Although Thanet Star has announced the One Pound Advert offer I will be running a series of additional offers and bonuses shortly. Before that I want to look at some of the issues involved in running an on-line advertising campaign. Specifically I want to look at what your website will need in order to make sales in any economic environment.

I do not think it matters if you have heard some of these common sense basics of online business before because we can all do with a refresher. Selling, especially in an economically depressed area like Thanet, is never easy. To close that sale you need to show how you and your product meet a need and frankly most business websites fail totally to even be in the right ball park.

I don't want to just sell you a few adverts I want to help you to use those adverts to make sales. This is something I can do reasonably for you but it is something that you will do best. I want to help you get the best from advertising on Thanet Star.

To do this we are going to look at the needs of the "average" Thanet resident and how you can meet this to create sales and leads through your website. I want to help you to boost the communication, sales planning, market knowledge, appeal, visibility and, of course, consumer confidence in and of your online marketing effort.

What is a website that sells?

I covered some of the details of how to build a site in "Setting up a personal or business website" and "You don't have to be a geek to understand SEO" while showing you one of the pitfalls of investing in the wrong thing in "TDC and the real black hole".

So I'm not going to go into too much detail as to the specific nuts and bolts of building a website and getting some of the fine detail correct. I am however going to talk about the focus and aim of the site which will inform both the design and the content. To get this right you need to start with the right mind set.

It is often said that "selling is dead" and to a point this is true. You are not trying to "sell" so much as draw people towards a purchase. On the Internet there is so much choice, so many sites, so much information that unless you meet a need, solve a problem or satisfy a desire then people are going to forget you and your site as soon as they click to a new site.

The old school of "hard sell" does not cut it with customers any more (if ever it did). In order to commission of build a website that it is worth driving targeted traffic towards you need to learn and understand what works and what falls flat. The average person wants to buy but not to be "sold to" and your site, it's content and it's design must reflect this.

Overdue Revelation for Online Sales in the Real World

The only reason for running a series of adverts is to build your customer base and increase your sales. To do that online you need two things:

1. A Compelling Sales Visibility (advert)
2. A site that satisfies some innate need of your potential customer

You need to resonate with the customer and make your pages come alive. While this in and of itself will not meet a specific need nor solve a specific problem for your visitor it will enable you to attempt to do this. You will have, at least, engaged with your visitor.

Resonate with the customer

Selling is a science as well as an art - offering the right product at an acceptable price is only the start. Once you have the product that a customer might need you must find a way to connect with your customer in order to convey your message. A template based five page corporate brochure might sell well to the board but will be a cold turn off to your market.

In short without a site that potential customers can warm to you will need to spend a vast fortune to see even modest results. Don't get me wrong - I'd love for you to hand over every spare penny in your budget but I would much rather see you grow as a result. To do this you need to think somewhat differently.

How can you make your pages come alive to your visitors?

This is different for every business - there is no "one size fits all" answer. You are going to have to understand the people to whom you wish to sell your product or service. Your top priority is to find out what your potential customers do so that you can help them do it better by selling into their priorities.

If you are thinking "well duh!" I could have told you that then good. It is that simple and any good salesperson should be able to tell you as much. Why then is this commonsense not applied to your website?

You would think that this would be obvious but very few sites achieve this. The website for Michael's bookshop, for example, is an example of poor SEO and not especially stunning design but it has what counts most - it is a fantastic example of meeting a need and solving a problem. Michael's site provides plenty of information around the products he sells so that there is something worthwhile to visit the site for. When it comes to selling Michael is a man who knows what he is doing.

Specific things that bring a site to life

There are a number of common elements that are almost universally true across all websites that sell and the more of these you can naturally incorporate within your site (and especially the page to which your advertising traffic is sent) the better and more effective your site will be.

• Flow and structure - your content and navigation need to be obvious, intuitive and logical. By removing barriers to visitors exploration you reduce the chances of distraction and so keep them at your site longer. If you spend much time on the Thanet Council website you will know it's none to easy to use - as such information that exists on the site is often not obtained by the very people that are looking for it. Don't make this error.
• Social Proof - most people like to follow the crowd. It's a simple fact. If you can show that a lot of people already enjoy your product then other people are likely to follow them. People in Thanet (as else where) have little money to spare and will be looking for clues that your product is where they will spend it.
• Freedom to explore - give your customer the freedom to investigate you and your product on their own own terms. Allow the visitor to pick and choose specific pages, topics and products whilst guiding them towards the sales commitment.
• Community - people like to be around other people. By creating a community around your product you build a loyal audience that is regularly exposed to your product and, therefore, easy to sell to.
• Reciprocity - if you give a person something then they will, on the whole, want to reciprocate. If there is something you can give for free then give it. While there is no direct revenue from this the indirect draw and feeling of connectivity will increase the rate at which you convert visitors to customers.
• Empathy - people want to be understood. We all want to feel like we are important - fulfil this need and you create that necessary connection with a potential customer. The feeling in Thanet more than many other parts of the UK is that the average person is not being listened to - fulfil the need to be understood and you will obtain a strong consumer loyalty as a result.
• Commitment - once a person has said or written that they endorse a particular view then they will often "dig in" and defend that view. If you can draw an emotional or social commitment from a visitor then you have done the hard work already.
• Implied or actual scarcity - when there is a limited supply people will act instinctively to avoid missing out. Limited time offers are a classic example of this truth. They are used so often because they work. People in Thanet are familiar with the idea that there is little to go around so the instinct to "grab it while it is there" is very strong.

Final Thoughts

Everything that I have covered above needs to come together in a single page. The page that you will send all of your visitors to. In advertising speak this is called "the landing page" and it is the single most important copy on your entire site. This page (and the site as a whole) must quickly and accurately present the visitor with a reason to stay and a reason to buy.

If your current "webmaster", "web designer" or whatever he or she calls themselves does not provide you with a website and landing page that is able to provide this then I must ask you why you are paying them to present the single most effective and important salesperson on your team - the website itself?

I make no secret of the fact that I can and will provide solutions tailored to your company's strengths and that I will help you examine the questions raised here to enable your site to do something useful with the visitors it draws from advertising not just on this site, but on every site you choose to advertise on.

However, I am aware that the economy of Thanet is not strong and many smaller enterprises will wish to attempt the website equivalent of DIY in order to save money. For some this might work but for many the income improvement gained by hiring an expert can more than pay for the amount spent. Talk to me if you would like a quote.

However you choose to go about creating and tuning your site it is vital that the site is ready to do something with your visitors before you buy advertising from me, from Google or from any other site. The reason is simple - all the adverts in the world can only encourage the view to "click to find out more" - the "more" is what you provide.

So I challenge you to break out of your non-productive patterns, to forge brand new relationships with other human beings and to turn promising prospects into repeat customers. Part of this is getting people to the site but a whole load is the site itself. I know that the businesses in Thanet can make new sales in the current economic situation - even at a time when many people are folding - and I want you to be a part of that.