Is your website making you money? The money you need or want it to make? In this post I’ll detail 3 proven ways to make your website make you money.
It’s quite common for people to have a website built for their business, or to build one themselves only to find it doesn’t really draw them any attention in their marketplace, or bring in any revenue.
Whether you’re providing traditional type of service, selling products or marketing online only as an affiliate, you need your website to make you money.
So how can we make our website make us money? Let’s get straight into it…
Interestingly I find about half of the businesses that approach me for help are throwing away money by squandering the web traffic, leads and social interactions they’re already getting.
Before we get into the fix, let’s establish the 2 main challenges…
This is what will help them get closer to the place of realisation that they really need you…
…actually that’s not quite right…
…it’s the realisation that they really want you…
It’s well known in the sales profession that people buy on emotion, then justify their decision (or intent to purchase or commit) with logic…
The emotion (want) comes first, then comes the reasoning and logic (reason they need).
So… how do we get them to a place where they first want us?
Just before we answer that very important question, we need to re-acknowledge that only a tiny percentage people who enquire with us or become a ‘fan’ or ‘follower’ are ready to do business with us then and there (the across-the-board average for web-generated leads it is about 3-4 in 100).
Does this mean that marketing our business using our own website as a platform is not worth it?
Not at all!
That 3-4% (as a minimum) is as good as sure. And that percentage can certainly increase by staying in front of our prospects and winning them over in time by…
i.e Make your website do more of your selling (through education, entertainment and plain old being helpful).
Although content marketing (such as blogging) does take consistent effort, it’s worth it. Companies with Blogs generate 67% more leads per month than non-blogging ones. 67% more! [source: socialmediab2b.com]
To learn more about content marketing and it’s advantages you might like to read how simple content marketing can make you an SEO boss where you’ll also see that it costs on-average 160% LESS to generate a lead with inbound marketing (such as blogging) than it does with outbound marketing (such as paid advertising).
In a nutshell, you provide excellent value and establish your authority in your marketplace through helpful, easy-to-understand content that helps your potential prospect want you.
Content marketing (producing great, helpful content regularly) is no good if we haven’t got the ability to keep driving people back to our latest content (for example Blog posts).
I’ve been using Aweber to automatically follow up with my prospects, clients and customers (that originate from my contact and subscribe forms) since November 2009. I’m not going to rant on about Aweber in this Post but I will say that it does make it very easy (even a for technically challenged person) to make more money from their website.
It does take some persisting with but just like producing the content itself, it is definitely worth the effort to build a list of qualified potential buyers (subscribers). You’ve heard it before: the money is in the list.
Sales experts say that prospects may need as may as 6 to 8 ‘touches’ before they take the next step. Keeping prospects informed and providing value via an autoresponder such as Aweber is a magnificent way to keep those regular ‘touches’ with our prospects.
Here (in .3) I’ll refer to both words and phases used within your website, and speaking with prospects on the phone or in person.
First, let’s talk about speaking to or contacting prospects on the phone (ones that have submitted a contact form on your website).
Are you ringing on phones that display “Private Number” or “Blocked” on your prospect’s phones?
In my personal experience, 8 out of 10 calls won’t be picked up if when you call, the prospect’s phone displays “Private Number” or “Blocked” — and things generally spiral down from there – they become even harder to contact as more time passes from their initial contact.
How do you respond to calls from ‘blocked’ or ‘private’ numbers?
Are you inadvertently saying something (or leaving something out) when leaving a message with the prospect?
It is common for consultants to not give prospects a good enough reason to call them back (they’re just ticking the ‘I followed up’ box). They may also be saying something, or using a tone that may be putting prospects off completely.
[Note too that sometimes leaving no message is the best strategy because if you don’t get a call back you’re only option is to pester people and that’s not a strategy I recommend at all.]
If you are leaving messages for the prospect to call you back, the reason to call back must be either laden with benefit for the prospect, or make them so curious they just have to call back (or both). I’m not talking about being slimy or deceptive, just being professional, courteous and frank (all at the same time).
In a phone message (or autoresponder email) you might…
Whether you’re talking to your prospects in person, or in your web copy (website), know that your ideal customers are always interested in…
If you employ the above tactics and strategies there’s a good chance you’ll get your website making you more money.
If you’re not blogging as a business yet and your website isn’t built on WordPress, it may be time to do this.
I’ll quickly explain why, and how to get going with this now…
You’ll want to be using WordPress on your OWN domain though, NOT a [.wordpress] site that gives you something like ‘yourbusiness.wordpress.com’ – you won’t get anywhere near the full advantages and benefits when you use WordPress this way – the main thing to know about going this way is: that you won’t actually own it or ultimately control your website (when you go the ‘yourbusiness.wordpress.com’ route)…
…which is why you’ll want WordPress installed on your own domain — which isn’t isn’t anywhere near as hard as it sounds. You CAN do this yourself.
If you’d like a free step-by-step guide on how to do this, just enter your name and email at the top right of this post and I’ll make sure you get immediate access to all the free training you need to get started (offer valid at the time of publishing this post).
What are some proven revenue driving strategies or approaches that you’ve used with your website(s)?
Luke says:
Thanks Dean, All the points you made are actually very real in marketing and making web sites pay for themselves. I don’t sell products directly, but still helping readers with an email question, helpful purchasing info, contacting hard to get Retailers for customers and a bit of “bending over backwards” for a reader goes a long way.