“Who Is this Man and Why is He Saying Such Terrible Things About Your Website?”

June 13, 2011 - PRLog -- I haven’t seen such a bland, boring and downright rubbish looking website since I ordered that VCR to DVD converter in 1998!”

Those were the words of a struggling heating engineer as he handed me money to learn why his website wasn’t working.

He was talking about one of MY websites and was, for the most part, entirely right…

The question is, why did he then go and change his website to look almost EXACTLY the same as mine?

The reason is simple, my website did something his didn’t:

Deliver a consistent flow of new customers every single day!

You see most people in the heating industry think about their website in entirely the WRONG WAY!

Your website is not a place to ‘plop’ up your opening times, list of products and services and talk about ‘brand values’.

It is certainly not a place to whack a massive, fancy and self indulgent logo that cost you thousands of pounds to have made by someone who has no idea how to sell.

Its real purpose is very simple: to act as a gateway to your business by giving visitors a compelling reason to share their contact information with you.

Why?

Well, let me ask you a question: would you pay good money to attract an ideal prospect, then let them come to your place of business while there was nobody there, make no attempt to find out what they wanted, let them make their own uninformed decisions about what you do and don’t do then let them leave without making any attempt to find out who they were?

Of course not – and here’s the cold, hard truth!

Over 90% of websites I see make this fundamental mistake.

Your website is just like any other advertising media; you have to pay to get people to look at it. And unless you do certain things, you might as well take your hard earned money, tear it up and flush it down the loo!

Here are three ways to make sure that doesn’t happen:

1. Replace your logo with a compelling, benefit filled headline.

You’ve got just a few seconds, to grab the attention of your website visitor and show them why they should stay.

That’s the job of your headline.

The way to make it work is to appeal to as many psychological triggers as possible, the most simple of which is focusing on solving a problem.

People don’t care about how their heating works, how you’re going to fix it or how long you’ve been in business; all they want to know is: if they give you some money, will you fix their heating problem so they don’t feel cold?

The first thing your headline should do is tell your prospects exactly that. Something like:

“Fed Up Feeling Cold Because Your Heating Isn’t Right?

Which leads me to…

2. Offer something FREE in exchange for visitors’ contact details.

Giving something away will often increase response to your advertising by 100%, 200%, 300%, even as much as 634% or more! That means as many as 6 or more times new customers for the same advertising expense!

Your freebie can be anything from a consultation or quote, to a short informative report/CD/DVD called something like “How to Avoid Getting Ripped-Off by a Heating Engineer – The Insiders Guide”.

Freebies are important for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they remove any risk the client may associate with contacting you; why wouldn’t you go for it if its free?

Secondly, everybody loves a freebie, especially if it will help them solve a problem and a proportion of prospects will go for it simply out of interest.

Thirdly, it gives you a big advantage over your competition as most heating engineers and installers still haven’t worked out the power of the word FREE.

3. Follow up with your prospects in as many ways as possible.

Response develops through follow up.

There are a million and one distractions in life that could cause a hot prospect to forget about you and spend money elsewhere.

By simply staying in contact at least once a week by email, direct mail and other media you can build rapport and remain at the top of your prospects consciousness.

After all, people buy from those they know, like and trust.

Therefore, you need to present yourself as an individual, a friend and a trusted advisor.
NOT a faceless company that hides behind a pretty logo.

The job of your follow up campaigns should be to communicate certain things about you that will create empathy with your audience.

The best way to do this is to explain to your prospects that you understand their problems, how painful they are and how badly they need them fixed.

Then all you need to do is present yourself as the solution.

There is no need to hard sell; because you’ve taken the time to understand their problems, not just try and swindle them out of some cash, your prospects will have often already decided they want you.

I know this advise is fairly controversial, but try to tell me something great that has ever been accomplished by somebody saying “that’s not for me” – I doubt that you can.
Success comes from finding ways to make ideas work for you. Any idiot can make a list of the reasons why something won’t work.

Genius lies in finding the ways something will work.