I meet so many small business owners who have a “brochure” website up and don’t really know why. It’s hard to justify spending anything over a few bucks a months when you don’t understand what the product can do for you.
It’s not their fault though. Services like those I mentioned combined with web designers who charge a few hundred bucks don’t tell the whole story when they sell to a client.
You see, there’s something call the cost of missed opportunities at work here. You might be saving money upfront, but by trusting a “run of the mill” solution, how much business are you losing?
And let’s clear something up. I’m not talking about just losing traffic. I’m talking about losing cold hard cash.
I find that there’s three major categories that cause a loss in revenue.
1. Content
I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times: content is king. Do I really have to hammer it in again? I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen small business owners skimp on getting quality content for their site and lose out on BIG opportunities.
The number one mistake I see in this category is the absence of a call to action. If you don’t tell your visitor what it is you want them to do, they’re not gonna do it. It’s not rocket science.
2. Design
Of course sometimes small business owners are so focused on their site looking pretty, that you can’t even read the content.
And guess what? That guy you paid $400 to build you a site doesn’t care enough to argue with you like real companies like us.
Design should be focused on the user, and allowing the user to easily read see the call to action.
3. Technology
This kind of gets forgotten. The type of hosting you have, and the system your website is built on makes a world of difference. Studies show that even a few milliseconds (in page load time) can mean the difference between a consumer checking out or leaving the site.
We live in a world where consumers are brought up to be impatient. They want everything yesterday and they aren’t willing to wait for it.
So there you have it! Of course, this is a really high overview of what’s holding your site back. If you’d like to know more about what revenue generating opportunities you’re missing, ask us for a Website Analysis.
Bonus:
For a limited time (in the holiday spirit) we’re offering a huge discount off the Website Analysis service. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!
Yes, Content is always a king,… Boring content with repetitive words creates frustration to the reader. Website design is also very important, site navigation and outlook is a image which creates perception in the visitors mind about the website. Business sites with bright colors shows an immature web image while a fashion website with bright colors creates a sense of colorfulness and fashion inventiveness to the web visitors.
Website navigation must be user friendly so that user can stay more there on the site. but if website is not up to the mark with relevant to the above mentioned features and navigation is so disgusting then user will switch out from there quickly because he never want to get bore.
Call to action is really important and its one of the mistake which most of new webmaster do. “Like us on Facebook” a small sentence can make a difference in number of likes we get. Nice Post.
Exactly. It doesn’t have to be intrusive or blatant. Just a nudge in the right direction can work wonders.
Nicely put, Rishi. Business that get over the ROI hump are starting to understand that a well planned and executed online presence is the minimum price of admission to internet marketing today.
“Design should be focused on the user”, love it. So often designer cater (and cave) to uninformed requests to “make the logo bigger”, or “have fun with it” that the user experience is neglected. Ultimately, it’s the website owner that hurts. They just hurt in that quiet,slow “missed opportunities” way you mention.
Thanks for the article.
Thanks for the kind words Nando! You’re absolutely right. Designers often feel that they should give the client what they want in fear of losing a customer.
Unfortunately, that’s leads to an inferior product (even if the client doesn’t think so) and a damaging effect on the brand.