4 Signs of Money Wasting Websites
Whether you engaged a boutique web design agency for $20K+, or hired an offshore rookie on Upwork for $200, chances are you’re not happy with your website.
Sure, the CSS animations you paid through the nose for are fascinating to look at. If you’re the latter, perhaps you’re just ecstatic that you have a pretty website that you paid peanuts for (N.B. it’s probably a free Wix template with your logo on top).
Your website may look the part for you, but the reason you’re not happy is because your website is not making you any money, or not enough.
Granted, websites need to have appeal. Just like a girl at a cocktail bar, looks are important. However, it’s often the essential mistakes that businesses never consider when building their websites that is costing them dearly, leading to poor conversions and bad sales.
Here are 4 signs of money wasting websites, in hopes to spark some improvements on yours:
#1. Confusing header or above-the-fold
The “above-the-fold” section is that big obvious header image you see when land on any modern websites, usually with a text overlay.
In most cases, businesses are usually wasting this important piece of real estate for a photo gallery of sliding stock images (more on that later), or flood it with a “cute” tagline aimed at “inspiring” customers into buying from them.
The “Just Do It” and “Think Different” kind of vague language that worked in the 90’s.
Pretty images and inspiring two-word sentences don’t compel credit card activity. It’s important that you have a clear and compelling tagline that describes what you do as a business, and what customers will receive from it.
Try this: Get a 10-year-old to read your website header and ask the question “so, what do I do to make money?”.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a B2B, B2C, or anything in between, your customers requires this level of simplicity to give your products and services a standing chance.
#2. No Call-to-Action
You’d be amazed at how many multi-million dollar companies spend corporate dollars on websites without a single call to action. You know, the big red bright button at the centre of a website with bold text that says “BUY NOW” or “CALL US TODAY”.
Many businesses carry the logic, that if people are interested enough, they will take the time to scroll to the bottom of your home page for your contact page link, fill out a form with 10 fields, hit submit and loyally wait for a response.
Buddy, that’s a whopping 3 clicks away. In the digital world, 3 clicks is longer than The Great Wall of China.
Research shows that the human brain is naturally gravitated to a path that leads them to a tangible action. That means if you don’t show it to their face, there won’t be any action taken.
Leaving thousands of dollars on the table for the mere absence of one red button is just bad business.
Websites without a call-to-action is almost like telling people you’re not confident in your product.
So go on, put in that call-to-action button and start writing us cheque’s for the profitable advise.
#3. Too Much Self Talk
Let’s take a challenge: Print out the homepage of your website, get a red pen, and circle out every phrase where you mention about your company’s greatness, or uses of the words “we”, “our”, “us”.
99% of us won’t take the challenge, because you know it’s going to be confronting.
Equally confronting would be if we asked you to use a green pen to circle out how your website shows understanding of your customers problems, and how your products are going to benefit their lives.
In most cases, there would be way more red than green.
You get the point.
People will ignore your products unless you can clearly identify their problems, and come in with a irresistible solution, and to help them win the day.
Because at the end of the day, customer’s don’t just need a product or a service. The very core of their needs, lies a problem that requires a solution that they cannot do on their own, and need your help.
Maybe it’s time to not look for a new WordPress theme, but to really work on your copywriting.
#4. Lack of a step-by-step plan to success
Another feature you’ve see on modern websites would be some form of bite-sized product features or progress plans dressed up with vector icons, like this:
This feature is powerful because it’s simple, compact and progressive. The human brain is a big fan of it.
Sometimes we spend an entire day workshopping with clients to create their “3 step plan”. It’s that important. Surprisingly, most businesses overlook the power of crafting your customer’s journey for maximum results.
As mentioned above, people are naturally attracted to a path towards success, and they’re happy to take the journey provided they can see a successful resolution at the other end.
Take our industry for example, and we have certainly made this mistake, most marketing agencies would have laid the step-by-step plan like this on their websites:
This may sound like a conventional thing to do. Problem is, all this language merely articulates your business’s delivery process, not a pathway to customer success.
Your customers want to know what you’re going to give them. They couldn’t care less about how you do it.
For simplicity’s sake, they want results not a process.
An effective step-by-step plan, say for a financial planner, should look like this:
-
- Schedule an Appointment – to talk about your financial hopes and dreams
- Design & Deliver – a tailored-made retirement plan
- Achieve Financial Freedom – retired with more cash than you can spend and assets to pass on
Conclusion
There is a good reason why many sales people, such as Real Estate Agents, still have a job that pays well.
Their pockets aren’t lined by displaying an array of pretty homes. Rather, homes are sold based on powerful words that convince home buyers across the line. They’re speaking features and benefits, they’re solving problems, and they’re selling a lifestyle.
Where the rubber meets the road, customers have a problem that requires a solution. Your job is to be that solution.
So, stop selling the process, and start selling the end result.
You may be reading this blog, and have quickly come to the conclusion that you have been communicating incorrectly all this time, or have been focusing on the wrong elements of marketing that really matter.
You’re not alone.
Book a Discovery Call today to revolutionise your marketing and finally get RE$ULTS!