Internet Marketing Transforms Web Site Visitors Into Clients

by Charlie Cook
Copyright 2004©. All rights reserved.

You’ve got a web site, spent money on internet marketing and advertising, and begun attracting lots of visitors, but hardly anyone is contacting you or buying your products and services. What’s wrong, and what can you do to change this picture?

John from Wisconsin called with exactly this problem. He owns a firm that provides financial services to people planning to sell or pass on family businesses. Located in a small town, his business is steady, but, well, small. He built a web site to reach a broader market and signed up with Overture.com to advertise it and attract visitors. (Overture posts the sponsored links you see at the top of your search results on many sites.) This is when his biggest problem became apparent.

The problem wasn’t with John’s business idea or Overture. He had identified both a need and an undeserved target market. His Overture ads worked so well they generated thousands of clicks to his site. In no time at all, John had run through his internet marketing and advertising budget but hadn’t translated any of the visitors into leads or sales.

What should he have done differently?

What can you do to create a web site that sells?

You want the people that visit your web site to buy your products and services. Making a purchase is the end point in their decision-making process. Do you know what the preceding steps are and how to move people through these steps?

If you are running a Web ad campaign, you will attract two types of visitors. The ideal prospect is one who is looking for a solution, one which hopefully your product or service provides. This should be an easy sale, but you still need to demonstrate that you understand their concerns and can solve the problem or meet their specific need. The sequence of information you provide and the specific copy you use can either keep them reading and move them to buy or lose the sale.

Take a look at your web site marketing. Is it obvious to you what you want them to do?

Can people see from the use of the page layout, use of type and graphics what they are supposed to do first, second and third?

You don’t have to be blatant in what you want visitors to do but the sequence should at least be obvious to you. Guide visitors by your placement of elements on the page and use of size, color and placement.

The majority of first time visitors to your site will browse your content following their whims or interests. If you don’t include the right elements on your site in the right places on the page, it may be the last time they visit your site. Even if you provide the perfect product or service, you can’t rely on people to make the effort to find what they need: give it to them.

Whether you sell consulting services, plus size clothing, business coaching, golf apparel, or manage recording artists, you can use your web site to generate leads and grow your business. The key is to guide prospects to take action to become qualified leads and clients.