I consider my varied clientele, which includes a 75-year-old author, a 23-year-old fashion guy, a business professional, an opera singer, a restaurant chef and his owner, a cafe owner, a math teacher, the owner of a cleaning company, the owner of a French travel site, the head of a department at a corporate printing company, etc. when deciding how to launch a website.
Women from all walks of life have sought my advice and assistance, including a quilt maker, a company that provides services for those with vision impairments (including support, products, and training), a virtual assistant, an artist from Iceland, a writer from Paris, a spiritual guidance counselor from the United Kingdom, the author of a romance novel from the United Kingdom, two women who run a clutter and cleaning business together, a home decor store owner, a driving school teacher, an interior designer, a textile artist,
I don’t share this to puff up my importance; instead, it’s to demonstrate the universality of the necessity to know how to start a website, attract visitors, and convert that traffic into paying clients. Ready? Terrific! It’s as simple as – wait for it – 1, 2, 3, and 4!
To ensure the success of a website launch, the owner must take the following measures after the site goes live:
First Step: Obtain Email Addresses of Site Visitors
The number of website proprietors that DO NOT COLLECT EMAIL NAMES never ceases to astound me. I hate to be so loud, but it really is unbelievable! It’s the same as never letting customers inside your store on Main Street. If you do your research and spread your website link widely around the web, people will find your site, but they won’t necessarily find it through the front door.
Having a link to your Newsletter on each page is crucial; set up a pop-over/pop-under/slide-up, or have a signup box for them to fill up, as visitors can land on your website. I remind the proprietors that every page on a website should function as a landing page. Get everything in order and have your contact information on every page.
Irresistible offers get people to sign up, and I’ll go into more detail on how to create such offers in the following section.
In the second stage, make a tempting offer in exchange for an email address.
You need to offer compelling incentives for visitors to your website to provide their name and email address to sign up.
What would YOU find to be an excellent freebie giveaway if you were asked to provide your email address in the hopes that you would one day become a customer of YOUR website?
And — what sort of information would you be interested in receiving regularly in the form of an electronic newsletter, PDF, audio file, or podcast?
Once you have that figured out, you can produce a high-quality, information-packed PDF, course, video, etc., and advertise it alongside your Sign Up form or pop-over from Step 1.
Here are a few more things to think about… Is the ability to send them discounts a priority for you? Or to maintain contact with them via a blog? Or maybe you could provide a downloadable PDF with the top 10 questions and answers regarding your company, product, or service. Keeping track of this information will help you improve your service and your newsletter’s content. Send this at least once a month, preferably twice. Please don’t assume you know what your subscribers need; it may not align with your priorities.
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Thirdly, set up software to keep tabs on who visits your website.
Well done if you’ve completed the first two steps! To put it simply: you have my admiration. But I have to ask: do you have any software installed that keeps tabs on all those enticing visitors, noting the URLs they came from or the search terms they used to find your site? No? Oh no! You need to take care of that right away, Tonto. (Damn, I wonder what happened to the Lone Ranger!)
The most important thing for a website owner is to monitor their web analytics to discover which of their marketing and advertising efforts are producing results rather than wasting money on something that isn’t.
Both Google Analytics and the freeware program StatCounter, which I also put on my clients’ websites, come highly recommended by me.
The Fourth Step — Make a List of the Most Frequently Asked Questions!
OK, give me a chance to explain myself here.
If you know the answers to all the questions that have ever been asked of you regarding your company, your product, or your services, then that’s great!
Make a web page or blog post for each question and response as soon as possible (even two a week would be great! ) and publish it on your website. Anything beyond that would be fantastic!
What happens is that individuals start entering these queries into search engines, and after a few weeks, YOUR pages will begin to appear in the results! Consider now that you have 50 questions posted on your site; there are 50 opportunities for any inquiries and answers to be FOUND on the web. The best part? Because of this, you will have a significant advantage over the competition.
If you do nothing else to get your website up and running, follow Steps 1, 2, 3, and 4.
If you’ve made it this far, you deserve some praise. You are now familiar with some of the most straightforward approaches to introducing and advertising your website online. A little bit of work is all that’s needed to leapfrog over the competition. Excellent!
If you have any questions or comments or want to share your experience with launching a website, please get in touch.
teena Hudson
I’m glad you found my brief advice on website launch, traffic, and sales helpful. I’m excited to put my problem-solving skills to use for the benefit of business and website owners. Cheers, Teena Hudson –
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