Upgrade your non-sales Web pages

Upgrade your non-sales Web pages

Free stuff can help you sell product on you Web site, but there is a catch. The free stuff has to be really, really good. I learned just how important this is by accident. In my programs, I include a short segment on how to negotiate when buying a new car. People would forget key points and I got a lot of phone calls of the “tell me again what you said about...” variety. On my Web site, I included a page with the basic information so people could go there rather than call me. It worked; the phone calls stopped.

I started using Google Analytics and discovered that many people came to the car buying page directly from search engines. I knew that the car buying page was okay as a follow-up but that it was not really a good stand-alone article. However, I figured that the people coming directly to the page were not my customers, I was busy and it was good enough. A couple of months ago I decided it was time to bring the car buying page up to speed. As soon as I did, the bounce rate for the page declined and I saw a significant increase in product sales. It turns out that some of the people coming directly to that page were potential customers after all. The page just wasn’t good enough to entice them to buy my products.

When was the last time that you took a really good look at the free items on your Web site? Are they up to date? Do they reflect your current thinking? Are they your best work? People judge you by what they see, and what they see first is what you offer for free. Free has to be excellent. Good simply isn’t good enough.