’t care about what you’re trying to communicate.

2. Make it an experience

If you’ve read anything on branding over the past several years, you know that branding is about more than font, colors and logos. Branding is about creating an experience for your customer. One that they can rely on every time the come into contact with your business. So why should that not apply to your web site? It’s an extension of your brand – and a very powerful one because it’s the first impression most potential customers will have of you. If it falls flat, you lose them.

Features may go into a purchase decision, but people buy experiences. Think about Starbucks. A $4 cup of coffee? When you go to Starbucks it’s about the experience. The ambient lighting, the consistent look and feel of the store, the aroma. The reality is you can purchase a pretty good cup of coffee at McDonalds or 7-Eleven. In fact, there was a blind taste test done about a year or so ago where McDonald’s coffee beat Starbucks by a wide margin. But what’s the difference? The experience.

Does your web site communicate what people will experience when they hire you or use your products or visit your shop? Or is it a basic feature and benefit dump? Does it make a connection with the visitor and relate to their situation, needs, etc.? Or is it all about you? If it is, you’ll probably lose an opportunity.

3. Story first, then SEO

We all know how important search engine optimization is. No disputing that fact. It’s critical that you’ve done your keyword research well, developed high performing meta tags and understand the role of contextual links.

The risk here, and the problem that many sites have, is that they’ve run over the story and stuffed it with keywords to the point that their message is incomprehensible and unfocused. When that happens, you’ve confused your visitors and wasted their time. Weaving in keywords to your story is a challenge for even experienced copy writers. Don’t be afraid to call a professional for help.

4. Know your market, relate to your audience

Understanding your market is one of the most important things you can do for your business. Having demographic data helps you target your overall marketing and zero in on how, where and to whom you communicate with. After you’ve got that info, you understand who your audience is.

An audience needs to be engaged. They’re looking for something to draw them in, to entertain them and to enlighten them. If you’re not doing that with your content, you’ll never drive them to make the connection with you.

5. Your audience is people, not customers

Think of every person who lands on your site as, well, a person. It’s one individual. And that one individual has hopes, dreams, needs, and pain. If your content relates to them on a one-to-one basis you’ll be much more successful at driving them from the web site to the phone or your doorstep. Put your story in their context, not yours. Make sure it speaks to ‘you’ not ‘we’ or ‘they.’ Make it personal.

If your content helps them understand that you understand them and can satisfy their wants, needs, and desires, rather than fulfill your desire to make a sale… odds are they’ll close the deal with you.

Your web site should function not only as a place for potential and current customers to find information about you and how you can help them, it should move them to take the next logical step – to call or visit you. By incorporating these concepts into your site, you’ll go a long way toward that goal. If you look at your site as it exists today and can’t honestly say that you’re delivering on the 11 concepts we’ve highlighted here, it’s time to make some changes.

Concepts 6 to 11

In the next Grey Matter on September 16, we’ll cover the following concepts that will help drive web visitors to your door step:

6. You don’t have to give away the keys to the kingdom, but you better give away something
7. Understand that it’s emotional
8. It’s not about hits or clicks
9. You don’t own your web site
10. Be polished… identity matters
11. KISS

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