What Your Website Should Be Doing For You & Your Business

You’ve got a successful business, a great team of professionals and a nice website that represents your company— A fine start indeed, but is everything working as smoothly as it could? You have a hard-working team, but is your website pulling its weight? Read more…

Let’s Take A Look At A Typical Company

---

	Gina, The Office Manager Here’s Gina, she’s the office manager, and her job is to answer calls, give relevant information and point customers to the right people in the company. She handles day-to-day business like emails and ensures that the business runs smoothly. She works until 5:30pm in case someone calls a little late in the business day.
	Michael, The Sales Associate Here’s Michael, he’s the sales associate, and his job is to contact new customers and find new connections. He also completes simple orders over the phone and upsells when he can. He’s a real go-getter and always works 8:00am to 6:00pm in case a late order should come in.
	Shane, The Marketing Lead Here’s Shane, she’s the marketing lead, and works to make sure that every new customer sees a consistent look and feel when viewing anything about the company. She’s on every morning at 9:00am and off each day at 5:00pm, but typically takes a working lunch so she doesn’t have to break her rhythm.
	Your Web Site Here’s your website, the unsung and oft-forgotten member of your business and sales team. It greets all people as a stamp of business legitimacy, from the fastest fibre connection to those still using dial up. It does whatever you tell it to do. Your service provider often promises 99.9% uptime or better.

---

So What Should Your Website Be Doing For You & Your Team?

Your website should be a value-added member of your business team.

It will NEVER be able to answer questions like Gina. However, if the basics of the company have been added to your website’s pages, it can be Gina’s faithful assistant, letting people know information such as your hours of operation and location. With a google map added to your contact page, your website can direct any person from their current location to your office without bothering Gina. With an About Us page or sufficient Contact page, a client or customer can find out about the team members, emailing or contacting them directly. Depending on your business model, your customers might even be able to set up appointments directly with your staff from the website. Any of these can free Gina up for focusing on the duties which have the highest rate or return for your business, such as accounts receivable or billing.

It will NEVER upsell projects like Michael. However, if the products or services you offer are posted directly on the website, they just might sell themselves. Rather than simply describing how life-changing your products are, your website can augment your sales force by showing the items in large-as-life detail. Numbers, statistics, and tables can all be made at the viewer’s fingertips for easy understanding.

If your website has a shopping cart (and it really should if your business model is based on sales), interested parties can buy their items right away, completing a guaranteed sale without interrupting the sales staff. Only those who have questions about what products or services are right for them will call your sales staff directly. Rather than having them stop calling out to deal with a basic sale, your sales staff will only be contacted by motivated buyers who might be open to upselling.

It will NEVER capture people’s imaginations like Shane can. However, if Shane has helped to put the proper graphics and text on the website to motivate and engage viewers, strong connections will still be made. A consistent message from page to page helps to establish legitimacy, with crisp images exciting and inviting viewers to imagine how your products or services will help them. The inclusion of text or video testimonials will let your past clients talk about why your product remains the right ones for them.

With excellent copywriting to draw customers to your site, your website can bring in customers your team may not be aware of, or may not even be marketing to. By giving the customer a fast and easy way to interact with your business and complete the sales they want, your website frees your team for the type of creative, tactical, and strategic thinking which will grow your business.

 

The Best Part

One of the best parts of having your website as a value-added member of your team, is the tireless and effective way in which it does its job. Your website is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and asks for no days off for good behavior. Once its built, it continues to be available to the public. Whether someone wants to request an estimate at 7pm, complete a sale at 2am in the morning, or if they want to pay for their order on Thanksgiving morning, your website is on the job. Your website will never ask for a raise or sales commission, and is always open to adding more to its sales message.

    

 

Reflection Time

When was the last time that you were really, really proud of your website? When was the last time that you looked at a string of online sales, leads, or inquiries and were really pleased?

If your website isn’t saving time for your staff, if it isn’t a value-added member of the team, or if they are doing the same amount of work they’d do WITHOUT the website, then your website needs some attention. Wouldn’t you rather that your team could process customers and account receivables faster? Wouldn’t you rather that your sales team was reaching out to new customers and following more leads? Wouldn’t you like your marketing team to be focused on strengthening a message that everyone sees, so they always feel they’re following your brand message? If you’d like more time for your team to do what gives your business the most return, it might be time to upfit your website.

If your site is doing everything it’s supposed to, pat yourself on the back, because you’re in great shape. Does your site needs something more: a shopping cart to sell what you have to offer, some new copy to really make your business sing, or perhaps video or still photography to help make your vision really pop? Maybe your site just needs a facelift. If any of this is true, we’d love to talk with you about your vision and how we can help you achieve it.