Feb, 2017 : Do you Have a Customer Complete Website?
📅 - In today's online world, you have to keep your customers on your website or you could lose out to your competition. Giving the right information, entertaining, engaging and sparking a sense of loyalty makes a huge difference. Even with an ecommerce website, you have to provide what your visitors want or they will leave.
While some will try to tell you a 300-word homepage will get the job done, it's not exactly accurate. The first 300 words may be the most important, but it's not the length of the content that matters. Instead it's the message, the images, the videos and the layout that matter most.
If you have 300 non-convincing words you'll lose a visitor very quickly. In fact, if your first headline and first sentence don't get the job done, they won't stay. With that said, do you have a customer complete website?
What does Customer Complete Mean?
The phrase “Customer Complete” means you are providing everything your customer/visitor could possibly want without sending them elsewhere to find it. This means, if they have a question about a product or service, your website has the answer. It also means there is a way for the customer to get what they want and do it quickly.
Your navigation, purchase process, checkout and information pages all have to provide just what the customer needs. Any element that a customer would find important with your website is necessary, such as having a responsive design that works on all devices and providing more than just a logo for your company.
What Does Your Site Need?
There are several things you need when creating a website. Too often, small businesses try to do this cheaply or even for free, especially when it comes to graphics. All this will do is lead to the opportunity to fork over a large sum of cash to have it fixed in the future.
Your website needs to beat or at least compete with those in your industry and market. Look at the websites of your top competitors to get an idea of what they are doing well and what they are not doing so well. This will also help you give your website designer examples to work from.
You should even go as far as to purchase an item from your competitor. This will help you to see the entire shopping experience. You can judge, as the customer, whether you liked the experience or didn't like it. If it was good, incorporate similar elements into your website. If it was bad, make sure your process is better.
Do you Need a Blog?
At this point in the game, this really should be laughed off as a silly question, but it's too important to laugh about. You need a blog and not just a page entitled “Blog” with one or two super old posts on it. No, you need an active blog with new content at least once a week, more likely, two, three or even five times a week.
Your blog allows you to target long-tail keyword phrases for better search engine optimization, communicate with your customers and audience, share relevant information on social media and market to those visiting your website. Think of it this way; your website with 5 to 7 pages is a 10-inch net you are casting into the ocean, when you add a blog, that net grows by an inch or two every single time you put up a new post. Would you rather have a 10-inch net to catch fish in the ocean or a 100-inch net that continues to grow?
Do you Need Other Forms of Technology?
Outside of a blog, you may need video, podcasts or even webinars to make your website complete. It really depends on your industry and what your customers want. Remember, becoming “Customer Complete” is all about the customer and not what you think is cool.
Podcasts may be great for some websites, but a waste of time for others. Video can be powerful for just about any website, but it may need to be used in a different way for a more informational based website compared to an ecommerce website. Using webinars may work for some, but not so much for others.
Make sure you know your technology and what fits best with your industry. Again, your competition will help you by showing you what they use and what's working for them.
Other Things to Consider
If you truly want to make your website customer complete, you need to consider your industry. Here are a few more things you might need to complete your website:
FAQ page
Knowledge base
Live Chat Support
Customer forum
Glossary of industry terms
Customer ratings for products
There may be other things you need, as well, but this is a good start.
Use Your Website/Blog as a Resource
One of the most powerful ways to keep customers on your website longer is to use your own website/blog as a resource. It's easy to want to link to a page selling a product or service, but don't forget about that blog post you write five weeks ago. It might be the perfect resource to link to in your new blog post.
In addition, if you have a large knowledgebase or glossary, you can link to those pages whenever it's relevant. By doing this, you put the right information directly in front of your audience. They only need to click a link and they can find exactly what they want. It doesn't get much more customer complete than that.
While some will try to tell you a 300-word homepage will get the job done, it's not exactly accurate. The first 300 words may be the most important, but it's not the length of the content that matters. Instead it's the message, the images, the videos and the layout that matter most.
If you have 300 non-convincing words you'll lose a visitor very quickly. In fact, if your first headline and first sentence don't get the job done, they won't stay. With that said, do you have a customer complete website?
What does Customer Complete Mean?
The phrase “Customer Complete” means you are providing everything your customer/visitor could possibly want without sending them elsewhere to find it. This means, if they have a question about a product or service, your website has the answer. It also means there is a way for the customer to get what they want and do it quickly.
Your navigation, purchase process, checkout and information pages all have to provide just what the customer needs. Any element that a customer would find important with your website is necessary, such as having a responsive design that works on all devices and providing more than just a logo for your company.
What Does Your Site Need?
There are several things you need when creating a website. Too often, small businesses try to do this cheaply or even for free, especially when it comes to graphics. All this will do is lead to the opportunity to fork over a large sum of cash to have it fixed in the future.
Your website needs to beat or at least compete with those in your industry and market. Look at the websites of your top competitors to get an idea of what they are doing well and what they are not doing so well. This will also help you give your website designer examples to work from.
You should even go as far as to purchase an item from your competitor. This will help you to see the entire shopping experience. You can judge, as the customer, whether you liked the experience or didn't like it. If it was good, incorporate similar elements into your website. If it was bad, make sure your process is better.
Do you Need a Blog?
At this point in the game, this really should be laughed off as a silly question, but it's too important to laugh about. You need a blog and not just a page entitled “Blog” with one or two super old posts on it. No, you need an active blog with new content at least once a week, more likely, two, three or even five times a week.
Your blog allows you to target long-tail keyword phrases for better search engine optimization, communicate with your customers and audience, share relevant information on social media and market to those visiting your website. Think of it this way; your website with 5 to 7 pages is a 10-inch net you are casting into the ocean, when you add a blog, that net grows by an inch or two every single time you put up a new post. Would you rather have a 10-inch net to catch fish in the ocean or a 100-inch net that continues to grow?
Do you Need Other Forms of Technology?
Outside of a blog, you may need video, podcasts or even webinars to make your website complete. It really depends on your industry and what your customers want. Remember, becoming “Customer Complete” is all about the customer and not what you think is cool.
Podcasts may be great for some websites, but a waste of time for others. Video can be powerful for just about any website, but it may need to be used in a different way for a more informational based website compared to an ecommerce website. Using webinars may work for some, but not so much for others.
Make sure you know your technology and what fits best with your industry. Again, your competition will help you by showing you what they use and what's working for them.
Other Things to Consider
If you truly want to make your website customer complete, you need to consider your industry. Here are a few more things you might need to complete your website:
FAQ page
Knowledge base
Live Chat Support
Customer forum
Glossary of industry terms
Customer ratings for products
There may be other things you need, as well, but this is a good start.
Use Your Website/Blog as a Resource
One of the most powerful ways to keep customers on your website longer is to use your own website/blog as a resource. It's easy to want to link to a page selling a product or service, but don't forget about that blog post you write five weeks ago. It might be the perfect resource to link to in your new blog post.
In addition, if you have a large knowledgebase or glossary, you can link to those pages whenever it's relevant. By doing this, you put the right information directly in front of your audience. They only need to click a link and they can find exactly what they want. It doesn't get much more customer complete than that.
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