Seven Web Design Mistakes that Repels Your Prospect
(and makes the sales process grind to screeching halt.)
-by Varun Pratap
I don’t presume to know all there is to know about designing, but after designing websites for 3 years and then later marketing for last 4 years –
You often find key mistakes that are tanking your prospects to sales conversion, specially in the B2B and B2C websites. If you find your prospects are leaving in hurry from your websites, then spend next few minutes reading this article.
Today when your prospects is getting bombarded with advertisement every second, its your job to make sure you are the solution she’s looking for. By Avoiding these 7 web design mistakes you can increases the sales, no matter what the product is.
Note: As you read this, I wonder if you can spot these mistakes
in your own websites.
When you correct these mistakes you’ll be surprised how easily you can improve your prospects to sales conversion. So Are you ready to improve your sales?
Deadly Web Design mistakes no # 1 : Plagued by ME-itus Virus
When John Doe asked me to work on his marketing to get new flow of customers. Curiously I asked his marketing process and website. This was a B2C website which screamed “ME”. You’ll find this problem with mostly B2B or B2C websites.
There’s too much concentration on themselves (or individual). If your website starts with “Our website is” or “My website is” or “Message from CEO of XYZ company” or something in those context. Then your website is plagued by Me-itus Virus.
People are strapped for time specially in today’s media rich environment, you are not the only one competing for his/her attention. Almost all the B2B sites looks the same, feels the same.
Beware of this mistake unless you have a marketing budget of billion dollars like Cola or Nike. On your website, everything should be about your customer, his problems and how she can solve it.
Deadly Web Design mistakes no # 2 : Not Grabbing Attention
You won’t make a sale unless your prospects read your website and order. If you are able to avoid mistake no #1, then this will be your most likely mistake. Often I have seen websites which are doing very good job of not grabbing attention.
There’s just too much going on with their website pages and your attention is all over the place. You want to click that shinny little thingy on top left or you might be tempted to watch the funny graphic on bottom right…
Again you are falling prey to this 2nd deadly mistake. Whenever your prospects lands on your website, it should only focus on getting the lead (or sale). Anything else is distraction and leaving tons of money on the table.
Remember Your website’s main purpose is to get a Lead/Sale.
Look out for Rest of the Mistakes…
How to Double Your prices With No Extra Effort
Ok today’s blog post is going to be all about doubling your prices. It doesn’t matter what field you are in, you can double your prices RIGHT NOW. Don’t worry I’ll tell you how to…but first lets tackle the biggest myths…
Myth : You need Experience to Charge High Prices
When I started with my freelance business about 9 years ago as a programmer… Something my first client that struck with me…
“You can’t charge high prices, nobody will pay you. Heck you have to work for free few months”.
It pissed me to no end when I heard it, moreover I can’t forget the most villainous look in his eye. Everything told me that I shouldn’t work with this guy… YET, I did it… Guess what, he robbed me on my efforts. He got the software without paying any single penny. Do you believe I was robbed off from 3 months of my effort?
Charging high prices is all about confidence. It isn’t about experience. Its just that with experience you feel like “You’ve arrived” that’s why you are start charging high.
Trust me it doesn’t matter much with experience. A 15 year old computer geek will write the same code as any 40 yr old computer geek. Heck there have been more than few occasions when 15 yrs kicked old guys arse.
Remember : Job Rules Doesn’t Apply to Freelancers
When I started with website designing… I adopted to new policy. 75% of payment first and then I’ll write a single line of code, 25% payment the moment you’ll clear the design. If they are worrying about prices, I’d told them how to get low price websites from college kids but you’ll get what you pay for.
Here’s your option, Get paid like a celebrity in 10 years from now or Get paid like celeb right now, what do you chose? There might be some unseen “getting paid” rule book for companies or getting JOB. but there is None for free lancers.
Ok here’s my secret of charging High…
Rule 1 : Stop Selling Yourself short : Throw all the negativity out the window. When you are talking to client, look directly into his eye and give your doubled price. Have confidence, heck don’t mind letting the confidence crossover to arrogance.
Rule 2 : Stop being an Expert in One thing. One of the biggest drawbacks of being the expert in one thing is that you can’t add-on the value. Let me explain… When I was a web designing, I knew about SEO(search engine optimization)… but never gave it a thought… I was an expert designer.
One day one of my client I was working with talked about SEO and grumbled how expensive they are… Well just for the heck I told him, I know how to do basic SEO and I could help him with SEO… Well to end the story short… I ended up being paid for basic SEO too. It literally doubled my income from that client.
Today If somebody ask me to design a website, I’ll end up selling him SEO service, Internet marketing consultant, copywriting services, blog consulting services and whole enchilada.
Rule 3 : Provide Value instead of service : Ok this might be bit of confusing to you. But read it carefully. Listen, anyone can provide service, but only very few can provide value.
let me explain this by a story : Last summer, I had to meet someone at one of the fast food chain(FFC for short). Now if you know about Indian Summer, its freaking hot. I sweat a lot and when I entered I was dripping wet. The person behind the counter greeted me and said “Its freaking hot today isn’t it?” and gave me paper napkin.
Now this is not something about courtesy. It had more about adding value. This guy noticed did few things right.
1. Sympathized with my situation
2. Noticed that I wasn’t carrying the handkerchief
3. Gave me napkins and talked to me…
That’s it… If you learn any lesson from this blog post, then learn this… Provide Value instead of service.
Action Plan :
1. Double your price and be confident.
2. Add more expertise under your belt (even if its borrowed expertise or hired)
3. Provide more value.
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