Unblock websites

by Dragano Mike Toh

Unblock the secrets of websites and what strategies will work.

Small businesses today are faced with a continuing problems and the main block comes from the hows to getting new prospects. Whether yours is a trading business, service provider or software developer, people who start in business always begin by calling on friends and contacts. They join networking groups and attend local business mixers in an effort to extend that network as far as possible.

Then the inevitable day comes when you must consider, "what do you do when you run out of friends?"

For many of us, the promise of a website on the internet was exciting. We were told that all we had to do was build a website, tell people about it, and customers would come knocking at our door ready to buy our product or service. As we got more sophisticated we learned how to specially configure our websites so that they were listed high up in the search engines, promising to bring in even more customers.

So how is that going for you? Are you getting as many customers as you want from your website?

I'll wager that for over 95% of those who read this article, your answer is "no."

Why is this? Maybe because your current methods for attracting and qualifying customers just aren't as effective as they could be.

Let's examine some trends in website marketing and see where they break down.

Unblock websites secret No: 1   Put up some really good product pages with a nice link to a "contact us for more information" form.

This is the most common method for promoting a product or service on a website. But think about what you're expecting a customer to do. You are expecting each and every customer to explore your site on his or her own time, all the while maintaining enough interest in your product to keep going. After all that, he or she must search out your "request for information" page, fill out the form and wait for someone to contact them. Read, ask and wait. Not a very effective way to get customers.

Unblock websites secret No: 2   Put a video on your home page

This method works better than static web pages because it is more interesting, easier to participate and you can deliver more information faster with video than on static pages. But it still has the limitation of being linear. Customers can only follow the path you have pre-determined they should follow. Additionally, it is not interactive so if they have questions or concerns the must write them down or take notes for further research. And lastly, you still require them to fill out a form to obtain qualifying information and to continue the sales process.

Unblock websites secret No: 3   Buy more leads through SEM advertising and SEO

When businesses become frustrated with the ability to attract prospects to their website,  they start to play the numbers game. They begin investing money in online advertising such as Google's AdWords. They perform link exchanges with similar sites and they pay huge fees to Search Engine Optimization firms to increase their page rank and get more customers from search engines. All of these have merit, but why spend money to send lots of prospects to a website that isn't prepared to capture and hold their interest and convert them into customers? It is like the old adage, "I know that half my advertising dollars are being wasted, I just don't know which half."

NEW APPROACH

Fortunately, there is a solution. It is very simple and very inexpensive.

Unblock website secret No:  4  Run a simple poll to engage your prospects. Get them to answer simple questions that can assist you to better improve your products or services.

Unblock websites secret No: 5  Imagine putting an interactive product presentation on your webpage. Tell your story in your own voice with animated graphics and video.

Unblock website secret No: 6 You are capturing vital customer input at the most critical point in the sales cycle; while they are emotionally involved and interactively engaged with your product information.  They are, in effect, qualifying themselves as they move through your presentation. As their input is noted and saved, your presentation branches in new directions, directly addressing their needs and interests.

Unblock website secret No: 7  Based on their input, you deliver them to the appropriate page for taking an order, asking additional questions or requesting a follow-up call. Their unobtrusive interactions with the presentation can capture all the data that you need to fully qualify or disqualify them as potential prospects.

Unblock website secret No: 8   Join a social networking sites to do business networking.

Unblocking website secret No: 9   Learn the art of  "Online collaborated marketing" whereby one can collaborate and leverage from each other to drive even more business for one another.

This technology is available today for very low cost and only requires that you have a creative mind or rather to unblock your mind to think outside the fixed paradigm. If you would like to increase the number of customer you get from your existing website traffic, do register for free above to join my network.

Click here to check out the various types of collaboration tools to unblock the traffic to your website.