Ep. 81 How To Get More Sales From Your Website

How To Get More Sales From Your Website

Are you not getting enough sales from your website? Or maybe your website isn’t generating enough leads or calls.

Even if your website is beautifully designed it may be lacking what it takes to get customers to take action. In this episode, Torie Mathis and her co-host Sean talk about website mistakes that keep you from generating calls, sales, and leads and how to fix them.

If you want more leads, more calls or more sales from your website this episode is for you.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

(transcription is auto-generated)

SAF 81

Torie: [00:00:00] If your website, isn’t getting you sales, it might be because your website isn’t built for sales.

Hey everybody. What’s up. It’s Torie Mathis, your host, and I’m here with the one and only Sean Mathis, founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. 

Sean: [00:00:22] Hey, how’s it going?

Torie: [00:00:23] I had a client, a new client come to us recently, an organization that needed a brand new website. And I think that they were really taken back with the fact that I asked them, what is your website going to be for 

Sean: [00:00:36] More than just something online, 

Torie: [00:00:38] If your website isn’t getting you sales, it might be because your website isn’t built for sales. So I think, in any website, whether it’s a brand new website or it’s maybe a redesign or a reorganization, even like the first thing you have to ask is, What do I want my website to do?

And that could be quite a few things. It could be sales, it could be to get phone calls. It could be to build a list. It could get for people to get people to walk in the door to your brick-and-mortar place. For example, like the Miles Through Time website, it’s not to get sales Sean really you have a few things on there, but that’s not the goal of the website, right?

Sean: [00:01:13] Now for Miles Through Time specifically, it is to make the museum appealing enough that people want to visit. And we do that by. Filling it full of pictures that look visually appealing and just telling them as much as we can about the museum. So that again, that they then want to make the choice to actually come and visit 

Torie: [00:01:34] Well and another thing that the miles, your time website does really well, is it build your list. Like it is definitely built to be a list builder. Yeah. 

Sean: [00:01:42] We set it up so that filling out Google business and all that kind of stuff that the website is found. Relatively easily. So we took it up a notch by not only having it there so people can find it but then having a pop-up and encouraging people to give us their email and enables me to then contact them more frequently and educate them about what the museum is all about.

And that’s been huge because without that I wouldn’t have any of the emails and ultimately the museum is a, a. It’s a source for people to go to, to find it initially. But it’s not the main way I contact. I, in fact, I can’t just contact people through the website.

They can only contact me. So them giving me my, their email enables me to then contact them more and then, connecting it to social media and that, we can go back and forth on there and that’s huge, but it’s also a pretty, it’s pretty easy stuff. It’s just, I see a lot of organizations, businesses, other museums specifically that don’t do any of this stuff. It’s barely enough information in there. There are barely any photos. There’s not really enough to grab somebody and be like, I want to go there. 

Torie: [00:02:52] For whatever, whatever your businesses or your organization, you really have to say what do I want my website to do?

And maybe it’s going to do a couple of things, but I think it needs to, you have to prioritize what you want it to do, and then you really have to do design it for that type of thing. Cause I know like for my website and I’ve talked about it before like I don’t take phone calls, so my website is definitely not built for phone calls, 

Sean: [00:03:14] You’re not going to find it. 

Torie: [00:03:16] You’re not even going to find a phone number on it. I don’t have the time to take phone calls, so that’s not what my website’s built for. And we’ve done a lot of websites for contractors and there’s is absolutely for getting quote requests and for phone calls.

So like first and foremost, that’s what we built into. The website design, the verbiage of the design, how the blog posts, layout, like every little part of the website is built. For that specific thing. I designed the six-figure coach magazine and the website there. I, we have designed that and we take care of that.

And for that website, the whole entire purpose is to get people to subscribe. And so that is built into, that’s a list generating website. So even though you’re, there are all kinds of articles on there and there are all these different pages and things like that, the main focus of the entire website is to get new subscribers.

So you really have to have that, that figured out in the beginning and to lay that out before you even start designing or, even talking to a designer so that, your website gets you what you actually want. 

Sean: [00:04:20] And just that, like, how do you want your customers to contact you is huge because, if you’re wanting phone calls, but the phone number is not.

Like in your face, Hey, call w what makes you assume that they’re going to call, 

Torie: [00:04:35] If people are going to dig for it, 

Sean: [00:04:38] if all there is a contact form, that you never even checked, cause you don’t check your email on a daily basis, but that’s the only way that, that. People can see to get ahold of you.

You’ve got a disconnect there and that’s a problem. And one of the biggest things is that you don’t even realize it right in your mind. You’re like, I want people to call me, but what you’re putting out there says the exact opposite. There’s nothing out there that says call me. You gotta really just, it’s super simple to think about, but think about it.

And if you’re wanting phone calls, make sure it’s easy for people to call you. If you want emails. Put the email there and make it easy for people to email. 

You only have like when they’re going to a website and you’re like, what you can’t say, I want them to do all those things. Because when people go to a website, they only have so much time.

Torie: [00:05:22] It’s three to five seconds and then they might be gone. If they’re not finding what they’re looking for, what do you want them to do? So you can’t say I want them to do every single thing. I want them to follow me on social media. I want them to call me, I want them to sign up for this. Like you have to prioritize it.

So the first thing you want is the first thing. We used to put it because clients always ask for it like social media links at the top of everybody’s website. If you think about it and that’s at the top of the website and you click on it and it takes you off of the website. So if your first thing is to get phone calls, take that shit off the top.

Don’t put that on there because that’s the first thing people are going to see. And you got to think like above the fold, which came from a newspaper, like a newspaper being folded, like the things that were on top are the most important. The same thing with a website it’s like above the scroll, but it’s still called above the fold.

You want whatever your most important thing is to be an and make sure that is the thing, not 50 things, not, not everything under the sun, but that one thing that you want them to do. So Sean, for Miles Through Time, what is the one thing. And when people go to the website, you think that is on there?

Sean: [00:06:27] It’s we have the pop-up so I want their email initially. Other than that it’s learn more about the museum. And then it’s a  contact in the sense of, I don’t need you to call. I don’t even need you to email. I want to tell you where it is so you can come and I know firsthand, I put as much information out there as I can as a whole, admission price, hours, contact. I got a Google map that shows you exactly where it is. I got all these things to hopefully answer everyone’s questions and I still get, how much is it? Are you open? Where is it? And all these things.

And then even like I explain exactly what makes Miles Through Time different unique, special. They still will wind up making it to the museum and have no idea. So it, it tells me firsthand and it should tell you that even if you put that stuff out there, your customers, your clients, they don’t see it.

Torie: [00:07:25] And that’s why I think it’s important to not overwhelm them above the fold and to make sure that you are prioritizing, what’s the most important because you. You gotta go the lowest denominator. You’ve got to go think of the busiest person, think of the most distracted person and make it so that they get like the one thing that you want them to do.

Because like Sean said, you’re not going to have a miss stuff. 

Sean: [00:07:49] If your business is a pizza joint and you do deliveries and you want people to order online, that very first thing, that’s the most simple in your face thing that your customer is looking at should be the order. Button, they click that button and start picking out your pizzas.

If it’s anything else it’s wrong. I mean that you’re confused. Like you’re not having them do what you want them to do. And that’s, it’s more common than you would think because you don’t think about that. You want to tell them how great you are and you use all these ingredients and then they’re like, okay, you sold me.

How do I order? And by then, You may have lost them. They’re like, this is too complicated. 

Torie: [00:08:25] How many times have we, a new client possibly coming to us and they’re like, we always want to take a look at people’s websites and see what we’re working with and stuff. And they say people aren’t contacting me.

I’m not getting sales. I’m like, you can’t even contact. There’s no, you can’t find contact information. Everything should be within one click or for contact information above the fold with no clicking at all. And it’s just something that’s really easily missed and so easily fixed. 

Sean: [00:08:49] Yeah. And it, if it’s not phone calls you want, and it’s, people, you want people to email you, the contact form is great, but you might want to think about actually putting an email address there as well, because.

Things can happen. You may not receive that form notification. 

Torie: [00:09:05] I think that’s too obtrusive and they may or may not want to give you that kind of information either. So you got to know your audience too. So not only like a balance of what you want them to do, but what they are willing to do as well.

Like for Sean’s though, he does want them to sign up for the the newsletter and things like that. A lot of your people are older. And so she gets a lot of phone calls, like older, like over 70 older that they might sign up for it, but their callers, they want the phone number, even though they could probably look all of this stuff they want to call and talk to somebody.

And so that is very readily available. And let me tell you, people call all day long. 

Sean: [00:09:40] In those phone calls, some of them might be. How do I get to you? Like literally I’ve got to tell them, you’re going to turn left here, turn right here, go down three blocks 

Torie: [00:09:52] because that’s your customers.

Sean: [00:09:55] I have a map that they could click and it’ll take them straight to where they need to be. That’s not what they want. 

Torie: [00:10:02] That’s amazing. I think it’s cute.

Sean: [00:10:05] And the biggest struggle I have with it is I’m not that familiar with every angle around the museum. So when they’re like, do I come from four 41, three, nine, five?

I don’t really know. So hopefully I’m in front of a computer or something, so I can type it in real quick. And I look at the Google map and I give them directions from there. Cause ultimately I don’t care what I have to do. I still want them to visit. 

Torie: [00:10:26] Another thing with this is to make sure that your website works on mobile and then make sure that, whatever that one thing is that you want your website to do, make sure that is very noticeable on mobile as well.

Like for your website you’d have to have the phone number up there, for me that might be a little bit different. Checking your. Website on desktop and checking your website on mobile. It might be a little bit different, but you got to think of people coming from different angles.

And that’s part of this whole defining your sales process. Like when somebody comes to your website, what do you want them to do then? What then what if somebody comes to your website on their mobile device, maybe that is. Different than if they are coming on a desktop like directions might be more important if they’re coming.

When you talk about the pizza place if they’re on their mobile, it’s possible that they’re looking for directions because they want to come to the place. So you gotta think of when they’re coming to your website, what do you want them to do? And then what, and then you just map out these different things and make sure that one thing is a priority.

And the, then what is the second thing not competing? Cause you don’t want too many things. And it’s so easy. I do it with my own stuff. Like I want them to do everything and you got to step back and maybe even have somebody else come to your website. Rather than you, maybe somebody not that works with you, somebody that’s completely unrelated to anything that you do and have them go to it and get, have them tell you and give you some feedback on that.

And that’s probably going to give you more because you have your own blind spots. When you get to use to your project to use to what you’re doing, it’s really easy to overlook that it’s like designing things. I will spend hours and hours designing things, and there will be a blatant spelling error in it.

Why? Because I am so close. To everything that I no longer see some of those little teeny things that I have to have somebody else go and look through it to find those things that I may have missed, because it’s so familiar with me that my brain is automatically filling stuff in that might not even be there missing words.

That’s why it’s always really great to get somebody completely outside to give you a third party unbiased opinion on what’s really happening. 

Sean: [00:12:23] I see. Even for miles at a time, every once in a while, I’ll get a phone call where somebody references something that’s completely out of date. Maybe it’s talking about consignment that we don’t do anymore, or even even within the last six months, I’ve been called about a vehicle that’s been for sale that sold three years ago.

And I’m like, Please tell me, where are you? 

Torie: [00:12:45] Where are you seeing that? 

Sean: [00:12:46] So I can fix it. And sometimes it’s not even on our website anymore, it’s got picked up and copied onto something else, but it still brings it back to me and it just causes confusion. 

Torie: [00:12:58] That’s another thing too, is that your sales process may happen. Or they even get to your website and not even when you’re on your website. So Google your business and see what actually is out there for your business and not just people don’t Google your name. Yes, you can Google your name. That’s fine. But see what comes up for that. But Google, what. Services you want and see what comes up, if you’re a specific car or something, you can Google that and see what comes up and that’s where you can fix some things and make sure that all those things that come up first if you’re searching automotive museum and the website doesn’t come up, and maybe. Maybe maybe your Facebook page comes up well, then make sure that your Facebook page also has whatever that one thing you want them to do. And if it’s sales, make sure that starting that sales process, if it’s phone calls, make sure that is front and center and that, because I hate going to Facebook and I’m looking for a phone like.

They keep rearranging stuff. And so you gotta dig sometimes for information. So think about if somebody, if your phone calls, don’t make people dig for that phone number, maybe you need to put that in your top banner so that people automatically see it. And they don’t have to scroll down on their phone and look for, the about section and then cause basically 

Sean: [00:14:05] Some people, they don’t even use the Facebook messenger feature.

But they don’t remove it. So you have people that, that use it and they never get a response. Then you’re losing, because I know one specifically that I take one of our cars too. And I, sometimes they don’t answer the phone cause it’s a smaller shop and they’re, they’re working and I get all that.

But they have a Facebook page and I’d used it before, but then they stopped interacting with me and it was, there’s a pretty big gap there between service. And I actually commented on there or messaged them on there. I’m like, are you guys even open still? Cause there’s no sign of any life, and so I’m like, man, maybe, this COVID stuff killed his business and I don’t know. Yeah. But I wound up getting ahold of him. Anyways. I wound up having a window of time where I called them and they answered and I talked to him about it. Yeah, we don’t really check that. I’m like maybe you should remove it now.

Torie: [00:14:58] And you can remove that from, if you are not a call button, it’s kinda that’d be like me putting my phone number and then not answering. And people are like, dang Torie you’re an asshole. You never answer your phone call. I never planned on it. So I took the web, I took the phone number off.

It’s not on there 

Sean: [00:15:11] Instead of the messenger I’m in put it so that they can only call you or put it to the learn more. And it takes them to a contact page directly to the contact page of their website, which then, says call or maybe they have a scheduling form or anything like that. But clean off that stuff, if you’re not going to utilize it, don’t even have it as an option.

Torie: [00:15:30] Absolutely. And so thinking of what your website is doing. We talked about maybe it’s for getting directions or maybe it’s for phone number, maybe it’s just to build authority and show that you’re great. Maybe it is. We have a couple clients that their website, like they use it a little bit for like a brochure style to give information, but it’s mostly for onboarding their clients.

Because they’re finding them through we have some medical people, so they get a lot of their clients from insurance. So insurance is bringing them to their website and then they just need to onboard them. So we made sure that the onboarding and the forms are first and foremost, and Sean has lots to say about forms, right?

If you’re going to have forms on your website, you have to make the forums easy for people to use, and you can totally do that. It’s not very hard. It just, you got to think about it ahead of time. What do you, what are your clients doing when they’re coming to their website? If they’re going to fill out forms, you need to have them so that they’re easy to fill out, right?

Sean: [00:16:22] Yeah. It drives me nuts in today’s world. If you’ve got forms that you are, a lot of times I’ve seen them there. They’re photocopied versions as a form that looked like crap, that you’re then asking somebody to download off the website to then print out, to then fill out to then upload. And send back to you.

Torie: [00:16:44] Sean has done a lot of fixing people’s forms. 

Sean: [00:16:46] It’s awful. You can create a nice clean PDF, make it fillable. So all somebody has to do is click that button as a PDF and opens up a new tab in a website. They can type in all their information, click save and email it back to you. It never gets printed.

It’s super easy. It’s saved digital copies already. It’s clean, nothing looks photocopied. No. Crooked, didn’t print, and you can only see half the words, like there’s all kinds of get rid of all that crap and make it easy. Eliminate the extra steps, 

Torie: [00:17:16] Thats the key to all of this. Like sometimes again, you have those blind spots or you’ve kept adding and adding and adding things to your website or your Facebook page or whatever it is.

And it’s no longer easy. Like sometimes you got to take a step back. And take a look like, take a real look at what’s going on and see if things are still easy for your customer. And maybe things have changed. Maybe you used to take phone calls and now you want them to click a proposal form, get a free quote or something.

So maybe if things changed, maybe you need to go back and make sure that it’s what you want it to do now, what you want it to do today because things change and that’s okay. That’s the best thing about the, what the web like the internet is that. Change your mind change it tomorrow. Like you can change it right now. Five minutes from now. It’s like totally different. 

Sean: [00:17:59] Easy to update. 

Torie: [00:18:01] Absolutely. So if you like this episode, we would super appreciate it. If you would share this with somebody, if you know somebody that would think this is great information. Why not hit the share button, we would always appreciate it. And we will catch you on the next one.

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