I’ve followed Seth Godin’s blog for several years and appreciate his outside-the-box thinking when it comes to marketing. However, I disagree with one of his recent posts entitled, What’s Wrong With Your Website? In his post, Seth states:
It’s not unusual for a thousand people to visit your website before someone buys something…People won’t click all the things they can click, ever. They won’t get three or four or nine clicks into your site no matter how responsive, web-kitted, and user tested your site is…But don’t beat yourself up that it’s not converting. By real-life definitions, nothing online converts.
I understand Seth’s perspective that capturing online sales can be difficult due to all of the noise, distractions, and choices. But, his comment, “nothing online converts,” is inaccurate and defeatist. There are proven ways to convert online traffic into significant sales.
In my consulting work with clients, I’ve seen several ways to move the sales needle. The primary approach is to offer premium content for free on your website that encourages people to signup for an email newsletter. Then, you send regular newsletters with additional value-laden content. In the newsletter, offer a limited-time discount or sales promotion for a product related to the feature content. Use social media pages as additional ways to widen the exposure. This online marketing approach has produced solid results for several of my clients. Even better, it’s inexpensive, repeatable, and scalable as your business grows.
According to Seth’s pessimistic perspective, there may be nothing wrong with your website, because “nothing converts online.” According to my proven optimistic approach, there is something wrong with your website if you’re not converting online traffic into sales – because I see it happen everyday.
