Website errors are common. Some cost you nothing. Others can cost you a lot.
Here are 7 common mistakes we find when evaluating client websites:
#1 – No optional email capture mechanisms
Optional email capture mechanisms come in many forms, including special reports, newsletters (see #2), trial software downloads, and squeeze pages. Squeeze pages are the last resort vs the other 2, but they are much better than doing nothing to collect emails. No one wants to be a spammer, but there are times when a quick email to alert your prospects or customers to some news, event, is the only way most businesses can get in touch with them in a timely manner unless have your phone/fax. numbers and the ability to forward calls/faxes, which you need to be very careful with (possible legal issues), depending on your relationship with each person.
#2 – No Sequenced Email Autoresponders
This one more or less requires me to fix bug #. #1, because without email addresses, you can’t function because you have no way to email your prospect. Once you get an email address, you should have a sequence of INFORMATIVE (NO SPAM, and NO release after release after release) emails on a regular basis, for lack of a better term, an email newsletter.
#3 – There is no mechanism to capture an address for print newsletters and other mailings.
About the same as no. #1, but remember: the internet is just another medium. Remember when fax transmission was banned? What if all you had was a fax number? Remember when the Do Not Call list was launched? What if all you had was a phone number?
If you only have ONE outlet to communicate with your prospects and some lobbyist-intoxicated elected official decides to shut that outlet down, you’re out of business, or at least in BIG trouble. Get the mailing address. Offer a CD, free report, little book, or gift someone will REALLY WANT.
IE: ANYTHING that gets you the address so you can then offer them other items, information, etc. At worst, a postcard from Hawaii to let them know you’re thinking of them (no, I’m not kidding).
#4 – No audio or video
It is the people of the 21st century, in fact, it has been for more than 5 years. The website is over TEN years old. Does your site look like it was built for the 1998 web?
These days, video and audio aren’t geek toys, they’re another medium that’s better than printed words for many people.
Audio that your prospect chooses to play, not that annoying auto-launched audio that makes you reach for the volume on your PC (or the X button to close the browser).
Ditto for the video. You can provide MUCH MORE information using video. Don’t use it as a toy, use it as an effective way to get your message across. You don’t need a $15000 camera and a professional studio to make good web video these days. A $300 digital camera will do just fine, though you may want to get a slightly better microphone than the one that comes attached to the camera.
Video and audio allow you to establish a personal relationship with the prospect. Remember, companies don’t buy things, PEOPLE do. Even in companies. PEOPLE buy products and services.
#5 – No contact form
The emails from people you’ve never heard of and would rather never meet are getting worse by the minute. The last thing you need is another 300 “personal” emails or big action tips that have someone wasting down time on. Worse yet, are there 1-2 customer emails in the middle of that stack of 300 emails and someone accidentally deletes them? What happens to that customer or prospect?
If your email address is on your site in plain text, slimy creatures attacking you with such things can easily find it. Provide an easy-to-use contact form on your site so people can contact you without opening their email program. You should be careful with these, due to something called “injection attacks”, but anyone competent with the web or website portal software should have this under control by now. If they don’t, give them 48 hours to fix it or find a new person on the web, because they should have taken care of this MONTHS AGO without being asked. It’s your job to be aware of this.
#6 – Little to no content, and certainly nothing new.
Little or no content that seems interesting to search engines. BIG TIME MISTAKE. You are full of content, you just don’t believe it. White papers, how-to articles, a boss column, a blog, etc.
#7 – Speaking with one voice to everyone who comes to your site
If you sell tennis rackets, would you talk to Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi, and Donald Trump the same way? Of course not. Even though these three guys can afford any racket you have to offer, they have different levels of experience. You just can’t afford to approach them in the same way. The same goes for your prospects.
That’s only SEVEN.
The problem is that there are many others that you can do, these are just some of the fairly common ones. How many others are turning their website into a leaky bucket, losing sales and customers left and right? If there are 117 possible ways to lose ONE customer and you’re doing them all, how much is that costing you each month? Oh. Reverse that and blame, your site is moving in the right direction.
Copyright 2006 – Mark Riffey. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all links active, do not edit the article in any way, credit the author’s name where appropriate, and follow all EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.