About the Author:
Marnie Pehrson, founder of C.E.S. Business Consultants
and the International
Association of Computer Professionals,
develops products that help computer professionals market
and manage their businesses.
She is author of
How to
Run a Successful Computer Training Business,
How to
Get & Keep Customers for Your Computer-based Business
and Keeping
Your Sanity in a Home Business.
Marnie
also develops business plans, marketing strategies,
financial projections, & proposals for Internet
projects. Her plans and strategies have garnered clients
an average of $100,000 each in seed capital.
Marnie
lives on a Georgia farm with her husband and their six children .
Contact:
C.E.S. Business Consultants
Ringgold, Georgia
http://www.pwgroup.com
mailto:[email protected]
TEL: 706-866-2295
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PREVIOUS ISSUES
Steering Visitors in the Right Direction
Once you have visitors
coming to your site and you have their interest
peaked, it's time to direct them to where you want them
to go. Whether you're selling information, products,
services or simply generating leads, bear in mind why
people visit web sites:
- News -
according to the MarketFacts research firm,
roughly 90% of Net users use the Web for
news. A report from Media Metrix shows that
news sites are now more popular than search
engines.
- Research -
people visit sites to look for information on
products, services, etc.
- Shopping -
people are starting to use the Web with increasing regularity to comparison shop and are buying more and more over
the Web.
Most likely, unless
you are generating all your Web revenues from
advertising, you are trying to sell the visitor
something--your products or services. To draw
people in, use a three-step process:
- First, give
them what they want--give them news,
articles, or non-sales pitch information that
relates to your products or services.
- Second,
include links to your products or services on
the page(s) with the news or articles.
These can be subtle links - as simple as a
"products" or "services"
link in the navigational area of the page.
Or, it can be a blurb about you as the author
and a link to your products/services at the
bottom of the page.
- Third, test,
test and test again. Check your statistics
frequently when you make a change to your
home page or site. Which information areas
are getting the most hits? Pay attention to
the information areas people like so as to
learn what they actually want. Are the pages that
contain product information getting more hits
now that you've made the change? Are more
people clicking on your order form now? And,
bottom line, are you making more sales or
getting more referrals from your Web site?
Keep tweaking, testing, and recording the
results until you find the mix that brings
the maximum number of sales per visitor.
In summary, use your
home page to steer people to the content. Remember,
people first ask themselves, "What's in it for
me?" or "Why should I click any further?" By bringing content (articles, news,
information) to the forefront, you'll draw them
further inside your site. Then, make sure they know
you're an expert on the subject and direct them as to where
to go next to purchase your products or services.
Remember that it's not
how much traffic you get, it's what you do with the
people once they arrive. What you really want to
know is: "how many visitors does it take to make a
sale?" Work with your content and try directing
your traffic in different ways until you get the
maximum yield per visitor.
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