Dewell Marketing

When a visitor lands on your web site, you need to answer four questions for them. Do it well, and they will stay and want to do business with you, online or offline. Do it poorly, and they leave never to be seen again!

Imagine this scenario: You have done all the right things with online advertising, article and video marketing and keyword research to get your site found amongst the 500,000 other websites offering what you have to offer. The customer comes into to your online business. And then turns around and walks away never to be seen or heard from again!

If you even know this has happened, you’re shocked. What happened? Why did they leave? How can I prevent this from happening again?

The answer is in these four questions that the visitor was asking when they came into your website. And for some reason, they didn’t get the answers they wanted.

Do You Have What I Want?

First, they want to know if what they found was actually what they were looking for. In other words, does your website offer an immediate answer to the question they put into the search bar of their search engine. (Question here means any word or phrase they may have used – somehow they are looking for an answer.)

If it doesn’t, and they couldn’t find the answer to the question right away, and if they have no desire to search around on your site, they’ll hit the back button and look somewhere else.

Remember, search engine statistics show that you have about 30 seconds to convince your visitor that they are in the right place. 30 seconds, only!

Who are These Guys?

Your visitor needs to learn something about your company very quickly in order to keep looking around. You need to give them a clear picture of who you are and it needs to be right in their face.

One of the best ways to do this is either with pictures of you, the owner, your staff, your premises, your fleet if you have one, and so on.

Another even better way is to use a simple video to introduce your visitor to your business. Videos hold people’s attention. They watch and listen because of the simple fact that moving pictures and sounds attract our attention as human beings.

Have your business address very obvious so they feel you are real.

Can You Help Me with My Problem?

Part of what the video I talked about in the point above, can answer this question. But add more things like references, pictures of jobs you’ve done, a link to an expert article or white paper you’ve written about the problem, and so on.

Put up the bio of the owner and the key employees. You’ve all seen the ads with pictures of the staff and the caption something like, “150 years of combined experience helping people like you.” Build a sense of reliability so they feel that they are in good hands with you. Think the Allstate insurance logo – very effective.

Use whatever you’ve got to convince your visitor that the answer to their question is a resounding, “Yes!”

Can I Trust This Company?

When we walk into a bricks-and-mortar business, we get a feeling very quickly about whether we like the place or not. Wee see the place, smell it, hear it and process that very fast. But when you are looking at a web page you only have a couple of your senses working, so you must appeal to those senses on your web page.

Once again this question is being slowly answered all through the above 3 questions. The pictures of the business and the people they will be dealing with do this. Testimonials from other businesses or customers will do this. A place where you show off awards you might have won and seals of approval from trusted organizations do this. A logo from your local Chamber of Commerce will also do this.

Answer all these questions quickly and clearly and that visitor is going to want to do business with you. How to make that easy to do will be the topic of another article on local business search: Talking to Your Customers