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Ways Your Website Should Be Perfect to Avoid Losing Sales “I can see I’m dealing with a perfectionist here.” This is what a client said to me the other day when I pointed out a glaring error on her website that we had just launched for her, appearing after her assistant made an update. “Well of course!” I wanted to exclaim back, “aren’t you with your business?” Are you a perfectionist when it comes to your business? You should be! To me, being a perfectionist is a must when it comes to business success. If you’re not super picky about how you are being perceived by others and the quality of work you produce, then your business results will more than likely suffer. Let’s take your website as an example. Forget what the “gurus” tell you when they say to have at least something up, that it can always be updated later… at least have an online presence even if not perfect. I argue your website should be perfect. It needs to perfectly match your: Brand positioning Ideal clients’ needs If it isn’t perfect in these two areas, then you are losing sales. Keep reading to find out what I mean by that and then ask yourself what improvements you need to make to help increase your website conversions. Here’s 2 areas where your website needs to be perfect in order to avoid losing sales: 1. Brand Positioning Your brand is how you are perceived by those that are in contact with you on a daily basis, whether directly or indirectly. It’s the essence of who you are and what you stand for. On your website, the brand positioning comes through in its look and feel (design) as well as in the text and imagery (content) throughout the site. When a prospective client comes to your site, what is their first impression? What do they immediately know about you, your business and your products or services? Are they getting an immediate sense you are a professional they can trust with their hard-earned money? Not if your brand positioning is not done correctly. Here’s a couple of examples: If the design of your site looks home-made or a standard/typical/cheap WordPress theme, the statement you are making to your prospective client is something like, “I’m too cheap (or broke) to invest properly in a nice website.” And what does that prospective client think? “This person is either just starting out or is not really serious about their business.” And when that happens, the lower quality presentation tells them your prices should be low. Now you might be thinking this is a good thing where you’re appearing affordable, but think again! Unless you are purposely targeting the “cheap” crowd, you don’t want to be wasting your time on those that either can’t afford what you have to offer or want to barter a better deal because they don’t value what you provide. If your website has spelling / grammar errors, is poorly written, has broken hyperlinks or images that are either the wrong size or unsuitable, the message your prospective client is going to have is, “This person is clearly not very careful about their work. “ And you’ve lost them. End of story. The same applies to my initial client example. Even when you have gone through the time and expense of having a professionally designed and built website, ensure that it continues to look professional once you or your team starts going in and making updates. If things are added that are not congruent with your brand, it will reflect negatively with your ideal client when they come to visit your site. Bottom line: If your website is falling short of perfection in relaying your brand positioning, it’s time to make a proper investment in it and have one professionally designed and built for you. You will be amazed at how quickly new prospective clients will start to contact you once they trust you are a committed professional to your craft. And the only way they are going to get this assumption about you is through how your website is presented to them. 2. Ideal Clients’ Needs Another area that needs careful consideration, especially when it comes to your website, is ensuring it’s appealing to the right people. Do you know who your ideal client is? Do you even know what makes up an ideal client? If not, now is the time to find out! If the design, text and imagery on your website don’t match the expectations of your ideal target market, then you are missing the mark, and they are flocking over to your competitor’s websites. Guaranteed. Identifying the qualities that make up your ideal target market should be one of the very first things you do when coming up with your business and marketing plan: Who do you want to best work with? What is their gender? Age? Income bracket? Where are they geographically located? What industry are they typically in? What are they passionate about? This is an example of areas that need to be worked out so you know how to appeal to the right people on your website. You need to speak their language and identify with them through your website presentation. And once you go through this process, then you need to REALLY understand DEEPLY what their pain points are. What problem is your product or service going to solve for them? What struggles are they going through to help them understand you get them? If your ideal client was a 20-something millennial that loves the outdoors and is currently attending college and you are selling the perfect school app that would save them a tonne of time and effort, then you want to make sure your website is immediately telling them you have the perfect solution for their needs. If you are a 40-something tech geek that hasn’t seen past your computer monitor in months and the website you built appeals very much to you, then the odds are really good you are missing your target by a mile. Bottom line: Your website needs to appeal to your ideal target market, not you! The design, the imagery, and the text all needs to speak the same language as they and address the specific problems they are experiencing. Now I could probably list several other areas where I’d insist on perfection when it comes to your business, but we’ll save that for another article. For now, take a look at your website and ask yourself, is it perfectly reflecting you, your business, and your products or services? Is it perfectly appealing to your ideal client and market? Is it error free so you are perfectly positioned as a professional in your industry? If not, then let’s talk and see how things can be adjusted to get your website appealing to the right people so your business can grow to where you want it to. Have you been accused of being a perfectionist in your business? If so, good for you! Don’t be insulted if someone thinks you are striving for perfection in what you do. However, if that perfectionism is preventing you from getting anything done, that’s not good either! I’m talking about having pride of ownership in your business so you are perfectly positioned in front of your ideal target market, not allowing perfectionism to prevent you from taking the next step forward. Share below when a client has told you about your perfectionism, it’s time for you to brag about it instead of thinking it’s a dirty word!
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