Guest Blogger
Please forgive me in advance if this sounds rude, but are you hiding from your customers? The gut reaction is probably something along the lines of “no of course not! What a dumb question. I would never hide from my customers.”
I’d like to challenge that notion for a moment if you’ll let me. Let’s do a quick experiment. It’ll only take a minute or two.
Step 1. Grab a notepad and a writing utensil or open up your favorite word processor.
Step 2. Quickly make a list of the different ways a current or potential customer may arrive at your site.
Here’s a couple I came up with for one of my sites off the top of my head: Search engine, Social network profile, Direct referral (I told them to do so), Indirect referral (a current client, past client, or friend told them do so), Business card, Email newsletter.
Your list may be twice as long or half as long, for the purpose of this experiment it doesn’t matter.
Step 3. Imagine as if you were a brand new prospect visiting your site for the first time via each of the sources on your list.
Answer the following question: True or false: If I’m interested in the products or services offered on this site, there are multiple ways to reach out.
We hide from our customers when we don’t offer them a wide variety of avenues to reach out. It’s like we’re sabotaging our own chances of success.
Some people prefer email
Is your company email displayed on your website? How often is it displayed? Are individual emails displayed for different people within the company?
Some people want to pick up the phone
Do you have a phone number and if so is it easy to find? One thing that we do at Sparkplug Digital is put an 800 number at the top of our site so it won’t be missed.
Some people like to Tweet
Is your Twitter handle somewhere on your site? How many pages is it on? How can a customer follow you or send an @reply if your Twitter account is hard to find?
Some people need to communicate in real time
It’s a mystery as to why more sites aren’t embracing live chat solutions. I recommend checking out Zopim (the entry level option is free).
Some people just want to leave a message
Is there a contact page where a visitor can leave a message?
Some people like to help
There’s no such thing as bad customer feedback. GetSatisfaction and KISSinsights are two choices worth looking into.
Some people want to leave a comment
Do you have a blog? Are you updating it regularly? Is the content relative? Are the comments on? If any of these questions can be answered with a no it needs to be fixed immediately.
Some people aren’t ready to buy
As a site owner your objective is to convert as many visitors as possible into customers. The reality is that some people take longer than others in the sales cycle. In other words, not everyone is ready to become a customer immediately. For these visitors, your mission shifts from closing them as a customer to capturing them as a lead. For most of us this means grabbing a name, an email address, and sometimes a phone number. In order for this to happen you have to give visitors a reason to part with this information. An eBook, email newsletter, whitepaper, exclusive video, or infographic is a smart place to start.
Step 4. Analyze and improve
By now you’ve identified at least one, but likely many different ways in which you’re hiding from customers. Take a good hard look at your site and try and view it from the unbiased view point of a first time visitor.
If you’re a regular practitioner of inbound marketing (SEO, social media, email, all that good stuff), than hopefully your site is receiving new visitors on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter if it’s thousands, hundreds of thousands, or less than a hundred unique visitors a month. Use that traffic to your advantage by conducting experiments to see what resonates. The point here is to maximize the traffic you’re currently getting to encourage visitors to get in contact.
Are you hiding from your customers? The bad news is that the answer is almost always a yes. The good news is that it can be fixed.
About the Author: Dan Mckee is a Senior Social Media Consultant for Sparkplug Digital an online marketing agency that helps companies plan and execute effective SEO, PPC, and social media campaigns.
