Capture Customers and Leads
Do You Know Who Visits Your Website?
What does it mean for a website to "capture customers and leads"? It is about having a business website that encourages and gets prospects visiting your website to reveal themselves through an enquiry or quote request resulting in a sale.
In a physical store it is easier for sales staff to see a customer, then walk across the floor to help and guide them through to a purchase. The Internet is very different since potential customers can and often do choose to remain hidden.
Designing your website to encourage a response from visitors means the difference between "capturing" a great many more sales leads and customers versus very few.
Two Different Business Websites
All businesses should have a website, but it is important to know what type of website will be profitable. There are generally two types of business sites:
- Business brochure – a website designed to provide information about a business.
- Direct-response – designed to capture the attention of visitors and elicit a response
What you want to primarily achieve is a "direct response" website. As a business, the primary response you want is obviously a new customer or sale. Secondary to that might be a quote request or sales enquiry. And tertiary just general information seeking questions.
Understand, if your website fails to capture a response from prospects, then your time and advertising money is being wasted attracting visitors.
Well-Designed Site vs. Business Site
Website designers often focus on how pretty a website looks. They get a thrill over the latest snazzy features and tricks, some of which are really neat and awesome! It is the job of a designer to make things pretty.
But, if your website plays an important part of your business then how your website looks is quite superficial and secondary to its tactical purpose. For example, Amazon.com isn't the prettiest site, but they are the largest online retailer. Visit their website and you will see everything is designed to you—the visitor.
If capturing customers is important to your business then your website needs to focus more on getting responses and not simply looking nice. This is the difference between a well-designed website versus a well-designed business site.
Maximising Online Customers
To capture more leads, it is important to understand there are typically two types of visitors:
- Ready-to-buy – prospects who have a good idea of what they want and searching for the right business to buy from. They will normally phone or request a quote.
- Just looking – people interested in your offerings, but they are still researching or for whatever reason may not be fully prepared to buy or even make contact.
Many businesses will target the first looking to make a quick sale. This is great news for you, that is, if you do have a website designed to capture potential customers in the research phase of buying. Nurture them a little and you will increase your customers.
Get More Customers Online
Get started with us today or subscribe to our Web Marketing Guide via the form above to receive free guidance and implementable techniques in digestible emails.
