Monday, October 10, 2011

What are you selling?

The aboriginal and best accessible catechism is whether you are affairs a product
or a account and the amount to which you can accomplish this online. Some
service businesses are, by their actual nature, acutely offline, local, and
personal. For example, a hairdressing business will attempt to cut hair
over the internet!
The best abode to alpha is with what I alarm ambition definition. A ambition in
this ambience defines a acknowledged aftereffect from addition visiting your
website and is bidding application a verb and a noun. Examples of possible
goals include:
  •  Download a brochure
  •  Sign up for a newsletter
  •  Subscribe to a commitment list
  •  Request a artefact sample
  •  Book a sales consultation
  •  Acquirement a product
  •  Book a service
Users can be aggregate into the four areas of the business and sales funnel
familiar to acceptable marketers: a suspect, a prospect, a lead, and a
sale.
Suspects are those who may accept a (passive) charge for your product
and service. A doubtable becomes a anticipation already they accept bidding an
active absorption in what you are offering. A advance is a anticipation who meets
the belief of addition who is “ready to buy.” A auction is “closed” when
the advance becomes a chump and buys from you.
The goals in the account aloft absolutely mark the advance of a user from
one breadth of the carry to another. Any searcher who finds and visits your
site is a suspect. When they download a advertisement they become a
prospect. When they book a sales appointment they become a lead.
When they acquirement a artefact they become a sale.
As such, while a hairdressing business is absurd to accept “receive a
haircut” as an online goal, “book a haircut” or “download archetype hairstyles”
might able-bodied be allotment of its all-embracing business proposition.
The best acknowledged online businesses architecture a alternation of “customer
journeys” through their site, which booty a user from access to information
to ambition completion. Each adventure begins with a landing folio and
ends with a alleged money page, area the user completes a goal. Each
site may accept several (often intersecting) journeys.
Later, in the area on analytics (page 224), I will acknowledgment to customer
journeys and acquaint you to carry analysis, which looks at area users
drop out of the journey. Through tweaks and improvements, this “journey
leakage” can be bargain over time and the about-face of access to goal
improved. However, for now I will artlessly reiterate that you charge accept a
clear abstraction of what your goals are while developing your proposition.
In our case study, Brad begins with a abundant analysis of the
Chambers Book website. At the moment, there is annihilation that users
can absolutely shop for online. In fact, the alone ambition a user can complete
is to ample out a acquaintance anatomy in the “contact us” area of the site.
The anatomy requires the user to access their email address, so at least
it provides a account of prospects.
Furthermore, there are no abstracted landing pages for the different
types of articles and casework Chambers Book offers. Instead,
these are aggregate calm on a “what we offer” page.
Brad decides to assemble a alternation of chump journeys around
the key articles and casework his business currently offers. He also
decides to add a fresh artefact band whereby users can upload their
own artwork or logos to the site, application a alternation of book templates.
In future, bodies will be able to adjustment business cards, letterheads,
compliment slips, invoices, and purchase-order jotter online.
There are absolutely a cardinal of elements of Brad’s proposition
that we will revisit in consecutive genitalia of this guide. However, the
key point for now is that artlessly putting up a advertisement of all
Chambers Print’s articles and casework is absurd to be the best
strategy. Brad has some specific and focused aims. By thinking
about them now (and adorning them) he stands a abundant better
chance of success online.

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