"The Influence Of Your Website On Your Profits"

By: Sandi Krakowski

The page opened and I was instantly confused.

Advertisements for vitamins ran along the right hand side of the website. At the top was a picture of someone who looked almost tense, smiling but not natural. The message on the header said, "Empowering This Generation For A Healthy Life" and the first opening article was on creating a WordPress website.

The business owner was using WordPress for their website presence, which I can typically tell in the first 2 seconds I am on a page. Score to the positive.

The topics that ran along the left had side varied from meal planning to lead generation to free traffic to EFT stress relief. Further down the right hand side I saw a banner for a WordPress class and simple methods for paying off debt.

Now to many casual observers this might seem typical, having so many messages on a website.

But confusing is typical on most websites, isn't it?

Everyday people write me and ask me how to make more money with their home based business and their website. Over and over again I'm asked if I could just give a 'casual' glance at 'where someone is at' and help them to know if they are 'on track'.

Because my day is already quite full and I do schedule in regular time for reading and family, there are not enough hours in my day to review every website critique request that I receive.  For a while, I did offer a 30 minute website audits and did over a hundred of those. More than 90% of the websites audited were full of confusing mixed messages.

It appears to me that the average business owner has taken so much training and really understood so little of what they learned, that the final resolve is to just put it ALL out there and hope that something sticks.

But it's also become painfully obvious to me with Alexa rankings of 12 million and 4 million being the national average of these said business owners, this is not working.

How many messages do you have on your website?

If we met in a coffee shop and you introduced yourself by telling me that you market weightloss products, WordPress training, EFT stress relief, meal planning, PR and even breakthrough mindset coaching, alongside of being a fulltime writer, author, coach, cook and full time stay at home Mommy I'd want to know what you were drinking in that mug of yours.

While my life is filled with variety and I have run many different businesses through the years, the fact remains I've never run a successful 6 or 7 figure company by having a smorgasbord approach to business.

Laser Sharp Focus

Repeat that after me. Laser sharp focus. This is what you want on your website. Rarely do I hear these words when people come to our web presence: "What exactly is it that you do?"

I do hear it sometimes if people meet me and haven't been to my website. When they go to my website, however, all confusion is removed.  Many of the clients I've coached had the opposite problem. People come to their website and were very confused and when asked, "What exactly is it that you do?" they didn't have an answer because they were doing so many multiple things they weren't quite sure what it is they do!

Here are some critical questions that will help you gain focus quickly:

• What is your focus?
• What are you marketing?
• What brings in profit to your company?
• What problem are you hoping to solve?
• What direction do most of your testimonials go?
• What kind of result are people having with your company?

Pretend that you've never been to your website. Shut your eyes, count to 10 and then open the browser to your home page.  Now, take out a pen and paper and answer the above questions, truthfully. How did you do?

Don't beat yourself up if you're doing something wrong. Just be excited because you are now on your way to bigger profits!  Get a laser sharp focus and then decide what direction you want people to move in!  This will do more for your bottom line than even a big media buy could, if you have a mixed up message on your website.

Using pull marketing for bigger profits online

Once you get your focus straightened out and you have a clear vision of what direction you want your visitors and prospective customers to move , let's move into a big topic- marketing.

Marketing is not like it used to be. You can no longer push people through your pipeline. You can't force yourself on anyone and succeed.  Gone are the days when slick and manipulative succeeds. Your customers are smart and they are savy… they won't stand for it!

You have to work in the realm of pull marketing. This is how you'll succeed and sleep better at night as well.

What is pull marketing? It is best said in this way. Pull marketing means I don't push you through my marketing funnel and pathway but rather, I pull you, with your own desires and the best influence skills, to the close of the sale. To effectively serve others with your product they need to buy what you offer. If you don't get what you offer into their hands, you've helped no one! 

Coaches, if people don't buy time with you- you are broke BUT there's a bigger problem- they won't be helped!

Weight loss experts, if people don't buy your products- you are broke BUT there's a bigger problem- they won't lose weight and feel great!

Pull marketing requires something huge on your part as the business owner. It requires that you have a sincere concern and desire to help those who need what you offer. If you are only interested in your bank account, you'll do all you can to push as many people through as fast as you can, and you won't care at all what happens to them! Pull marketing goes along with the golden rule.

The golden rule says that you should treat others as you desire to be treated.

Pull marketing requires you understand how to treat others and what others want.

Pull works- push is dead

Even on a website someone can 'feel' when they are being pushed. 

They can 'tell' when you are after their checkbook and they 'know' when to guard it.  It's my personal conviction that push marketing creates a 'guarding the checkbook' faster than anything, especially in this economy.

And….. push marketing isn't the only enemy. Listen very closely to this. If you pulling me in multiple directions I'm going to run! Don't confuse me, act like an amateur and try to sell me ten things at one time! This is pull marketing gone haywire! Actually…. I don't even know if it truly is pull marketing. 

So, in closing… get a laser sharp focus of what you want to offer on your website. Choose a specific and strategic path that you want each visitor to take. Then serve others with the golden rule, pull them through your funnel with their desires, not your own. Serve them, don't sell. Be kind, amiable and happy. Happiness sells. People love happy. Genuine happy lasts. And don't pull me in multiple directions.

This is how you build a website that can outlast and outsell many of your pushing and multiple messaging competitors.

Tell me how you're doing and how I can help you do better. That is my main focus. You, my customer. 🙂

 

Sandi Krakowski spent many years in the Direct Sales industry building 11 total companies, one being a $ 4 million dollar business that was run 100% online through eCommerce. All of her companies have been 6 & 7 figure producing enterprises.  After breaking international track records in the home based business market, she began an intense mentorship with some of the best in the world of business. With a proven and remarkable track record in copywriting,  direct response marketing and all aspects of business online, she has recently built a client base of over 60,000 customers in under 6 months, with the company A Real Change Int'l, LLC. Currently one of the fastest growing training venues specializing in teaching beginners to experts how to really use the internet to it's fullest capacity.