Product Review

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Net Watch Article - Content is King p2

First of all, please forgive the delay of getting part 2 of this article out. I hope none of you were holding your breath! ;)

In part 1, I was trying to get across that you need more to your website than your products. You need good relevant content that will hold someone’s attention. This content should be related to the focus of your web site. For example, if you are a real estate agent, having information about bike racing is not going to get the job done. But if you were to put up a good FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about all the steps necessary to purchase a home, what to expect during the process, and those pages were created in such a way that the search engines would be able to index them, that would be good. Now you have created relevant content that should attract the exact people that you are looking for. Viewers of your web page will appreciate the efforts that you’ve put into helping them make good decisions.

So now that you’ve got the products, the content, the marketing, how do you turn the traffic into sales? Boy, I wish there was one magic answer to that question! Frankly, trial and error and a lot of patience are going to be the best courses of action. I’ve never had two projects that were identical. That is why I say that there is not just one answer. With each project, there needs to be a unique approach to bring your web visitors through the sales process. I’ll say that the most successful sites are those that keep the process as simple as possible. Please see www.teklowe.com for an example. If you go to his Baluster’s Page you will see that you can click one button and you are brought to a point of purchase for that item. It does not get much easier than that. Other clients that keep it simple are www.heartofvermont.com, www.gardenpartyofvt.com, and www.bottombuddies.com. Some are more complex than others, but the bottom line is that the process is really very easy with a minimal amount of effort to complete the sale. Keeping the prices and descriptions as easy to see as possible and the options to a minimum is also a very good way to convert viewers into customers.

But what if you are not selling physical products? Well, then you are still selling, you are selling yourself! Please take a look at www.craneconsultants.com as an example of a site that has a great mix of form, function, and content. This site has a ton of very relevant material that pulls in people from all over the world. Because of the ease of use, ease of navigation, and volumes of good info and media items, it really helps them turn viewers into clients. When our client approached us to help him with this site, it was one page. We worked with him to create several pages targeted to specific groups. These efforts have really paid off and he is now getting calls to bid on work all over the country. For a certainty, the concept of “content is king” has paid off.

If you have any questions relating to the ideas we’ve spoken about in these last two articles, please do not hesitate to give us a call or visit our website at www.dogriverdesign.com for a complete list of archived newsletters.