The X-Factor Blog

Don’t put up a website just to have one. You need a real business reason, or why spend the money? A website should be designed to help you reach your business goals. Here are 5 reasons to have a business website.

1. Old Methods aren’t working. Yellow pages, newspaper ads and magazine advertising are more expensive than the sales they bring in. Websites are the new media and are cheaper and more effective.
2. Find Customers: Use your website to generate new business. Entice the visitor with free items in exchange for their name and e-mail address. A lead generation website needs a flow of interested visitors with a strong call to action.
3. Transact Business: Create an ecommerce website that closes the deal and collects the money online. Your web store can sell products or services. Products can be delivered digitally. Your web store is open 24/7.
4. Serve Customers: Tell current or new customers about your business. What you do, your business hours. Answer the questions your customers are asking through great content and a strong FAQ area.
5. Educate: Use text, images, video, blogs and email to teach a skill or connect with your audience. Offer useful information which is education based marketing. Establish trust and credibility. People will listen with enthusiasm when they are not receiving a sales pitch.

Before you create a website, decide your business goals and objectives. Then craft a website that will help reach your goals. Otherwise your website will just end up sitting there serving for no real purpose.

Your About-Us page is there to build trust and credibility. Visitors want to know the business or the person behind the website. They want to know to know your story. They immediately want to know more about you. In their mind, they are asking: “Why should I trust you?” The job of your about-us page is to answer that question.

These pages should help people learn more about who you are, what you do, and why they can trust you. The about-us area for a website can be a single page or a section of pages, depending on your website.

Include things like your press releases / press room, an organizational profile, an investor relations section, disclaimers and legal information, careers and employment opportunities, public relations, affiliate programs, green initiatives / sustainability, community relations, frequently asked questions and sometimes the contact page.

Tell when your company was founded and how long you have been serving your industry. People enjoy reading the story on how a company got started and what led the founder to launch the business.

One definite trend is the increasing use of video to add a more personal engagement with the visitor. This can bring in the personality of the CEO or to highlight community and sustainability initiatives. Short videos of 2-4 minutes are best.