Published:

04/18/2013 03:36pm

The Biggest Mistake I See Most Business Owners Making With Their Websites

What is the biggest mistake I see most business owners make with their websites? Not capturing their leads.

So what do I mean by that?

When someone comes to your website-whether they have Googled you or found you through another link-that person is actively in the mindset of wanting to learn more about the provide or service that you provide. The idea is to capture them right away-because they may be looking around at a number of different websites for information before making a buying decision. They may click on and click off the sites they're looking at very quickly, and are apt to forget some they visited along the way. So the goal is to create a system for capturing their name and their email address so that you can communicate with them over time and build a relationship, moving them along the "know, like, trust, buy" continuum.

You've probably seen websites where you can enter your name and email to get more information. Typically, it's in exchange for a free report or e-book, or sometimes you might even see people just say "sign up for our newsletter list." So the first thing you want to do is have some kind of a lead capture system, using an email management system like AWeber, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, One Shopping Cart of Infusionsoft. I'd advise having your web designer handle setting that up.

But here's the critical element: You want to make sure that you are not just asking your visitor to sign up for your email list-because that is basically saying something like, "Pease let us spam you." Really, who wants more email coming into their email box? What you want to do instead is make sure that you are exchanging some valuable information for their name and email address in the form of what I refer to as a "Can't resist gift."

Here are a few things that you want to do with your "can't resist gift." First off, you want to be sure you're giving valuable information that's related to the service you provide. For example, if you are a bookkeeper, you could provide a free report called, "The five biggest mistakes I see most business owners make when they are trying to keep their own books." In fact, this is also a great example of my second tip: use the "can't resist gift" to "position the purchase." Likely, someone will read through that report and say to themselves, "Oh my gosh, I'm actually making some of these mistakes." It highlights why they need you and your services.

The key is to provide them with enough information that it changes their awareness level, but you don't want to give them the exact details of what you do-that's what they need you for. So I like to say you are providing the "why" and the "what" and a little bit of the "how"-but not the exactly, precisely specifically how you do it "how." To get that, they would need to hire you or purchase one of your products.

Next, you want to be sure to add some kind of call to action (so that when they realize they need your help, they know what to do). So you want to make sure at the end of your free report, you say something like, "I gave you lot of valuable information here, but if you feel like you need more support in implementing this or you want to take your learning even deeper, give me a call and we'll schedule some time to chat and see if I can help you." You're just inviting them to take the next step, which is to schedule a call and get more information.

So if you don't currently have a "can't resist gift" and a place for someone to sign up for your email list on your website, I'd encourage you to make it a priority. And here's a tip: Don't overcomplicate this. Start with something simple. If you have a signature talk that you give, you can transcribe that into an e-book. If you've done a teleseminar, you can get that transcribed and edited into a report. You could even use a simple checklist-as long as it's something of value. Think about what your ideal clients would want most from you, what information they need and figure out the simplest way you can provide them with a taste of your expertise and the services y