Why Doesn't My Small Business Web Site Sell?

Written by Jeremy Cohen


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Don’t See Big Picture Another common shortcoming of small business web sites is that many fail to realize a fundamental marketing concept: most consumers who make a decision to buy something makerepparttar decision to do so after 6 - 8 contacts with some form of marketing for a particular product or service. Failing to realize and act upon this marketing fact will hinder your ability to grow your business.

The purpose of marketing is to establish your business inrepparttar 120006 marketplace so that consumers think of you when they are ready to act to fill a need or desire. By regularly getting your marketing message in front of your market you can help them associate what you do with what they need. You can also attract more clients by demonstrating your expertise to clients in your marketing material.

Poor design Do visitors to your web site do what you want them to do? If they are not it may berepparttar 120007 design of your web site that is preventing your visitors from takingrepparttar 120008 action you want them to take. The design of each of your web pages is instrumental in guidingrepparttar 120009 actions of your visitors.

So what constitutes good design? Good design stems fromrepparttar 120010 skillful integration of graphical and textual layout, color, shape and choice and flow of content. If your site does not haverepparttar 120011 content your visitors seek you will strike out each time someone visits your page. If your web pages don’t put what you want your visitors to see immediately in front of them you will miss opportunities to sell. If your choice of fonts and colors make your pages difficult to read your visitors will likely move along to another web site they can understand more easily.

To identify if your web pages suffer from poor design ask yourselfrepparttar 120012 following questions: Does my text stand out over my background color? Doesrepparttar 120013 design of my site focus my visitor’s attention where I want it? Does my content give my users what they want?

If you answered ‘No’ to any ofrepparttar 120014 questions above you can improve your ability to get your users to do what you want by taking steps to correct anything that may be wrong.

Failure to Focus on Client Needs When people visit your web site you want them to read throughrepparttar 120015 content of your site. By doing so your visitors develop a sense of how your product or service can help them. If your copy doesn’t focus on your clients’ needs and desires they will be off to another site in a blink.

If your visitors are quickly leaving your web site it may be because your copy does not focus on their needs. Here are some common mistakes to avoid: Don’t focus onrepparttar 120016 process or method you use to do your job Don’t focus on your existing clients Don’t focus on your experience Don’t focus onrepparttar 120017 quality of your product

By making any ofrepparttar 120018 above mistakes you detract attention fromrepparttar 120019 reasons that are going to help your clients makerepparttar 120020 decision to buy from you. You may be very proud of your accomplishments, and you should be, but focusing on them does not address your clients' needs and will do little to help you sell more effectively.

The author, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners attract more clients, grow their businesses and be more successful with his marketing services and free marketing guide, "Jumpstart Marketing: More Prospects, Clients and Success." Get the guide at: www.bettermarketingresults.com


MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE LAB

Written by VENKATESH P


Continued from page 1

A + B temp PressureC + D

Chemistry has established that ‘A’ and ‘B’ can react with each other in many different ways, but only that reaction that yields ‘C’ and ‘D’ is what is called a ‘fruitful’ reaction. If that berepparttar case, then what aboutrepparttar 120005 yield? Obviously low ifrepparttar 120006 reaction is not directed properly. How do we direct a reaction to give high yields? This is whererepparttar 120007 chemist with all his acquired knowledge of organic chemistry, physical chemistry and inorganic chemistry, come to teach us marketing.

The chemist does something intrinsic torepparttar 120008 reactants that favor predominantlyrepparttar 120009 reaction he is interested in. He simply makesrepparttar 120010 reactants more attractive towards each otherrepparttar 120011 way they need to be attracted (to give C and D). Technically speakingrepparttar 120012 chemist equipsrepparttar 120013 reactants with some ‘functional groups’ so thatrepparttar 120014 reactants not only get attracted, but inrepparttar 120015 most fruitful manner. This increasesrepparttar 120016 yield ofrepparttar 120017 reaction.

Lets now look parallel at a market, which is our reaction chamber. We haverepparttar 120018 two reactants ‘consumers’ andrepparttar 120019 ‘products’. As marketers we expect a sale and that too of high volumes. We also (likerepparttar 120020 chemist) manipulaterepparttar 120021 product and do something intrinsic to it. This we call as “Brand”ing. So ‘Branding’ is nothing but adding suitable ‘functional groups’ to increase ‘attraction’.

On what basis do we ‘Brand’ our product? The chemist says he addsrepparttar 120022 functional groups to a reactant based onrepparttar 120023 behavior ofrepparttar 120024 other reactant. Chemistry, again, has well establishedrepparttar 120025 behavior of elements basing onrepparttar 120026 position they occupy in a periodic table. This periodic table is likened torepparttar 120027 segmentation marketers do inrepparttar 120028 market place (viz. demographic, psychographics). Basing on this segmentation,repparttar 120029 marketers try and predictrepparttar 120030 behavior of that particular segment of consumers. And allrepparttar 120031 marketing efforts revolve around this understanding of segmentation. Same isrepparttar 120032 case withrepparttar 120033 chemical reaction – without a thorough knowledge ofrepparttar 120034 segmentrepparttar 120035 reactants belong to, designing a reaction is very difficult.

M.Sc (chemistry) MBA (marketing) currently working as lecturer in marketing, in the department of management studies, SRM Easwari engg. college, Chennai-89


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