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Part II
3 Ways to Use Your Website to Establish Relationships with Customers.

At the Search Engine Strategies Conference I capitalized on the opporutnity to ask the Keynote speaker, Avinash Kaushik, a question while getting a copy of his book Web Analytics 2.0 signed.  I asked him, "What's the one thing small business websites with under 5000 hits/month should know or do for their websites?"  He pondered a moment and with an obvious mouthful to tell he condensed his answer to "Read chapter 4."

Well, having read Chapter 4 I now realize why Avinash couldn't elaborate succinctly.  Chapter 4 is a doozie, and the answer is "it depends," but I'm going to pass on to you what answers the needs of small business website.

First and foremost a huge misunderstanding by most small businesses is the simple concept their website is a marketing tool.  To most, their website are like their business card- it's one of those "I have a business" basics.  In the case of a traditinoal store, say a retailer like Macy's, they know precisely how many people walk through their store, how many through each entrance, and the number of sales made.  Some of these numbers may be samplings while others are exact metrics.  The same capabilities are true of your website... and more!  If no knowledge is had of these numbers then your website falls immensely short of its capabilities.

This was initally going to be a "5 Ways" list, but the truth of the matter is such lists are great reading, but far too few take them as action itmes.  By making this a "3 Ways" list it's hoped immediate comprehension and action can be made of each item.

3 Ways to Use Your Website to Attract Customers.

1. Understand your website as a marketing tool.
2. Use a web analytics tool to track visitors.
3. Set webite goals.

I'll delve into each...

Understand your website as a marketing tool.  This may seem like the easiest step, but it's really the most difficult.  Changing one's perceptions and ideals is not always an easy task, but it's absolutely necessary to fully utilizing your website.  And with this understanding only a simple consideration of your own behaviours is needed:  When looking for a new TV or a plumber in your neighborhood where do you turn? ...to Google .  So now consider that somone out there searched for "your product or service" and found a link to your site.  Did they click on it?  Did they read a few pages?  Did they contact you?  If you can't answer these questions, your challenge is to change your perceptions about what your website offers your small business.

Use a web analytics tool to track visitors.  So once you've embraced your website for it's marketing capabilities it's time to put your website to work.  And the first step to doing this is tracking your website visitors, and it's FREE.  Google, Yahoo!, and many others offer free tracking utilities.  It just requires putting a snippet of tracking code in each page and then you'll have graphs and charts about your visitors out the wahzoo.  The extreme importance of this is why Web-Kong now offers Google Analytics as part of all our Managed Website Presence packages!

Set website goals.  Imagine owning a fast food restaurant.  Chances are just about everyone who comes through the door orders something at the counter- and obvious goal.  Your website should be no different.  If someone comes to your site the opportunity presents itself to gain a customer or establish a relatinoship- such as saying: Sign up for one of our newsletters!.  As exemplified it doesn't necessarily have to be an online purchase.  It may just as likely mean having them sign up for a newletter or download a whitepaper.  Whatever it is though, your underlying goal should be to establish a sustaining relationship.

If your small business website isn't making online sales don't sell your business short believing your website is not revenue producing.  Every visitor of your website came looking for something.  Sure there are the occassional wanderers but you should be focused on capturing those looking for your product or service.  The tools to capture visitor clicks are readily available and deserve weekly analysis by someone in your organization.  Period.