3 Easy & Affordable Ways to Put Your Website to Work

Most business owners know they need websites, but do they know what to do to make sure they serve a purpose beyond that of an online brochure?

Even though we know websites are the modern way of doing business, building credibility, gaining exposure, and distributing information, the plain truth is that in a lot of cases entrepreneurs are still ending up with websites that are really only functioning as online brochures, and don’t do much more than eat up marketing budget as hosting fees and domain renewals come due.

I firmly believe this is a result of the failure to consider websites as the truly powerful sales and marketing tool they can be.  I can’t stress enough the importance of thinking about how you market and sell your products or service, and how you want your website to function as a working part of your business.  For greater online success, think about what purpose you want your website to serve for you…set functionality and information gathering goals for your site and discuss them in detail with your web designer/developer.

There are more ways you can turn your website into a functional tool that serves a tangible purpose for your business than I can address in a single blog post but here are a few simple methods to consider as a good starting point if you have a site that’s in need of some purpose.

1. Forms – Online forms allow you to be specific in the information you gather from your site visitors and customers.Do you sell a business opportunity, offer specialized workshops?  Forms are a great way to collect the initial information you need to qualify potential buyers, and do more detailed and specific follow up.

   Perhaps you have a price list online – by having visitors fill out a brief form before sending them through to your pricing page you can get a clear picture of who’s looking at that information, and build a contact list of potential clients for your sales department.

2. Blogging – A quick and easy way of keeping in touch with your audience.  By pairing a blog with your website you can reduce maintenance costs that would normally be incurred if frequent updates are needed.  Blogging is also a great way of adding relevant keyword rich content to your website, thereby increasing search engine results over time.Depending on the type of business you are in, video blogging may even be useful.  Construction companies and home builders can make excellent use of video blogging as a way of documenting progress on projects, and pointing out the special quality features of their products.  For bands and other performers, a frequent challenge is that no amount of demo tracks will adequately demonstrate their skills – once again, video blogging can be very useful as a show-and-tell mechanism.  Remember, your website should give viewers a taste of what you have to offer.
3. Surveys – Surveying your visitors is an easy way to collect very valuable information.  By asking a few simple questions you can find out what your audience is looking for, and determine whether they found it.  Armed with this feedback you can make informed decisions when it comes time to evaluate the performance of your site.There are many, many survey tools available. My current favorite is a nifty and free little survey tool by 4Q.

   It is super easy to sign up for, simple to setup, and once you’ve personalized it all that is needed to implement it on your site is a small piece of code.  I could go into greater detail, but why would I when there is an excellent (and entertaining) video about the power of using survey tools on your website here:  http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/03/4q-the-best-online-survey-for-a-website-yours-free.html

   To view the Q4 survey in action, visit my site at www.catchthis.ca – and remember to fill it out so I know you were there and that you found what you wanted.

These are a few ways you can increase the effectiveness of even the simplest website, and turn it into a real marketing tool that will yield results.

Business owners often have great expectations of their websites, the leads they’ll generate, the sales they’ll make, the relationships they’ll build – the fact is tools only work if you put them to work.

The building of a truly useful business website involves planning and input from you as the business owner to make it achieve the goals you have identified.  And once completed, it requires regular tending and use to make it the truly valuable tool it can be!

Now get out there and harness the power of the internet for your business!