Websites are easy to neglect.  I mean, they don’t really do anything except:

• Announce to the world that you’re a legitimate business.
• Give your visitors a place where they can make a purchase.
• Promote your products, company, and brand.

Oh, yeah.

Except for the initial out lay of cash, (the monthly fees to maintain your site are probably nominal) your website is easy to forget and neglect.

For many business owners the time consuming task of an effective content marketing campaign that includes, emails, newsletters, blog posts, Facebook updates and more…has turned your website into the taken-for-granted partner in your business relationship.

In fact, social media can keep you so busy that it’s easy to forget that the whole point is not to make more friends, but to make friends with purchasing power (i.e., friends with benefits).

Converting “Likes” into $$$$

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ are all free services that present entrepreneurs and small business owners with a tantalizing opportunity to save money on their marketing budget…. but saving money isn’t the same as making money.

To make a profit, you need to be able to convert “friends,” “likes,” and site “visitors” into paying clients and customers.

How?

Ask for the sale…eventually.

Working Social Media the Right Way

If you’re in a service oriented businesses like wealth management or life coaching, you need to think of each social media outlet as a different social club.

Within each social club there are committees that meet for specific purposes.

Thinking about social media in this way will help you appropriately tailor the conversation.

So for example, LinkedIn is a social club for professionals.

Within this club there are different committees or groups.

Like at any club in the actual world (versus the virtual one) you’d never walk up to a group of people and blurt out, “Hey let me prepare your taxes!”

No, you’d introduce yourself first; get to know a few key members, listen, and become part of the conversation.

Be careful not to just talk “at” members and don’t be too boastful.

Your contribution should be confident, authoritative, and meaningful to your group members…because after all it isn’t about you.

Over a short period of time, those relationships can turn into referrals, and those referrals can turn into clients and dollars for you. 

Where Do Your Clients Go to Get the Full Story About You?

And guess where most of your referrals are going to go before considering doing business with you?

Your website.  

On all of the social media outlets you have an area where you can put an abbreviated synopsis about you, your company, and your service.  But for service providers especially, a potential client will go to your website to get the full story.

Why? Because when you’re providing services that have to deal with emotional hot-buttons like investing, buying or selling real estate, or even life coaching most people want to do a little research. They want to be assured that they are making the right decision.

Your website is the greeter at the door to your business and you use it as part of your sales funnel.

So where’s your call to action? Do you have a clearly placed opt-in for your newsletter?  A box with an attractive operator saying, “Let me know how I can help.”  Or is your site unresponsive and outdated?

Your website is the hub of the wheel in your online marketing efforts. So don’t treat it like an after-thought.

Instead make sure that your website is:

1. Customer focused.  Remember, it’s not about you.
2. That it clearly and simply tells people what your business is and how you can help them.
3. Is attractive.

But don’t stop there!  Make your website fit synergistically with your social media campaigns by:

1. Writing in the first person. Web content today needs to be both informative and shareable.
2. Have a mobile ready version of your site.

Krista Magidson is the Chief Content Creator for Boutique Marketing Group. If you’d like a free 30 minute content review of your website, contact her today at km@nullboutiquemarketinggroup.com or call 310-529-9294. There’s no obligation

Krista helps small and medium sized businesses:
Get clarity on their marketing message, attract their ideal clients, customers, or patients to their business or practice, and create elegant and effective content for their websites, email campaigns, newsletter, brochures, videos, and more…

Krista Magidson