It’s no hidden fact that designing and building an effective website is probably one of – if not the most important – aspect to running a successful, results-driven business. 

Many websites however lack that all important strategic direction and functionality, when it comes to reaping in the ‘returns’. A website should function as a source of leads and revenue, not just an online brochure.

Reasons for Limited Investment Returns

Steven Leung says that there are three primary reasons why websites fail to bring in a profit:

1. Difficulty in finding through search engines – According to Nielsen, 70% of consumers use search engines to find local businesses. Sadly, many site owners focus too heavily on their websites’ ‘look and feel’ and not enough attention on search engine ranks.

2. There is no call for immediate action – Similarly, if there is no call to action (lead them to a purchase page, contact us etc), visitors will immediately go elsewhere. If this is happening frequently, it can be quite damaging to your company. All visitors are a potential lead and all leads are potential customers.

3.  The site isn’t strong enough for referrals – A majority of visitors will generally refer the site to a friend if they are impressed with it. It is no longer enough just to get people to visit. Ensure your website is convincing enough and merits a referral.

So how do you avoid these mistakes?

Follow Leung’s 5 C’s to generate leads and increase your revenue.

1. Create. Providing quality content on your website will assist visitors in making decisions, whether it be on purchasing a product or using a service. Remember to consider search engine functions and ensure your company is easy to find.

2. Compel. After visitors have read the content on your site, they should feel compelled to take further action. Whether this is signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase (hopefully it is the latter!). Ultimately, this should be your primary goal.

3. Collect. The visitor must first trust your website enough to allow you to collect their contact details. This way, you have obtained a lead which you can now follow up on. Be weary of requesting too much information as some people will either resent the intrusion or get bored and leave the page.

4. Count. Ensure you are clear on what factors are working for your website and which are not. Count and measure your website’s successes in order to reveal what needs improving and what is achieving profits.  

5. Change. Be open-minded enough to adapt to changing market conditions in order for you to stay ahead of your competition. Allow your website to be adaptable should you require any repositioning of your products and services offered. 

Use these points to build a productive and profitable website to ensure your business stays ahead of the online game and reaps in those deserving rewards!

We have just received an interesting alert from lawyers Barnes & Thornburg, thanks to the initiative of one of our very proactive clients – thank you Gordon New, Managing Director at Ronson Gears!

The news will be particularly relevant to a number of our clients, with offices in Asia and the Middle East for example, and relates to new developments on internationalised domain names (IDNs).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has begun accepting requests from leaders around the world for new Internet extensions that represent their country name.

Currently, domain names only consist of characters from the Latin alphabet (a-z letters, 0-9 numbers and hyphens), whereas the new system would include the use of non-Latin characters.

This new development will provide opportunities for countries and territories to utilise country-code domains in their own language, such as Arabic, Chinese or Hindu.

These new additions are anticipated to become available to several countries over the next year.

Already, the Egyptian Minister of Communication, Tarek Kamel, has stated that Egypt will open the world’s first Arabic language Internet domain, using the Arabic words, “misr” meaning “egypt”.

Although overall acceptance of the IDNs is still tentative, Barnes & Thornburg have cautioned that this new development could provide further opportunities for cybersquatters to hold brand owners’ domain names to ransom.

David A. W. Wong from Barnes & Thornburg advises that, “The new IDNs are fertile ground for cybersquatters. Brand owners that have, or intend to have, an international presence should consider proactively registering new relevant IDNs before a cybersquatter or domainer does the same.”

Thanks to Gordon New and the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) for sending this information through.