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2. Products / Services
It is useful to have a separate page for each
product/service and write as much detail about each as possible.
Start each page with a brief summary of the product/service, then
provide whatever information you can. If the page appears too long,
you can always break it into more pages. When people are searching
for information on the internet, they want to know it NOW. They don’t
want to wait until tomorrow when they can speak to you on the phone.
The more information you can provide about your products/services, the
better.
3. Contact Us
Place contact details in as many places as
possible. Make it easy for your customers to contact you. Create a
special “Contact Us” page, include your details in “About Us” page and
also at the bottom of each page. Information to include: business
name, physical address, mailing address, telephone, fax, email,
emergency number, website address.
4. Pricing
Whenever possible include the price of your
products/services. Even if you can’t be specific. It is helpful to
put at least a range of prices, eg. Carpet cleaning ranges between $40
- $60 per room.
5. Testimonials / Product Reviews / Before &
After
Include testimonials from your current customer
to show your potential clients that you are trustworthy, reliable and
that you offer great service and/or products. Make sure the
testimonials are real and if possible provide contact details of the
person who supplied you with the testimonial. If you don’t have any
right now, get them! Simply email your customers and ask for their
feedback on your business and service. Most happy customers will
gladly provide this.
You could also include before and after
photos. Show the problem picture and beside it show the picture of
resolution, with an explanation of your product’s benefits.
6. Frequently Asked Questions
This has proven to be a great time saver for
many companies. Instead of having to answer the same questions over
and over again, place them on your website and keep adding to them.
The more information you have on your website, the less time you will
need to spend answering questions by email or phone.
Frequently Asked Questions should address your
customer’s concerns that may otherwise be an obstacle to making a
sale.
7. Response form such as “Subscribe” or
“Enquiry” form
An absolute must if you want to build a mailing
list. Most people don’t like giving out too much information, so ask
only the basics, such as Name and Email Address. Then keep in touch
with your customers on a regular basis by sending out information that
may be of interest to them. You may even wish to develop your own
on-line magazine (ezine). There are many fantastic free or
inexpensive programs that can handle this for you. We will discuss
these in more detail in future articles.
8. On-line Magazine or Newsletter
This is a great marketing tool. Not only does
it help you keep in touch with your customers, but provides your
website with fresh content. You can set up your Ezine in 2 different
ways:
1. Email subscribers on a regular basis or 2.
Publish it on your website. Or both. Include information about your
business, industry or anything that may be of interest to your
customers.
9. Resources/Articles
Add value to your business. Provide
information that is complementary to what you do. For example, if you
sell wedding dresses include information about reception venues,
wedding planners, wedding cakes, flowers. By adding extra information
you encourage more hits.
10. About Us
This is a very important page as it tells your customer about who you
are and why they should buy your products, services and/or trust your
organization. It can also feature your business hours (if you have a
bricks and mortar store) or when they can speak to someone live. Many
companies also include their mission or purpose on this page, details
of their staff (photos, biographies, qualifications), recently
completed projects. Other information to include: ACN or ABN, logo,
directions to your store/office.
11. Guarantee
Offer a money
back guarantee. The longer the guarantee, the more effective it will
be. It could be 30 days, 60 days, 1 year or lifetime.
12. Survey
Find out what
customers think about your website, business or product.
13. Events Calendar
This can relate
to your business or industry. If you are an artist, you can feature
dates where and when your art will be displayed or if you are a
singer, where you will be performing.
14. Search My Website Feature
Some visitors to
your side may not know exactly what they want but if you include a
search function on your site, they can look for it very easily. Like
search engines, this feature will allow your visitors to type in a
word or phrase and then search for it on your site. It’s like having
your own mini search engines, only instead of it searching the world
wide web, it just searches your website.
15. Return/Refund Policy
To make your
customers feel more comfortable when making a transaction at your
website, you should provide then with your return/refund policy.
Ensure it is easy to understand and spelt out step by step.
16. Privacy Policy
Privacy
continues to be a major issue for customers shopping online. Concerns
about how their information is going to be used is a major barrier
when making a sale. Internet shopping experience is built on trust
and privacy is the number one ingredient in trust.
17. Site Map
A site map is
similar to a contents. It shows visitors how the site is laid out and
which sections are where.
18. Copyright Information
Your website
should carry a copyright notice to protect its intellectual property.
It is generally in the form of “Copyright © 2004, Your Company Name”.
19. Links
Here you can
place links to the manufacturers of your products, trade associations
or complementary services. When you place links to other businesses,
you can request they do the same for you. This will not only bring
you more visitors, but may improve your search engine ranking
20. Media Information
Include any
information, articles, photos of your products, staff etc that have
appeared in the media – print, TV, radio or internet.
21. News
This can include
news about your products/services or about your industry.
22. On-line store
An on-line store
allows you sell products directly on the internet 24 hours a day/7
days a week. When building an online store it is important to take in
a number of key concepts.
- Make sure that
when visitors arrive at your store the navigational mechanisms are
simple and effective
- The actual
process of placing the order must be simple
- Make sure you
accept common and convenient methods of payment
- Continually
test your store so you understand your customer’s shopping experience
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