DMWebZing

If this could get out there, it would revolutionize the web development industry.  It would so change the way businesses purchase sites, their involvement in its development, and more importantly, the unnecessary costs involved that the web would become a real tool for business growth.

I’ll start with this and it comes in two parts:

1. Businesses need to understand only one thing – web sales originate with the prior intrest of the customer for their product or service.
2. Having said that, no amount of improvement to a well designed and attractive site will convince a visitor to buy.

To repeat an obvious fact, people buy on emotion.  After MUCH research, what I’ve found is that there are NO statistics that indicate a flashy website causes sales.

Studies too numerous to count peer into Conversion Optimization.  Why do people buy online?  Selligent’s Customer Case summary gives a clue.  (http://blog.selligent.com/blogs/conversion-marketing/en-conversion-optimization-why-people-decide-buy-web-site-and-why-not)

Why people buy online?

1. Trust
2. Clear Contact Details
3. Recommendations

Why people DON’T buy online (abandonment)?

1. Slow loading pages
2. Poor design
3. Hidden costs
4. Security Concerns
5. Product information, including video and product view options
6. Lack of alternative payment methods
7. Not enough reassurances about security
8. No return policy/information
9. Buying process is too long
10. Hidden charges
11. Compulsory registration
12. Lack of contact details

NONE of this has to do with how fancy a site is in graphics or color scheme.  “Poor design” on the don’t-buy list indicates that they layout needs to be easily navigable.

I’d like to take note about the first reason why people buy online: trust.  We live in such a marketing-heavy society.  There are even more studies out there about the mistrust people have of slick marketing campaigns designed to deceive them into parting with their hard-earned money.

The Principle of Diminishing Returns would say that the more a business dumps money into trying to “slick up” their website, the more likely it is that they’ll loose money by doing it.

All this argues to a to an obvious phenomenon which bears this out: the move toward relevant content made by the large search engines.  They have known, for years now, that what matters to the buying and interested public is relevance.  And this is reflected in the ecommerce powerhouses of the web.  Take a look at sites such as Amazon.com.  There is nothing flashy at all about it.  Simple pictures, multiple product views, product reviews, and well placed cross-sells.  Take a look at the layout and information available from Duracell.com as opposed to the graphic-rich site of Energizer.  I can’t find any articles on it, but I found Duracell’s site a place I could get information about the products without clicking through innumerable, albeit technically advanced, graphics.

Allow me to quote from the above-referenced article:

“For e-commerce businesses and retailers with an online shop, a large part of their digital marketing efforts is about optimizing the buying experience and thus conversion, with an important role for the online shopping process. Abandoned shopping carts and interrupted buying flows are looked at thoroughly since every slight improvement can have a tremendous impact on the bottom-line.

“In general, conversion optimization is mainly a matter of personalized and valuable experiences and contextual offers, good design, perceived trust and simply customer-centricity: it all revolves around the so-called “user”. The more you know about your – prospective – customer and the more personalized you can work in campaigns and contact strategies, the better.”

Let this be fair warning for web sales persons and businesses interested in investing in an effective website.  The customer may be driven by fear to make indecision after indecision on color, graphic, placement, and more.  Please just remember one thing.  You may not know their business better than them, but you certainly know their customer.  …and THAT is what matters.

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There’s a lot of question as to the best methods of “driving traffic” to one’s website.  This article is provided in hopes of clarifying some misconceptions of the purpose of a website in order to bring a better understanding of how to make best use of it.

First, people are not, I repeat NOT, going to go searching the web, stumble across your site, and suddenly buy from you.  Not in great numbers anyway.  The web just doesn’t work that way.  It never has and it never will.  Don’t get me wrong, there are those who are “impulse buyers”, but they’re the exception to the rule.  …and here’s the rule:  Purchasers on the web purchase according to the same drivers as when they purchase in a store.  What are those drivers?  Know, like, and trust.

To that end, you must understand that your website is not, again I repeat NOT, going to generate sales because you have a snappy color and slick graphics.  If you’re selling a product or service, your customer will purchase from you only if they know you (or know someone who knows you), likes you (or knows someone who likes you), and trusts you (or knows someone who trusts you).  That’s how business is done in the real world and that’s how it’s done online, too.

For all you small business owners out there who were hoping to read this article in hopes that you could just post an ad on some free service or send an email blast pointing to your website and reduce your sales efforts, sorry.  I won’t try to mislead or flat out lie to you like that.

Here’s how it really works…

You meet a prospect, who of course wants to hear about your benefits and features (which is NOT what they base their purchase on, but that’s for a different article).  So, you humor them and lay out why they should buy from you, using your best sales techniques.  They bring up some obscure objection, which you handle with ease because they’re the 99th prospect to object like that.  …but they still need to think about it.

This is where your web site can be at its most powerful.  How?  It’s part of your sales toolkit.  You can use it to supplement your sales effort.  Refer your prospect to your website and let it do much of the speaking for you.  In fact, you can write an article (much like this one you’ve been sent to) to explain something important to your prospect – like common objections to be handled or industry myths to expel…

Techniques in SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and social/mobile media can be helpful in making your website more readily available for those on the web, but it’s important to know and understand, to the depths of your very soul, that your website is a tool in your sales toolkit.  If used properly, it can and will help people you send to your site know, like, trust, and buy from you.

For more on sales training and understanding your customers (that other article I mentioned needed to be written), please visit our trusted partner Matt Pinckley with Tucson Personal and Professional Development Consultants at www.tppdc.com.

For more on SEM and SEO for your website, please contact our trusted partner Matt Copley with KVOA at mcopley@kvoa.com.

For more on social media and mobile marketing, please contact our trusted partner Michael Tucker with Social Mobile Buzz at info@socialmobilebuzz.com

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CMS – Taking Control (of your Web Presence)

Do you wish you were in control more often? Would it be nice to get rid of the middle man, and just do things yourself? At times, it’s convenient to let someone else do the work for you, but it isn’t always necessary. Even for those who do not have a lot of experience with websites, a CMS is a quick, effective way of organizing and editing your site after it’s been initially set up.

What is CMS?

A Content Management System, or CMS, is a simple tool to update text, graphics, and other content without a web tech professional. A CMS allows you to delegate multiple users and passwords to those you want to have access to your site. Having a Content Management System is a beneficial tool because it helps facilitate content control and mitigate the nuisance maintenance costs of your website because you are in control of your content and there is no need to call a web designer every time you need your site updated.

What can you do with it?

Admittedly, you’d want to have your site professionally designed initially, but with the DMWebZing Tier CMS, when you are in control of your own content you have the ability to add the “WOW” factor to your site on an ongoing basis your own terms. Actions like adding graphics and text content are just a simple click away. There are also other content items such as managing your own blog/news letter that can be handled with a CMS.

The saying holds true “the more, the merrier”, in part because having a CMS allows you to provide access to your site to others from your organizational team. This pertains to those who run and manage their own business, but this can also apply to anyone who needs to have multiple users’ update web visitors on current events and other information.

In addition to providing access to anybody, you can obtain access from anywhere!  That’s right… you don’t have to be at the office in order to log in. You can access the CMS from any computer that has internet access. Multiple users can update a site at the same time from any location in the world. This process saves time because the website can be updated quickly, without having to access your server.

Why a Managed CMS?

The DMWebZing Tier CMS is a managed CMS.  What this means is that site maintenance and security updates, module updates, plug-in updates, patching, and email support are all handled by us, D’Mention Systems, the parent company of DMWebZing.  Moreover, your Tier CMS is initially designed and search engine optimized by one of our expert marketing partners who will custom-create a look and feel, and a targeted message, based on your business needs.  They’re all experts in the area of web marketing and know the field very well.  That’s why we rely on them to perform this valuable function.  Even running a successful and growing web and software development company, we defer our search engine optimization, message, and appearance to them.  It’s what they do!

Conclusion

A Content Management System is an incredibly powerful tool that will benefit any business, big or small. It allows you to have a more profound web presence at a fraction the cost and time than a traditional site. If you would like to learn more about our managed CMS, contact our expert marketing partners right away.

…and, if you have questions or a technology need, we have answers and technology solution. D’Mention Systems… Business Technology Solutions from Front to Back. Getting started is just a phone call away. Call (520) 229-8730 or contact us today!

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