Attention medical manufacturers, distributors, and business owners:
Congratulations, you have entered the digital age and built a website for your company! Unfortunately, a simple website is not enough anymore. Having a website just means that you have an internet presence, well so does my grandma. It’s essentially like having a building on a street with a unique address. The real question you have to ask yourself is, “What do you want to do with that building?" If you are a medical manufacturer, distributor, or business owner, my guess is that you have that building for one reason, to promote sales.
How Do You Promote Sales With a Website?
Think of your website as your store on Internet Street and ask yourself these questions:
-
How easy is it for potential customers to find? Are there good directions?
-
Once they find it, what does the store look like? Is it inviting to enter and look around?
-
When the customer enters your store, how easy is it for them to find what they want? And how easy is it for them to actually buy this product from your internet store?
-
How can they be sure that this particular product is best for them, and that this is the best place to buy it?
-
How can you encourage this customer to be a repeat customer?
Can Your Customers Find You?
In the olden days people used the Yellow Pages to find brick and mortar locations, now they use internet search engines like Google to locate the products or services they are interested in. The key to being easily found on the internet is to create high quality and easily shared content, that is relevant to your target customer (aka target persona). While it's much easier said than done, it's critical to establishing your digital presence.
How Is Your Curb Appeal?
As someone who watches an embarrassing amount of HGTV, I know the importance of curb appeal. It makes or breaks the sale. The same principle applies to your website. Once people find your site, will they like what they see? Is your homepage clean, neat and bright? Or is it dull, cluttered and overly busy? Does it draw the potential customer in to look around or does it leave them bewildered and wondering where to go next?
What Makes You Different From the Competition?
The customer needs to know that they are getting the most bang for their buck. So, as any good sales clerk knows, you have to provide information personalized to the customer’s needs. That sales clerk also knows to be personable, genuine and sincere. The same principle applies to your website. “People buy from people they trust”. You need to promote and support your honesty and integrity with testimonials, videos, and personal statements of vision, mission, and commitment.
In addition, you should serve as a source of education for your customers. Resources like product literature, blogs, infographics, eBooks, and videos help your customer feel as though they are well-informed and assured of their decision to purchase from you.
To take this one step further, it is helpful to your sales staff to have access to restricted areas of your website for special promotions information, sample requests, sales report filings, customer relations management (CRM) programs, etc.
“Did You Find Everything Ok?”
I hear this question every time I check out of a store. However, it should not only be reserved for a physical store. It is also a question you should pose for the customer of your virtual store. It also serves as a way of checking your site’s navigation. Can your customer easily find the part of your website where the desired product or service is located? The open navigation approach is like most grocery or hardware stores where the customer easily goes from one area to another. A restricted navigation approach is more like an Ikea store where the customer travels a predetermined route through the store as a whole. You will need to determine what navigation approach works best for you and that the customer can actually purchase their desired products with ease.
Foster Lasting Relationships
Figure out what works with your customers and build on that information. One of the neat things about inbound marketing is the scope of information that can be gleaned and used in creative ways.
I know this is a lot to handle, but in the end, it will help you utilize your website to promote sales. For more help in developing user-friendly websites, inbound and outbound marketing strategies, and assessing outcome analytics, feel free to contact us at KBK Communications.
