Last week, I wrote a post about how building a website for your direct sales business this year could truly support your growth in every area of your business. Launching a website supports you as an individual within the context of your company’s broader brand, which increases your business reach. More and more direct sellers have learned this and built simple, effective websites to help them build their own personal brands. Today, I want to give you some more specific pointers on how to maximize your website so you get the greatest results from it. Most people make mistakes when building a website that can cost them money.
When all’s said and done, your website should showcase your products and encourage sales, booking, and recruiting. Today, I’m going to offer some suggestions that could help you to increase your turnover this year. None of the ideas in this article are complicated, and anyone could implement them with some basic research. Failure to take heed could mean you lose out to the competition. Nobody wants that to happen.
Improve Your Homepage
In most instances, your homepage is the first part of your website people encounter. That means you need to make it as informative and attractive as possible. You should include category links for all your products, as well as links to learn more about booking a party with you or joining your company. Your corporate website probably already has lots of great resources for you to link to (and most companies let you have your own personalized page on their corporate site).
You should also think about publishing a “get to know me” page (also known as your “about me” page). Try to keep your homepage simple, but make sure it has an impact on visitors. Make sure you check with your home office for guidelines on using their standard branding elements and logos, and get creative with your own personal brand within that company branding. It’s important that potential customers become familiar, not just with your products and company, but also with you and what makes your business unique.
Add Complete Product or Services Descriptions
Once you know what your company allows you to publish (links back to your corporate site, logos, etc.), you can set up informative, compelling content that grabs your visitor’s interest immediately. You need to make sure you offer accurate and in-depth descriptions of everything you offer (whether that’s your actual products or the chance to book a party or learn more about joining your team). If customers have to get in touch to seek more information, you will lose them. Most internet users are pretty lazy and they don’t want to work too hard to make a purchase or get more information. They will simply look elsewhere if you don’t present clear and concise information they can understand. Show your products and services to people and provide links to your home office purchasing site. Have a page dedicated to what they get when they book a party with you or schedule a time to chat about your opportunity (you could even give them the opportunity to book a party or that appointment right from your website using an affordable and easy to use online calendar management system like Timetrade). Once you start that conversation with them, you can follow up and begin to develop that all important relationship with them.
Install a Live Chat Feature
There is no getting away from the fact that some customers and clients will want to speak with you. You could provide phone numbers, but that means people have direct access to you and you often have to interrupt your life to answer the phone when a potential customer calls. It’s much more efficient for you to install a live chat feature. That allows people to contact you in real time as they are browsing your website. You can answer their questions and provide information in seconds. That should stop them from leaving your site and looking for an alternative consultant. Customer service is a fundamental element in any modern business. You need to get it right if you want to boost profits this year. One unhappy customer could share their experience with two others, and so on. Pretty soon your company could crumble.
Optimize Your Site for Search Engines
You’re going to need a lot of natural traffic to get the most from your website. That means you need to invest some time in learning the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so people can find you. In most instances, it’s wise to outsource the task to save time. However, people to begin with, just learning a few tricks of the trade makes it fairly simple to do yourself. You might even decide to invest in a course to really learn how to “do” SEO (here’s an example of one you may be interested in: www.simplilearn.com/digital-marketing/search-engine-optimization-seo-certification-training). With some online education, you can learn all the essential SEO techniques you need to drive traffic to your site at a time that suits you.
Run PPC Campaigns
Once you’re up and running with your website, you’ll want to consider running PPC campaigns to drive relevant traffic to your site. Today, most people use Google Adwords because it produces significant results. It’s also simple to understand, and so anyone can make a start. However, there are many alternatives if you don’t want to use that platform. Just do a little research to determine which solution might offer the best results for you. You could also outsource this task if it seems too complicated. There are thousands of professionals who specialize in PPC campaigns these days. You just need to contact someone with a good track record.
Get Your Social Media ON!
Social media websites have become one of the best tools available for direct sellers today. If you’re not taking advantage of social media, you’re missing out on reaching a wide enough audience for your business to really grow online. The process of getting started is simple, and there are plenty of free guides online. It should take no longer than a couple of minutes to create your pages and start posting updates. For the best results, you need to publish interesting and informative posts that require interaction. Get curious and ask questions about what customers think of your products. Even with Facebook limiting traffic from business pages, if you’re smart and not too “sales-ey,” you can use your personal profile to share your business.
Build Your Email List and Send Regular Emails to Your Mailing Lists
You’ll want to have a way to capture your visitor’s information on your website. Most email providers (like Mailchimp) will give you a simple link people can use to subscribe to your list and you can post that on your home page. You can even offer a valuable, free, informative gift to those who opt into your list (you can see my offer below and subscribe to my list if you haven’t already). You should also save your customer’s contact details whenever they make a purchase. It then becomes easy for you to reach them when you have customer specials, kit specials, open bookings, or news.
Send no more than one marketing email (where you’re selling something) each week, and reach out a second time with an informative, newsletter-type email at least every few weeks. That helps build a relationship with your list and tells them that you care about them and will reach out for more than just a sales conversation. If you log into Google Analytics, you should notice a spike in traffic whenever you send an email. The guys at www.dreamgrow.com/20-tips-to-grow-your-mailing-list/ say that growing your list is simple when you follow this strategy. Just make sure each of your marketing emails contains an option for people to unsubscribe. That’s best industry practice (and you don’t want people on your list who don’t want to hear from you anyhow – so don’t take it personally).
I hope you’ve learned something from this post. Just remember, the key to success is increasing your education and reading articles like this. All the information you could ever need is freely available online. You just have to put some time aside to learn the best strategies and put them into practice.
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Julie Anne Jones is a direct sales corporate consultant, coach, and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.
