Your web site is a valuable tool in making the sale. Information is a valuable tool in making the sale.

Where your web site fits into your sales cycle determines how to present information.

Information makes the sale

Let’s say you own a restaurant. People visit your web site to see what’s on the menu and what it costs. They also want to get a look at the photos, to see if your place suits their plans—be it for a business lunch, a family after-church-brunch, or a romantic dinner. Your web site falls at the end of the sales cycle: The next step is for your site visitor to decide to come—to make a reservation or just walk through your door.

Sites similarly at the end of the cycle include movie theaters, cultural events, and attractions such as museums, zoos, and fairs. E-commerce sites, too, are all about the sale, whether you’re selling books, cosmetics, shoes, kitchen supplies, or fishing tackle.

For such sites, information has to be complete, accurate and easy to find.

• Photos are vital pieces of information!
• For your written information, consider the reading level of your target audience. If you’re running a family-friendly business (such as the State Fair), prepare content as if 6^th graders were reading it. They are.

Information moves toward the sale

Let’s say you’re a landscape architect. People visit your site to learn about you, about your services your offer, and to see examples of your work (and get a sense if they can afford you.)

Your web site is in the middle of the sale: You don’t expect them to call and hire you on the spot. You want them to want to know more. You want to know more! So give them information that makes them want to know more, that makes them want to talk to you.

Several next steps follow. First you talk, then you both might decide to move forward—or not. Perhaps an initial meeting comes next—certainly you’ve got to look at their property so you can prepare them a bid. And they’ll ask you for references so they can check with previous customers.

Your web site does not make the sale; it helps the sales process move further toward completion.

Sites similarly in the middle of the sales process include consulting businesses and other professional services as well as many health care services, and also construction and landscape work and other such services that depend heavily on the customer’s subjective input.

For such sites, information has to be accurate and easy to find. It needn’t be complete.

• Of course, I don’t mean it should be incomplete. But, because the next step is for your site visitor to contact you, the site needs to tell them what they need to know to make that next step—and nothing more. 
• Information doesn’t necessarily rely on photos (necessary on a landscape designer’s site but not for a CPA).
• The text can be sophisticated, because you are speaking to adults (and you are qualifying their suitability to be your client).

Information also educates your customer and establishes you as an expert. Next week I’ll talk about how to use information to keep people on your site, and bring them back to it often.