Posted on Fri, Nov 19, 2010 @ 08:19 AM
[By Jeff Androsko]
There are two kinds of businesspeople out there... those who recognize the value of their website and utilize it as a sales communication tool... and those who treat it as the elephant in the room... ignoring it and telling themselves, "It's fine... it says exactly what people need to know about my company".
Guess what? If you're the latter, you're overlooking the most powerful technological sales invention in history (Yep... I said it... in history). To treat your website as a static brochure which only speaks about you and has no chance of getting found in any web search is going to have you coughing from the dust in which your competitors leave you.
I don't know if you've heard, but there's this thing called the internet (see also "interwebs", "the internets", "the onlines") that's completely revolutionized the way people grab information and make purchasing decisions. Without proper inbound marketing peripherals in place, you're missing out on the invaluable sales potential that your website can have. Don't understand how your website can become a virtual salesperson? Ask yourself these basic questions about your site:
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| Can you make edits/updates without paying someone? |
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| Can you track who is enjoying and interacting with the content on your entire site? |
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| Are all your pages optimized to ensure you get found in searches before your competitors? |
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| Do you promote special offers, products and services on a consistent basis? |
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| Does your audience have a reason to click past your home page? |
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If you answered "No" to even one of these questions, then you're not using your website's fullest sales potential. Using inbound tools and practices like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media, blogging, email marketing, public relations and fully developed analyzation tools can exponentially increase the amount of warm leads your website creates. But if you're going to ignore the inbound shift in sales and website-focused marketing, your website's shelf-life is going to diminish faster than you can say, "cold calls".