Regardless of what your website looks like, what platform you use to manage its content, or where it’s hosted, it shouldn’t be a “one and done” type of project. You need to incorporate your website into your marketing plan. It needs to play an active role in your business!

Listen here:

For many businesses, e-commerce is the content, so the obvious and most significant role is sales. E-commerce sites are the revenue generators.

You might be asking, “What if my site isn’t an e-commerce site? I’m not selling anything on it.”

That’s just it. Even if your site isn’t directly making sales, it should still be selling! After all a website doesn’t sleep. Why not have it working for you while you are. Why not have it working for you while you’re in meetings, on vacation, and meeting with your bookkeeper.

The work it should be doing is generating sales leads.

What your site says can make or break sales!

What your site says isn’t just text. It’s the imagery, layout, flow, and the call to action. It’s all of these pieces working together to achieve one thing–getting the visitor to interact with your business. This could be by signing up for your newsletter, joining a private community, registering for an event, downloading a resource, or getting in direct contact with you by phone or email.

Many websites fail to address the call to action, which facilitates the interaction. Informational sites are great, and every site should include valuable information that entices the visitors to return for more and position the site as a credible and important resource for them and hopefully one they share with others with similar needs. But, after they’ve consumed the information, they need another action to take. That action is to get in touch with you directly or demonstrate another level of interest, like signing up for your newsletter, joining a private community, registering for an event, or downloading a resource.

Don’t neglect your call to action. It should be driving visitors to interact with you, which will allow you to cultivate a relationship and demonstrate that you understand them and their needs.

In Conclusion

Your marketing plan will help you address all of the ways your site could assist you in sales, ecommerce or not. Tying in social media to drive traffic to your site helps but shouldn’t be the only place people and potential customers can interact with your business.

I know some excellent marketing professionals. If you do not have a marketing plan, please reach out to me so I can help you find the right professional to help you with that. After all, if you’re not making money, you’re not in business. We all need a plan.