Gradually Make Your Website a Store of Treasures

Slowly building his variety of wares and freely sharing knowledge made his shop a well-trafficked destination. Can you apply the same to your website? (Photo by KrisHaamer)

Summary: It is not rare for a new website to get off to a very slow start. However, rather than becoming discouraged, you should focus on increasing the quantity, variety, and value of the content (e.g. articles, videos, diagrams) and items for sale on your website. By focusing on helping people and through patient endurance you will eventually notice an uptick in your visitors and sales. The fictional story of Bartolo, an Italian fisherman, illustrates how a website can suddenly go from being perceived as having little value to being seen as an essential online destination.

Bartolo and His Ever Expanding Variety of Wares

Bartolo was an old man with an untiring zeal for helping others. As is the case with most zealous men, he was not one to give in to the geriatric lifestyle of his peers. His energy far exceeded his years, and his eyes maintained a brightness like the sparkle of white wine on a sunny summer day. Though well into his eighties, he still found plenty of adventurous projects to busy his day. And Bartolo still had one more endeavor he wanted to embark on.

For Bartolo’s whole life he had been a fisherman. His mind had become a treasure trove of knowledge regarding the most arcane aspects of his trade’s tools and vernacular. So now, several years after he had hung up his nets to dry for the last time, Bartolo decided to help his fellow fisherman by opening a fisherman’s shop on the rugged coast of Manarola a small village on the Italian Riveria.

Bartolo started small, with only a few of the oddest tools that a fisherman will find he needs in that one rare situation that is encountered perhaps twice in a lifetime; and because of his shop's specialty nature, Bartolo received nary a visitor. Occasionally the stray fisherman would stroll into his shop looking for advice on his trade, but purchases were few.

The small fishing village of Manarola where Bartolo started his shop. (Photo by ezioman)

It is worth noting that Bartolo was highly respected by other fisherman for his knowledge, but the oddity and narrow selection of tools available at his shop puzzled them, and his shop’s emptiness left him the butt of some ridicule. But Bartolo did not let this deter him. In his head he envisioned a day when his shop’s selection would grow to provide such a variety of useful items that no fisherman would find his shop unneeded.

So Bartolo steadily added to his shop's selection. Each week he increased the variety of tools and items available. As the number of items slowly began to multiply, a change of perception occurred. Suddenly local fishermen were interested in more than merely Bartolo’s advice. With amazement, each fisherman began to realize that Bartolo’s shop offered a tool for every strange event and odd happening that he might encounter out at sea.

Thus, Bartolo’s shop became known as a must visit destination for local fisherman to brush up on the knowledge of their trade and also find the odd tools that could be found no place else, or at least no other place brought together in such useful profusion the wide variety of odds and ends that a fisherman could need.

So Bartolo’s patient endurance was ultimately rewarded. By continuously searching for more odds and ends to add to the store of treasures available at his little fishing shop, and by freely sharing knowledge with his fellow fisherman, Bartolo was able to grow a thriving store that became an essential destination for the fishermen of Manarola.

Conclusion: Constantly Expand Your Website

Here is the key point from the above story. If you, like Bartolo, focus on steadily expanding the information and products your website offers, you will find that eventually more and more individuals will see the value of your website and over time it will become a well-trafficked destination.

Repeat Site Visits - A Critical Goal for a Successful Website

Why is increasing the number of times a visitor visits your website a critical goal for a successful website?

Summary: What data should I track for my website to see if I’m doing well? What indicators most greatly affect the success of my website? How should I interpret my analytics to understand why I’m not getting sales? This article will discuss these questions.

Repeat visits to your website by your customers are the most important factor to increasing your conversion rate. To illustrate let's examine a user shopping for a digital camera.

"Jim sits in front of his computer looking to buy a high-end digital camera. He’s been shopping off-and-on for the past three months. His Google searches led him to ZTechCameras.com, a company he had never heard of and wasn’t sure if he could trust. However, after dozens of visits to ZTechCameras and other camera sites, he has come to trust ZTechCameras’ rich depth of accurate advice and is convinced they will provide him with more knowledgeable service for his new camera. Thus, he decides to shun better known competitors and makes his purchase."

Did you see the point? Jim had never heard of ZTechCameras.com and thus initially he did not trust them. However, as the website established a track record of reliability by knowledgeably answering his questions over multiple visits, he came to trust the company enough to make his purchase with them. The same lesson applies to any website selling products or services.

But knowing that repeat visits are important is not enough! How can you design a website that will get visitors to return repeatedly? How can you track if your website is doing well and your efforts to get visitors to return are bearing fruit?

Getting Visitors to Return

The #1 way to get visitors to return is to regularly update your website. Is there any website you regularly read up on? Why do you regularly visit? Isn’t it because every time you visit there is something new to see? If you doubt anything has changed on a website since the last time you visited, do you have any strong urge to visit it?

Like a newspaper, your website will be read if it has lots of fresh information. (Photo by KellyB, flickr.com.)

Likewise, with your website you need to constantly keep it changing. The more frequently you add information to your website, the more frequently your visitors will return. For example, most people check the news every day. Why? Because every day there is fresh news. If you update your website daily, your visitors will return every few days. If you update your website weekly, your visitors will return every few weeks.

The #2 way to get visitors to return is to keep them interested. True, visitors will return to your website regularly if you update your website regularly, but the updates also need to be interesting. For example, simply changing the color of your website every day is probably not going to spark a lot of interest. However, publishing an informative article daily or sharing industry news as-it-happens will generate interest that motivates visitors to return to your website.

Setting Goals & Measuring Your Results

How can you determine if your efforts are bearing fruit? There are three numbers that you must track to determine if your website is successfully engaging visitors and getting them to return. The three numbers are: Visitor Loyalty, Depth of visit, and Bounce rate.

Visitor Loyalty

This is a measure of the number of visits a specific user made to your website over a period of time. Usually this data is aggregated into a distribution that you can then view in a chart. Below is an example.


Do you see how most visitors are visiting only once? Have you checked this chart for your website?

A greater visitor loyalty means that your customers are constantly visiting your website. The more times your customer visits your website, the more comfortable he is becoming with your company. The odds increase over time that eventually he will purchase a good or service from you.


In our ideal world, most of your visitors would visit your website many times per month.

To increase visitor loyalty update your website frequently and make sure that your updates are interesting to your audience.

Depth of Visit

This is a measure of how many pages, on average, a visitor to your website viewed before leaving. Below is an example of what this report looks like.


Do you notice that most visitors view only one page and then leave? What does the chart for your website look like?

A greater average depth of visit means visitors are very engaged by your website. If you have a poor depth of visit distribution, it means visitors are quickly losing interest and leaving your website.


In an ideal world, most of your visitors would view a lot of pages while on your website.

To increase depth of visit you need to have plenty of quality information on you website. However, you also need a good information architecture.

Bounce Rate

This is a measure of what percentage of visitors leave your website after viewing only one page. If you have a high bounce rate, it means most visitors are leaving without giving your website more than a quick glance. A good bounce rate is below 50%. Anything above 50% deserves your attention.

To decrease your bounce rate, make sure your homepage and landing pages* are informative, attractive, and well-linked to other parts of your website. (Read more about effective landing pages.)

Cultivating Repeat Visits, the Best Goal for a Successful Website

If you want to increase your website’s sales there is practically no goal you can set that is more important than increasing the number of repeat visits you get from individual customers. The more times a customer visits your website the greater his trust in your company will grow; as the customer’s trust for your company grows, he becomes more likely to purchase a good or service.

So immediately start looking for ways to get your customers to visit your website more often by regularly updating the information on your website and making sure the information you share is interesting to your audience! By doing this you will have a more successful website that generates more sales.

* A landing page is any page a visitor might see first when they visit your website. This includes pages found through a search engine.

How to Keep Visitors from Leaving Your Site

What compels a person to enter a store? How can you apply the answer to your website? (Image by JimmyHarris)

Summary: How is your homepage like the window of the store in the picture above? 60-80% of visitors will leave from your homepage without ever "entering" your website. Why? Nicholas Grant, discusses the answer and solution below.

Lots of people put stuff on a website just to fill space. If you are one of those people, you could very well be chasing away customers.

A homepage is like a storefront. When you walk into a store or market, or any place of business, what is the first thing you check out when you arrive? “The sales”, you might say. That’s true in a way, but why did you even walk into the store? What you’re really checking out is the atmosphere. If a place doesn’t appeal, you won’t even walk in the door.

Is your website like that store that no one wants to enter? If you feel the answer may be “Yes”, that’s okay because we’re about to fix this problem.

Your Audience is Deciding Whether to "Enter"

Whether your audience is kids, teens, adults or everybody you have to appeal to their viewpoint. For instance, if you are trying to appeal to teens, you must think like a teen. You can’t be putting articles about life insurance coverage on a teen website. After all, what teen is really concerned about that! Or, let’s say that your audience is kids. Would it really make sense to put an article about Job applications on a site that is for kids 5-11? If your homepage doesn't connect with your audience, like window shoppers, they will quickly move on to the next "storefront."

Mentioning your audience's problems is a sure way to get their attention. They'll see that you get their viewpoint.

This brings us back to the atmosphere. Like that storefront, if the atmosphere is not appropriate and appealing, no one will "enter" deeper into your website. So, on your website, be sure to make prominent mention of your audience's problems and avoid irrelevant content.

To Increase Website Traffic and Sales, Answer Customer Questions

Frustration and a loss of sales results when your website does not answer questions.

Summary: Do you hate a pushy salesman that doesn't listen to your questions? Like a pushy salesman, your website will lose sales if it is so intent on selling to the customer that it fails to answer ALL the questions the customer wants answered before he will buy your product or service (See web marketing mistake #10).

The Internet Is a Tool to Answer Questions

Why do you use the internet? Isn’t it to get information? You’re not alone. 74% of men and women research online before buying any product or service (BigResearch, 2007). What are these 3 out of 4 men and women researching? Of course they are looking for answers to a wide variety of questions. So then, you do well to ask yourself, ‘Is my website answering all of my customer’s questions?’ If not, you may be losing 3 out of 4 potential clients.

Don’t Just Answer the Obvious Questions

Of course the #1 question most customers have is price. However, don’t stop at answering this question alone or you will still lose a good chunk of those 3 out 4 online researchers. Let me illustrate.

A certain man is interested in buying a set of golf clubs, and he finds a set he likes online. He likes the price, but he isn’t sure the clubs match his height. He searches the website for the shaft length, but it is not listed. Uncertain that these clubs will match his height, he decides not to buy.

Do you see the point? The man was going to buy the clubs, but because one of his questions was not answered, he decided against it. On the internet, your customer can not physically see, touch, or feel your product; so questions regarding dimensions, look, feel, and texture must be answered online (See #3 and #4 high-profit website redesign priorities). The same applies to selling services. If questions are not answered the customer would rather not buy than run the risk of buying the wrong product (See #4 high-profit website redesign priorities).

Conclusion: Analyze Your Website to See if You Are Answering Customer Questions

So take a look at your products or services. Can you try to think of ALL the questions customers might want answers to before they purchase your product or service? Once you’ve done this, take a look at your website and see if you’re answering these questions. If not, make the necessary changes before you lose additional sales.

Additional Reading

CopyBlogger.com, 3 Questions Your Website Must Answer to Succeed
CopyBlogger.com, Don't List Fake Benefits, List Real Ones

References

BigResearch.com. 2005. "More Consumers Researching Online Before Buying in the Store"

When Fishing for Customers Use Educational Information as Your Lure

Just like the fisherman, a successful website must have a lure to attract customers.

Summary: No fisherman lowers an empty hook into the water; if he does, the fish take no interest in the hook and he catches nothing. But the fisherman puts a lure on the line and it attracts fish to the hook. Likewise you, to attract customers to your website can’t rely on product pricing and offer alone. You must first attract customers to your website using unbiased, informative information as your lure.

The #1 Internet Shopping Activity is Research

74% of men and women research on the internet before buying a product or service (BIGResearch, 2007). By offering useful, un-biased information on your website, you can help these 3 out of 4 of men and women accomplish their objective using your website.

Think about what type of research your potential customers might be doing. Remember, customers are interested in more than just researching product prices. Some customers aren’t even sure what to buy. They need to know what to buy, before they can even start looking at prices. Can you help the customer decide what to buy? (See Item #4 in this list)

Educational Information is Your Lure

Consider this example. A certain tourist wants to buy a digital camera for his vacation. However, seeing so many options he is not sure what to buy. So he goes to Google and does a search for ‘good vacation cameras’. He finds a website that tells him which cameras are good for vacations because of a long battery life and support for different countries’ power outlets. Happy with their prices, he buys a camera from this website.

Do you see the point? The website that told the tourist which digital camera is better for a vacation lured the customer in, and then hooked him with a good price. All the camera websites that merely list their digital cameras, with no information about using these cameras on vacation, were not even considered. If you want to increase site traffic, you need to provide information, such as articles, to answer the variety of research questions they might have. (See #10 in this list)

Conclusion: Educational Information is Your Lure, Price and Offer is Your Hook

To attract customers provide educational information that goes beyond merely listing the products you sell. Unbiased, informative articles and advice will attract website traffic. However, to get the sale you must have a compelling price and offer. Having a great price and offer but no educational information is like having a hook with no lure. Having educational information without a great price and offer is like having a lure with no hook. To increase site traffic you must give the customer information beyond just a product list with prices.


References

BigResearch.com. 2005. "More Consumers Researching Online Before Buying in the Store"

How Can Freely Sharing Articles You Author Help You Build Business?

Make friends with your customers, both potential and existing, by giving freely.

Summary: Customers ignore advertisements because advertisements saturate our lives and we've learned most of them can't be trusted. So how can you reach ad-weary customers? By freely educating them. If a customer can learn something valuable from you, they are more likely to respect you, trust you, remember you, and recommend you. This technique is often called "Content Marketing." To help you better understand what Content Marketing is and how it can help your company, I thought it would be helpful to share an excellent definition I found on Wikipedia today.

Which is a customer more likely to ignore, a helpful article or a traditional advertisement? Which is a customer more likely to show to colleagues, an educational video or a video advertisement?

Freely sharing helpful articles, videos, etc. to grow your business is an effective method called "Content Marketing." Below is a definition of Content Marketing from Wikipedia.org:

"Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.

The idea of sharing content as a means of persuading decision-making has driven content marketers to make their once-proprietary informational assets available to selected audiences. Alternatively, many content marketers choose to create new information and share it via any and all media. Content marketing products frequently take the form of custom magazines, print or online newsletters, digital content, websites or microsites, white papers, webcasts/webinars, podcasts, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, roundtables, interactive online, email, events. The purpose of this information is not to spout the virtues of the marketer’s own products or services, but to inform target customers and prospects about key industry issues, sometimes involving the marketer’s products. The motivation behind content marketing is the belief that educating the customer results in the brand’s recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.

Marketers may use content marketing as a means of achieving a variety of business goals, such as thought leadership, lead generation, increasing direct sales, improving retention and more.

Content marketing is the underlying philosophy driving techniques such as custom media, custom publishing, database marketing, brand marketing, branded entertainment and branded content." (Wikipedia, 2008.)

Put simply, Content Marketing allows you to build a closer relationship with the customer than mere advertising can provide by freely giving him with educational articles, audio, video, that address his problems and also demonstrate your company's value and expertise.

So do not delay. Start sharing your expertise with your existing and potential customers by writing articles with solutions to their problems and placing them prominently on your website, sending them out in email, and using any other reasonable method. If you share your expertise freely, you will generate goodwill and will gain the potential customer's attention, respect, and business. However, if you do not share your expertise freely, customers will incorrectly assume that you don't share information because you don't have their interests in mind, or worse you don't have the expertise you claim to have. As a result, they will take their business to a more convincing competitor. So apply this saying to your expertise, "Practice giving and people will give to you."

References

Wikepedia. 2008. "Content marketing."

This definition of Content Marketing was shared under the terms of the Wikipedia Licensing agreement.

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What is a blog and do I need one?

Screen capture from Blogger.com as I use Blogger to create this blog post. Tools such as blogger can save you time if you frequently write articles for your customers to read.

Summary: The technology world tends to get excited about new products and new ideas, blogging just being the example we’re going to discuss today. However, the average businessperson wisely views the technology world with some skepticism. We have learned that technology is never the magic pill to solve business problems. Blogs are no different. In themselves, they have no special power to solve business problems. Nevertheless, it is wise to ask, “What is a blog?” and “Do I need one?” This article will help answer those questions.

So, what is a blog? To start, this article that you’re reading is a blog. Put simply, a blog is a column, similar to a daily newspaper column, which is published on a website instead of in print. Just as a newspaper column can be a Dear Abbey, a column about sports, or a political opinions column, a blog can also be about any topic. Just like columns are a series of regularly published articles, blogs are a series of regularly published posts. Newspaper columns are typically read in print. Blogs are typically read online.

However, blogs are not exactly like newspaper columns. Whereas a newspaper column is published at most once per day, a blog can be published as often as you want. That’s because it’s cheaper to update a blog on a website than it is to print a newspaper. Some blogs are updated every hour. For example, just recently, a blogger published one post every hour for 24 hours straight about Kobe Bryant. Even the New York Times could not afford to print twenty four updates to their sports column in a single day. And who would buy all twenty-four copies?

Another difference between blogs and newspaper columns is that, while newspaper columns are controlled by the newspaper, a blog is controlled by you. You are the author, or someone you hire is.

As I mentioned earlier, this article you’re reading on my website right now is an example of a blog post. But what makes blogs so special? How is this blog post any different from any other article on a website? The reality is that to most people there is no major difference.

From the reader’s perspective, blog posts may look no different than any other article on a website. If this is the case, then why is there so much buzz about blogging in the technology world?

This brings us to our next question, “Do you need a blog?”

The easy answer to that question is, No. A business can operate perfectly fine without a blog. However, blogging provides some advantages that make it a powerful tool for publishing communications to your customers.

It is best to think of blogging as using a writing tool just like one uses Microsoft Word. Word let’s you quickly write what you have to say, save your document to a file, and print it or email it for someone else to read. Similarly, a blogging tool let’s you write your thoughts into an article, automatically applies a standard blog layout and format, and automatically uploads the blog article to your website to share with your visitors. The tool builds the web page for you so that you don't have to be a programmer to put articles on your website.

In summary, if you plan to write lots of articles for your customers to read, then a blog can save you time. A blog helps make authoring and publishing articles on your website faster.

Blogs have a lot of other powerful features that also help you. However, there are so many features that they can’t be covered in just one article. But you wisely don't start blogging merely because blogs provide cool features. Instead it is wise to start blogging because you have something of value you want to say to customers on a regular basis and you want to do that as efficiently and effectively as possible. If your goal is the latter, then the features provided by blogging might be just what you need.

In conclusion, blogs are just a way to publish articles on a website. Blogs consist of a series of posts published at a regular time interval on a website just as newspaper columns consist of a series of articles printed in a newspaper at a regular time interval. Blogs, in and of themselves, do not solve business problems. Nevertheless, if you wish to communicate with your customers through regularly published articles, then a blog is often the easiest way to do this. That's why I write articles such as this through a blogging tool. Using blogging as a tool can save time and make it easier to share your articles with customers and partners.

Additional articles:

Blogger.com: "What’s a blog?", PBS.org: "What Exactly is a Blog?", WordPress.org: "What is a blog?"

[Video] Site Review: Music Instruments Website

Summary: Today I review a music instruments website. This website does an excellent job of providing visitors with articles, encyclopedia links, pictures and more about hundreds of instruments around the world. By educating customers, this website will satisfy visitors and get more Google search visitors. However, the site lacks a method for speaking directly to the customer, like I am with this blog. Blogs give a visitor incentive to come back to your website for further education. Watch the video to see the full review.

Is your website useful?

Google is the number one website on the internet. What can we learn from them?

Summary: A useful website generates sales because it convinces the customer that your product or service is likely to also be useful. Google is the quintessential useful website. Therefore, we do well to analyze our website to see if the website is really useful or if it is nothing more than a glorified business card.

Why is Google the number one website in the United States? Is it because Google has the prettiest colors? Is it because Google has the coolest logo? Or is it perhaps because Google is a great name for a website?

No. It's because Google is very useful to the people that use it. And what do those users do? They use Google over, and over, and over again.

We then should be seeking to do the same with our websites. Just like Google, our website needs to be useful if the customer is going to use it and tell his colleagues to use it.

What constitutes a useful website?

First, we must keep in mind why people use the internet. The average person uses the internet to get information. When a customer is on your website, remember he or she is likely looking for a specific piece of information. He may not be ready to buy just yet. So if you don't have the information he needs, the customer is going to leave in frustration and may never come back.

Therefore, what are some types of information you can and should provide on your website?

1. Detailed specifications for your products and services. Make sure to include prices and price or fee structure.
2. Articles, audio, and video to educate the customer about when your product or service should be used and when it should not be used.
3. Interviews with company executives, employees, and customers.
4. Case studies showing how your product or service has benefited previous customers.
5. Presentations demonstrating pertinent research your company has done in your field.
6. Data to help keep the customer informed about his competitors use of your industry's product or service.

No doubt there are many other valuable pieces of information you can give to your customers. Don't say, "Well, I sell a boring product and thus, I can't provide an abundance of helpful information to the customer." Can your customers benefit by understanding more about your products, your industry, and their own needs? If you answered, "Yes," then start sharing that information now.

What will be the result?

A useful website increases sales. When your website helps the customer, the customer is more likely to believe that your product or service will also help him. Therefore, he is more likely to give your product or service a try. However, if your website is useless and frustrating, the customer will doubt your entire company and your sales will be scanty.

That being the case, your goal should be to show the customer how valuable your company really is. Prove your value with a useful website that addresses his needs. Educate the customer, become an expert, and build the trust that generates sales.

Web writing tips: Large blocks of text are tiring to read...

Summary: On a landing page, such as your homepage, effective website text must be scannable to be effective.

In my class, "Psychology of an Internet Customer," I ask attendees the question, "What is wrong with website text that is not scannable?" (For those who have not attended the class, when we refer to scannable text, we're talking about text that is designed to be scanned as opposed to read.)

At my January 9th class, the answer I received to that question was, "The website user can become mentally fatigued or overwhelmed by the text." This is absolutely true.

I personally can attest to the fact that large blocks of text are fatiguing to read. The student added, 'When I see a large block of text on a website, I roll my eyes.'

Will users take the time to read large blocks of undifferentiated text? Again, many attendees correctly answer from their personal web browsing tastes, "No!"

Does that mean you should never write paragraphs on your website? Of course not. Otherwise, I'd be breaking that principle with this article.

What it means is that on a landing page, such as your home page, you should avoid large blocks of text and instead always make it scannable. How can you do this?

Below are some techniques:

1. Use bullets or numbered lists like this one.
   
2. Use bold text to draw the eye.
   
3. Cut out any marketing fluff and use true, objective statements.

These three techniques may seem simple, but the research presented in "Psychology of an Internet Customer" shows they are proven to work.

Announcing a New Class, "Promoting Your Business with Effective Web Content"

Summary: Ayos Website Design is launching a new class, January 16th, to teach business owners how to use useful website content to attract increase website traffic.

A website must be useful to get visitors. Wouldn't you agree, you don't like to waste your time on a useless website? Your customer is the same.

With this in mind, how can you create a useful website? By providing quality information. With this in mind, we are happy to make the following announcement.

Starting January 16th, Ayos Website Design is launching a class entitled, "Promoting Your Business with Effective Web Content". This class will be taught by Todd Hibbs, owner of Ten Cent Solutions. His experience at Microsoft lends itself well to this course outline.

The purpose of this class is to help business owners and marketing executives understand how they can increase their website traffic using articles, blogs, audio, and video.

The class is 2.5 hours and is offered in a classroom format with plans for future online classes. We hope that you will find this class as beneficial as our past classes.