There is one main way you communicate with your audience on the Internet. I’ll give you three guesses what it is…

No, it’s not using a message in a bottle.
Nope, not paper cups and string either.
Yes! Well Done! It’s the content that you provide your visitor.

So you really need to get your content right for your website to succeed.

Why

Your content delivers your message to your visitor. If you want your visitor to understand your message and choose your business, you need to get it right.

That’s why so many small business websites fail. Their content simply consists of information about THEIR business and THEIR products. It doesn’t draw the visitor in and the visitor doesn’t get any benefit from it.

How

You really need to get into the mind of your visitor and work out what they want. What they find useful information and how they want it presented. Remember, it’s all about the visitor.

It’s easy to work out what visitors would find useful and start creating it. An article or blog post may be all it takes. There’s nothing difficult about it, but so many small businesses fail to do it.

Homework

Write at least one article that would help your visitors and post it on your website.

It’s been far too long since I’ve seen the ocean and this is simply unacceptable for a New Zealander. So this week I’m heading off to Lanzarote in the exotic Spanish Canary Islands.

So yeah, I’m pretty happy about spending the next week on the beach trying to get rid of some of the white that has crept over my body during the winter. I could understand if you’re all incredibly jealous as well, so please feel free to send death threats on the back of a postcard.

But the good news for you is this blog won’t be dying in my absence. There will still be posts to keep you amused and entertained…heck, you might even learn something.

So see you all in a week and feel free to use my name in vain if you’re still feeling the cold.

Getting someones attention is hard these days. Just keeping up with friends that live in the same city is difficult, let alone the ones all over the world. If we didn’t have Facebook I’d be screwed!

So the trick is once you have their attention to lock them in. Make sure they can’t leave without knowing more. My friend Mary (who I make fun of because I know she’s reading this) has been a great example of this over the last few months.

By having ‘guy dramas’ in her life, she had me completely locked in. We were seeing each other at least once a week to get the latest stories and debate the next course of action. But now the guy dramas have finished and my own dramas have taken precedence again.

Luckily she’s a lovely person so she doesn’t always have to resort to drama to get us to hang out…because no one likes a drama queen.

So how does this relate to your website? Make it gripping, make it fascinating, and tell a great story to keep visitors hooked.

Why

I really don’t think I need to point out why you should have interesting content on your website that keeps peoples attention. I’m sure we all realise that…but are we doing it?

How

The easiest way is to make sure there’s always something to come back for. Promises of more great content and a consistency around your distribution can help that. You should think about this as you create content. If you create X, what is the logical Y that people would come back for.

I’ve done this with my 7 Steps for Website Success. It was pretty obvious that more steps were coming and so people were actively checking the Members Only Area for it. (BTW I’ve finally finished them all! On to the next project mwhuaa.)

I’m now attempting the same thing with my blog posts. By logically ordering them and making that clear with the numbering I’m trying to show that there’s more useful content coming. I also try to do one every day so you know it’s here to read.

So what content can you use to suck visitors in and release it in just the right fashion to make visitors come back for more. And do you have enough quality content on your website so visitors are already browsing for hours when they first arrive?

Homework

Assess how much content you have on your website…it’s not enough. Make a commitment to create new, relevant content for your visitors as often as possible. And make sure it’s gripping enough to come back for juicy seconds.

I fell of my chair the other day when a client told me this:

“We have a newsletter mailing list, I think it has about 3000 names on it.”

What were they doing with this list? Nothing…they had STOPPED sending out an email newsletter. Quite frankly, I don’t blame them…when I saw the newsletter, it was full of ads. In fact it had 6 large ads for about 4 small pieces of useful content.

So they’d basically killed the list anyway. This left me lying on the ground crying because of all that precious money they’d just set on fire…and because I’d just fallen off a chair and it hurt.

You must keep communicating with your audience.

Why

These people have decided you’re worth talking to. Imagine you’re standing at a party. You start telling one of your best stories, I mean it’s just amazing. As the people around you start laughing at the story, others become interested and start listening. So soon you have a large group of people around you, hanging on your every word…

And then you walk away. That’s right, mid sentence, you get bored and walk off.

How do you think that makes the people feel? Do you think they’re want to listen to you again?

So start telling great stories…and never stop mid sentence!

How

If you have their email address, email them. If you have other contact details, use them. Just make sure you’re sending them something of value…and then keep sending it.

Wow…that was a complicated business strategy. You might want to go and reread that a few times to fully grasp it…

Homework

Umm…work out what your audience wants and start talking to them.

Oh…and make sure you sit properly in your chair. Safety first kids!

With visitors zipping about all over the Internet, it’s hard to get anyone to slow down and chat. From webpage to webpage they surf, instantly forgetting what they’ve just seen.

So if you want a visitor to return, you need to help them out a little. You need to get a visitor to commit to staying in touch with you, whichever way they want.

Why

If you don’t capture a visitor’s attention long enough to get their contact details, you’ve lost them forever. Sure, some might return on their own steam, but the percentages rank against it. How many times have you tried to remember some great website you found information on…but the name escapes you.

Internet Marketers have all sorts of tricks to capture email addresses and then sell, sell, sell to that list. But that’s not we’re about. If you’re lucky enough to be entrusted with a visitor’s email address, you should treat it like your own. Always offer the visitor value, never try to sell them to death!

How

The obvious one is an email capture box for a newsletter but there are other ways to stay in touch with your visitors. For example, they can subscribe to your RSS feed of your blog. This way the always get the latest information you’re publishing through your website.

[Note For those of you who don't know what a RSS feed is, click on the orange square in the top right, then use Google Feedreader to subscribe to this blog for free. Have a play around and save yourself hours visiting your favourite blogs each day.]

And don’t forget the power of social media to stay in touch with visitors. Have them sign up to your Facebook Profile and Pages, Twitter, and other profiles around the web.

Homework

Think about how you communicate with visitors and capture their information. What other ways could you do it? Remember to give your visitors as many options as possible.

Website visitors are a fickle lot, one minute they’re reading an incredibly crafted blog about improving their website. The next moment they’re off checking their emails. Then Facebook. Then off to a website about cheese.

It’s a little ridiculous how our attention wanders.

But I sure do like cheese! Don’t you? There are so many types and flavours! Cheese should be a food group all by itself.

Umm…but I digress…

So you need to make sure your visitors go where you want them. Which is why I didn’t include a link to Cheese.com. Ok…so I’m crap at this game. Remember: Do as I say, not as I do!

Why

Your website has a purpose, believe it or not. And it’s up to you to allow your website to be successful. You do want your website to be successful don’t you? You don’t want to give it crushing self-esteem issues later in life?

Once you know what your website is meant to do, it’s much easier to guide your visitor there. You need to map out a path for visitors to take that ends at the result you want. The trick is to get all the possible random visitor paths to end where you want.

How

To do this you just have to make the result obvious and of value to your visitor. For example, I want you to remember my website and keep visiting. So I write these short teaser blog posts and give away a lot more in-depth information in my Free Members Only Area. Aren’t I sneaky!

You get great information to help improve your website and make money. And I get the pleasure of your company. Win-Win! One day I might even have time to make some helpful and valuable products for you and make some money from this website. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Homework

Work out what you want your visitor to do and then see if your website’s path takes them to the right destination. If it doesn’t, fix it…

Small businesses tend to forget just who their website was created for. It’s not your business, it’s not your shareholders, and it’s not your mother.

Your website exists to serve your customers, first and foremost. It may serve them by helping them buy your wonderful products, but your website experience is all about the visitor.

Why

People are selfish *shrug* They want to make themselves feel good above all else. Some people do this by hurting others, normal people do this by searching for experiences that add to their life. The sooner you realise this fact, the better your website will become.

So when a visitor comes to your website you want them to get the best experience possible. So good, that they might even buy some of your products…don’t faint yet…stay with me…

Surprisingly, the best approach to selling your products is not getting right in a person’s face and yelling “Buy my damn product!!!” Salespeople, advertisers, and marketers have tested this technique thoroughly and finally the results are in.

People don’t like being sold to.

So why would you make your website all about your business and your products? No one wants to read a sales brochure on the Internet. It’s just boring and doesn’t add anything to their life…unless they buy your product.

We need a new approach.

How

Your website should help visitors with what they seek. You should earn their trust by providing quality information that can help them out first. If what they need leads to your products, then that will happen in good time. But there’s no use jumping out from behind a flashing banner ad and yelling “Buy my product!”

Because we know that doesn’t work.

Instead, ask yourself how you could add value to your visitor’s life. Make their visit to your website worth something even if they don’t buy your products.

You’ll quickly find the more satisfied visitors you have, the more clients will appear wanting to buy your products…if they have a good reason to.

Homework

Look at your website and list the benefits a visitor gets from it. If there are none, make another list of what benefits you could offer visitors. Then go do it. If you already offer some benefits, add some more!

It amazes me how many small businesses never bother to plan or work out where their business is going. But then I see the results of those businesses and it all becomes clear.

If you don’t have a strategy for your website and business, you’re literally going nowhere. The people that have an idea in their heads of what they want to achieve and how they’ll do it are moving in the right direction. The ones that actually bother to write it down blow everyone out of the water.

These are what success stories are made of!

Why

We all know most small businesses fail. We’ve seen the statistics and don’t want to become one. Well if you look at the reasons for failure, most of them can be tied to poor planning and management. What does that mean? They didn’t have a strategy to be successful.

Having a strategy isn’t about being successful anymore, it’s about surviving! It just so happens that having a strategy also makes for hugely successful businesses. Not a bad benefit, eh?

How

Planning doesn’t have to be the complicated techniques laid out in business books. It can be quite simple, but it still takes a little bit of thought and effort. I’m sorry, but Santa still hasn’t trained the elves how to do all your planning for you, along with make your products and services…you still need a little involvement in your business.

But all you need to plan is two things:

1. A goal
2. A plan to reach that goal

At the end of the day, it’s not that tricky! Work out where you want to go and how you’ll get there…surprisingly simple isn’t it?

Homework

Write down your goals and actions you’ll take to get there. For a more comprehensive idea of what to do, check out the new article in the Free Members Only Section: Action without Strategy wears out the Hamster.

The most important thing is to just do something, anything, that will contribute to building your website.

It always amazes me how many people don’t measure their website statistics. Even those that do have statistics programs in place never look at them. As they say, you can’t improve it if you can’t measure it. I’m never sure exactly who ‘they’ are…but they seem smart…

So measure it!

Why

Measurement allows you to work out where you can start improving. Right now, you probably don’t know how many visitors you have a day or how many of them are buying from you because of your website.

Doesn’t that sound like important information to have? “YES” I hear you cry! Good kids!

Seriously, measuring your website is easy as pie. It’s a lot easier than half the things you should be measuring in your business. Maybe even than 77.3% of the things you should be measuring.

It’s also interesting because most people in small business forums are asking how they get more website traffic. Well, if you’re not measuring all the different aspects of your website, how do you know where the problem lies? Sometimes it’s not in the traffic, it’s in the message your website delivers.

So no more excuses, let’s get measuring…

How

My favourite way to measure things is the free one. Thanks to some great free tools out there you can now measure your website’s results without it costing you an arm and a leg. Which is usually a good thing as you’ll need those arms and legs to create your products or provide your service.

If I was you, I’d pop over to Google Analytics and install that. It gives you a wide range of measurements for your website that may open your eyes to some major problems. Some clients I’ve worked with have had hundreds of visitors a day that they didn’t even know about. So you can guess what happened when we changed a few things around…sales increased instantly.

Sales mean money, and money means more holidays in Spain, which is always a good thing.

You could also find out if your web developers already installed a statistics program that you can use. But I’d still install Google Analytics as well for the detail it gives you.

Homework

Nothing tricky, go and install Google Analytics. Wait a few hours and start exploring your website statistics. Then make a point of doing it on a regular basis to check the improvements you’re making.

It’s Friday and I don’t know about you, but this is when I usually look back and wonder what I achieved during the week. I check my nice little Action Plan and see what I managed to tick off each day.

While this is good and I know I’m making progress, sometimes the little things can get in the way of the big picture. So today I spent some time reanalysing my long term goals and planning for the future.

I think it’s important for all small business owners to do this, especially when it comes to your website. The website can often slip down the list of priorities as other ‘more urgent’ things spring up. My aim is to stop you mistreating your website like this and give it the attention it deserves.

Think of me as your significant other that harasses you because you just forgot our anniversary…again! Though it’s up to you whether you imagine me throwing plates at your head…

Why

Taking a step back and deciding where you want to take your website is an important first step in the improvement process. Without an idea of where you want to go, you’ll never reach it. Quite frankly, if you don’t know how important planning is we’re probably wasting our time here.

So let’s get to the real stuff.

How

Setting long term goals for your website isn’t the trickiest thing in the world. You just decide what you want to achieve with it in the future. Bear in mind, the more you want to achieve, the more effort you’ll have to put in. Which is really where I want your mind to be. Right now, your website is not living up to it’s potential.

When I plan I look at two areas: Objectives and Goals. Everyone seems to have a different method for planning, but here’s mine. I like to keep it nice and simple to ensure I’m not planning for the sake of planning.

First you come up with your objectives. These are in an unquantifiable form like make more sales, increase website traffic, etc.

Then I take those objectives and work out how they can be made into measurable goals. So in a years time I want to have x amount of sales and x amount of unique visitors a day.

So now I have my objectives and goals for the coming year. The next step is to fill in the steps it’ll take to get there. So I do my 6 month, 3 month, and 1 month goals.

The final step is to assign actions I will take to reach these goals. Again, I work back from a year and work out what I need to do, right back to the coming month. So now I have a list of the most important actions I will take each month.

I always plan more accurately in the short term and am a bit more vague in the long term. Those months will fill themselves in at the end of the month when I go through and plan out the next months actions in more detail.

The result is a Action Plan for the next month with the most important actions listed in priority. I realise these are the actions that will grow my business so they should always get the focus before the daily problems that tend to appear.

Make sure you’re getting closer to achieving your biggest priorities every day, before getting sidetracked with the latest emails or surfing the web. This is the way to growing a successful website and business.

Homework

Guess! Take some quiet time over the weekend and go through this planning process for the next year. Then on Monday, get started on your biggest priority of the month.