Google Analytics

First, you need facts to work with. Exactly how many visitors are coming to your website? Your web designer/developer should have created a Google Analytics account for you when your website first went “live”. You should either have access to the Google account, or at least be receiving regular reports from it..

You need this information to understand how your website is performing. How many people are visiting your website. How many are repeat visitors. How many have visited only once. How did they find your website? What are they looking at most on your website, and what are they ignoring.

If you don’t have this information, you’re flying blind. Ask your web designer for access this valuable statistical data . It’s available free from Google.

Check Out the Action

Now, with Google Analytics reports coming through to you, you’ll soon know whether your website is getting visitors. This is the first step towards understanding if your website has at least a decent chance of success.

If the analytics show visitors are coming to your website, it’s because they’re searching for what you’re offering. That’s great and the whole point of having a website – to connect with people online so you have a chance to turn them into your customers. Yet, even though you can see visitors are coming to your site, it just doesn’t seem like they’re buying from you! Why?

How Effective Is Your Website Design?

Does the website encourage them to respond in the way you want them to? In other words, does the website  make them take the next step of getting in touch with your business, so that ultimately you can turn them into a customer?

Have a critical look at the design of your website. Does it encourage people to make contact with you about your products/services? Not sure – then ask your family members, your friends, colleagues – in fact anyone you know.

If the feedback suggests the website is failing in this area, you need to meet with your web designer and talk about what changes are required to turn this around. If the feedback is more positive, and you’re confident the design is effective, then clearly there’s something else wrong.

More Statistics

Do you know how many email inquiries and phone calls your business is getting from people who visit your website? You should!

Put a phone log in place and make sure your people ask callers how they heard about your business. Create a website contact log, and get your staff to record the emails coming into your business from your website, and which emails present a sales opportunity. If these contacts with your business are occurring, why are sales still not on the increase? You can even have messages from the contact form on your site CC’d to you for follow-up with your team.

Convert The Calls

It may surprise you to discover that yes, the phone calls are coming through, and yes, so are the email inquiries. But, guess who’s handling them – your receptionist.

Receptionists do a fantastic job at – well – being receptionists! But are they trained to sell over the phone? I bet they’re not. Here is where the problem may well lay – you have the wrong person handling these inquiries.

The contacts you get through your website about your products/services are GOLD! They are already qualified since they wouldn’t be getting in touch unless they wanted what you’re offering.

Make sure that these inquiries are handled by your very best telephone salespeople. The phone calls and emails from your website should not come through your receptionist (who should already be busy enough). Your website must direct these potential customers directly to your best telephone sales people. If they are good at what they do, they will use their selling skills to turn these website visitors into your new customers.

These new customers boost your business bottom line. If looked after properly during and post sale, they will refer friends, relatives, work colleagues  and others to you. This is “trusted-word-of-mouth-referral” business, and it is probably the best kind of business you can ever hope to get!

So, get cracking, and get selling – the sky’s the limit if you have the right internal mechanisms to handle enquiries from your website by turning them into sales – Good luck!

And by the way, make sure you have the right SEO strategy applied to your website – if you get it right, Google will reward you in search results.