Business Web Site Strategies

1. Tricks to Selling Your Services On the Internet
   
2. How to Sell from Your XSitePro Web Site

1. Tricks to Selling Your Services On the Internet

- by Andrea Wilson

We all know that Web sites sell products very successfully, but many of us are service providers and our services don't sell for $19.95 or even $199.95! Visitors to our Web sites know they'll be spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars if they purchase our services... not a sum of money they'll quickly whip out their credit card to spend. So, what's a service provider to do?

Pre-selling the Customer

According to marketing expert, Bob Serling, the trick to selling services online is to make it a two-step process (step one is where you sell the customer something inexpensive first, step two is where the customer buys your services).

But you don't always have to sell something as the first step. And step one doesn't have to be exactly the same for every one of us.

Note: You must test the following ideas, because one of them will appeal to your visitors more than the others. Don't confuse visitors with too many choices. Instead, rotate your offers until you find what works best for your business. If a visitor is confused, they'll likely choose to do nothing.

The number one rule in online marketing is "always capture your visitor's email address." So, for every idea below, obtaining the visitor's email address should be part of your process!

Here Are Some Proven "First Step" Ideas

1. Write a regular newsletter or tip sheet. This is something you should do regardless of whatever else you offer your visitors.
   
   
2. Offer a free estimate.
   
   
3. Offer a free consultation. Make it less than one hour in length or you may find yourself booked up with free consultations with no time for billable hours!
   
   
4. Ask visitors to download a free report.
   
   
5. Invite visitors to a series of free conference calls. As well-known marketer, Michael Port says, "Always have something to invite people to."
   
   
6. Suggest that visitors subscribe to your autoresponder series. Make the title compelling: "How to double your productivity in 30 days or less," "Ten easy steps to landing your ideal job," etc.
   
   
7. Sell visitors a report, booklet or ebook for less than $20. But don't give away all your secrets! As Jimmy D. Brown says, give them "useful, but incomplete" information.
   
   Note: This is the kind of "step one" that Bob Serling specifically advocates. It nicely pre-qualifies your customers... if they're willing to spend a little money now, they'll likely be willing to spend more later.
   
   
8. Offer paid membership to a forum or private section of your Web site. Be cautious with this offer, as you'll need to commit your time and energy into participating in the forum or keeping the information in the private section fresh and useful.
   
   
9. Invite visitors to read your blog and add a RSS feed to their desktop. If you have an entertaining writing style, live an interesting life, or often come up with useful ideas, this can work very well. Don't make every blog entry a sales pitch, but do add links to your main site, share case studies, review affiliate products, etc.
   
   
10. Add content to social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Squidoo, etc.), especially if your market is young adults or Internet marketers (who tend to be more Internet savvy -- they should be anyway!). Your reason for doing this is to bring visitors to your main site from these social networking sites. They'll already know you a little from "meeting" you on Facebook or YouTube so they'll be pre-qualified by the time they arrive on your site. You'll also boost your credibility, get some exposure and show that you're abreast of the times.
    
    
11. Partner with a colleague who offers a complementary service or products (i.e., they serve the same market, but they're not in competition with you). Cross-promote each other in your ezines and on your Web sites. Your colleague's customers trust them and will follow their suggestions... and vice versa.
    
    For some service businesses, the list of potential partners is almost endless. As a Web designer specializing in small and home-based businesses, I could partner with almost anyone offering products or services to entrepreneurs: graphic designer, print shop, hosting company, software developer, accountant, business coach, etc.
    
    
12. Create a sticky Web site. Write useful (but incomplete!) articles, offer an online questionnaire, survey your visitors or ask their opinion, add updated content to your site often. Basically, provide something that "engages" visitors and gives them a reason to come back.
    
    
13. Offer your articles to ezine editors for free as long as they keep your contact information intact (including a link to your Web site!). People feel good when they find your Web site this way. And because they aren't coming to your site "cold," you have a better chance of turning them into customers.

Still No Sales? Here's What to Do...

What if the two step process isn't working. What if you've tried all these ideas, and visitors to your Web site are still reluctant to spend money on your services?

Sometimes customers need to get used to spending a moderate amount of money with you before they'll agree to buying your more expensive services. You might find, in this case, that a three step process is required. So you'll need to add a "step two" into the pre-selling stage. Here's what that looks like...

In the course of writing your newsletter, tip sheet, autoresponder series, reports, etc., offer your customers a service or product for around $200 (you'll need to test the price that works best for your market), such as a personal consultation, audio/video product, home study course, software application, etc. Don't forget to mention this on your forum, membership site, blog, etc.

Other Online Methods to "Warm Up" Visitors to Your Web Site

1. Get interviewed on Internet radio as an expert in your field. There are often last minute slots to fill on radio programs. Contact radio hosts in your market niche and offer them a commission on any sales made through their radio program. (I won't get into the technical aspects of tracking affiliate-type sales here, but it's not hard.)
   
   
2. Get reviewed by well-known Internet marketers. Offer them a substantial commission. (Sometimes the big guys promote someone whose services they believe in just out of the goodness of their hearts. If you attract their attention this way, be prepared! They can send a lot of visitors to your Web site overnight.)
   
   
3. Not always an easy task to achieve, but the sites that come up first in the Search Engines, have the most credibility. Work with your Web designer or an accredited search engine optimization company to see if you can dominate the top twenty or so keywords in your niche market. Some markets are so competitive that this might be virtually impossible, but you won't know until you try.
   
   
4. Use keyword phrases in your Google AdWords ads. (When someone types in "web design vancouver bc" and an ad for Able Webs comes up in the Google ads with exactly that title, the person is likely to click on the link. When they reach my Web site, they're already prepared to receive my message.)
   
   
5. Deliver regularly scheduled marketing messages via an RSS feed. This will help you to stay in contact with your prospects and warm them up.

Marketing on the Internet is a fascinating undertaking. While trends come and go and sometimes things appear to be changing daily, most of the ideas in this article have stood the test of time. For instance, blogs may come and go, but writing good content will always be an effective way to market yourself online.

About the Author

Andrea Wilson is the owner of Able Webs, a Web design company in Vancouver, B.C. Andrea has lots of tricks up her sleeve to help you sell your services online. Phone 604-526-4397 or visit Andrea online at http://www.ablewebs.com/ and http://www.xsiteprodesigns.com/.

2. How to Sell from Your XSitePro Web Site

- by Andrea Wilson

I recently built an XSitePro template for a massage therapist. When he saw the template, he was thrilled. I was pleased, of course, but didn't expect to hear anything more because he was the client of a business associate, not my direct client.

My associate did the copywriting and search engine optimization for the site, basing the SEO on the same principles found in James Schramko's XSP Cheat Sheet.

Today my associate called me to say she'd been trying to get hold of the client for a few days to okay some changes he'd asked her to do. Turns out he'd been too busy to get back to her because the response from the Web site was so great he'd had to hire two more massage therapists!

Now, here's the clincher... he'd had a Web site for several years prior to this and never made a single penny from it. What was the difference? Much as I'd love to think my gorgeous XSitePro template was the answer, truthfully it all hinged on one thing: choosing the right keyword phrase to optimize the site for.

Instead of talking about his education and throwing around all kinds of medical jargon about muscles and ligaments and stuff, which is what the original site focused on, my associate focused instead on the keyword phrase "pain relief."

And how did my associate know what to optimize the site for? She simply asked the owner of the clinic why people came for a massage and his answer was "pain relief."

You want to know something interesting? At this point, the traffic to the site had not increased at all, but now the people who landed on the home page saw immediately what they wanted to see: PAIN RELIEF! They didn't see anything about how many years the massage therapists had spent in school, or the names of all the muscles in the back.

If you say you can relieve their pain and your Web site looks half way professional, people won't be reading your biography; they'll be picking up the phone to make an appointment! And that's exactly what happened.

It's all about the benefits.

People don't buy a Lexus because of its superior technology. They buy it for the way other people perceive them, for the prestige. They might justify their purchase with logic later, but first, it's all about the emotions. Beside a huge photo of an incredibly beautiful Lexus, it says, "Now you can be seen in something stylish every day."

If you asked yourself why people come to your business, what one phrase would you use? What would it say beside a photo of you or your product? Remember, it's all about the benefits. Ask yourself what problem are your customers trying to solve or avoid (money, pain, frustration) or what void are they trying to fill (loneliness, low self-esteem, lack of knowledge)?

By the way, if you sell a product or service that fills a void, you're laughing because people's voids are never filled. How many cookbooks do cooks own? How many ebooks do Internet marketers buy? How many lipsticks do women own? Our need for things that fill up our personal voids is insatiable.

About the Author

Andrea Wilson is the owner of Able Webs, a Web design company in Vancouver, B.C. Andrea has lots of tricks up her sleeve to help you turn a profit online. Phone 604-526-4397 or visit Andrea online at http://www.ablewebs.com/ and http://www.xsiteprodesigns.com/.