Today, it is very easy to put up a website. Even a teenager or a person without any technical skills could do it because many hosting providers offer automated website designing tools.
Many businesses use these tools and create websites that in essence are business cards. They have all the basic information about the business and that is it.
But later, business owners are disappointed with their websites when they fail to bring in the customers. They do not realise that for a website to bring in customers, it needs to be more than a business card. A business card is a piece of paper that has contact information. Contact information is not how people make a decision to become a customer of a business.
For a person to pay money for a product or service, the person needs to believe that this product or service will deliver the benefits it promises. The product or the service needs to fill the needs or wants of the customers.
If you have a retail store and a person walks into a store and wants to buy something, you will ask them if they need any help, show them different products and options and explain why the differences in features and price exist. This is salesmanship.
If you want your website to bring in customers, you need to design a website that is effectively selling your products or services. The process of selling stays the same online as it is offline: you need to outline the benefits, showcase the products, explain what makes them better than the competition, justify the price, and show testimonials and reviews from happy customers.
If you are already successfully selling something, you are doing most of these things. If you want your website to sell well, it needs to follow this process, too. Design a website with a sales process in mind. Don’t just create a business card.