Turning your website into a money making machine

The business website can be a fantastic tool to help generate leads and make money these days, especially with platforms like WordPress making it so simple and easy to set up.

Most business websites begin their life as a brochure website, set up simply to communicate a business value proposition and build awareness of the brand.

Whilst brochure websites certainly have their place, the next evolution for a business website lies in turning it into a platform that creates actual business value, whether that is through lead generation or earned revenue.

In this blog post, we will cover some tips and advice on how you can turn your own business website into a money making machine.

First of all, make it easy for the user to convert.

One of the key differences between a brochure website and a lead generation or eCommerce platform is a heightened focus on conversion.

An understanding of the user’s journey needs to be carefully considered early on and then mapped out accordingly, in order to clearly navigate them towards an end goal.

Depending on your product and service offering, this may be anything from a download or sign-up to an online enquiry or purchase.

You can map out these key stages of their journey by identifying the various touchpoints in their experience.

Once achieved, clear signposting is essential, and not just on your homepage but on all internal pages throughout the website too – this ensures there are no dead ends!

By enforcing clear signposting you are directing the user towards an area where they can make a decision and ultimately convert.

Use your website to generate leads.

By evolving your website from a digital brochure to optimising it to generate leads is a sure way of achieving actual and measured business value.

The art of doing so however isn’t as simple as putting in a ‘buy now’ button.

There are lots of measures that can be taken from those that are easy to implement to those that can take considerable planning and effort. Some examples include:

• Online forms – A simple method of generating some initial leads could begin by adding forms to pages within the website that get the most traffic. This might be product or service pages, news and blog areas or potentially product reviews or case studies too.
• Content production – Producing content is another great non-invasive way of generating interest in your business. Whether it’s something quick and simple like blog posting or something a little more robust like an ebook or whitepaper, all can help position you as a thought leader and contribute to starting an online community.
• Live chat – Start by reviewing which pages visitors are spending most of their time on. These pages are great indicators of where to place a live chat feature.
• Online shop – If your business sells products then it is common sense to implement an online shop feature on your website. Technologies like WordPress have meant it has neve been easier to collect payment via the website, so there is no reason to avoid something that can deliver revenue at ease.

Build trust with the user.

Understanding the importance of social proof and being able to prove your value to your audience online is integral if you want to gain their trust.

The user is more likely to convert if they have been able to review a client testimonial, read a product review or experience a real life case study on your website.

Such features are an acknowledgement that your business is providing value to the customer and help to convey a deep and emotional connection to your company.

Lasting thoughts.

Whilst brochure websites certainly have their place, in order for your company to grow, your business website needs to begin to deliver actual value in the form of leads and revenue.

Doing so doesn’t necessarily require you to spend copious amounts of time and money, it all begins with an understanding of what the user requires before converting.

There are lots of things that can be introduced to help but it isn’t something that can be achieved overnight, it takes a long term strategic approach.

Leads and sales help to grow your business and following some of the tips above will help you to take advantage of every opportunity your website creates, without letting any visitors slip away!