Hi all, this post takes some of the concepts from my next ebook that will be on the features of great small business websites, hope you like it.

You will hear a lot of web developers subscribing to the idea that:

“Websites are about traffic and….Conversions“.

But marketing people understand that not every person is a potential sales target right there and right then. In fact they know that often you will need to be seen by the customer 5-7 times or more before they will consider buying from you. So if they are visiting your site 5-7 times before being ‘Converted’ (them visiting the site of course is a good thing) then what is this doing to your conversion statistics!

Who are your real potential customers

Think about who is visiting your website. This chart (which contains made up numbers) might help you understand it a bit better.

At any given time you might have:

• spammers, competitors, general haters, people who thought it was something else etc – let’s say it’s 45%*
• People who might refer one day if they still remember – 20%
• People who might buy one day if they still remember – 30%
• People ready to buy right now – 5%

If you focus only on converting visitors who are ready to buy right now, look at the chunk of people you are missing!

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