Today’s guest post is from Lisa Verdi of MindfulBIZ. Lisa is sharing some strategies for tweaking your website to line up with the goals of your business. Be sure to read to the end of the post for a chance to win a website critique from Lisa!
Some designers and makers get caught up in the hoopla of starting a creative business and focus on the how-to details while avoiding the difficult big questions. I’m referring to the who, what, and why behind your creative venture.
But that’s not you! You’ve been devouring the wisdom at Crafting an MBA and have a business plan that describes the unique approach that sets you apart, the people who will want what you create and how you’ll attract those people to you.
Great! But have you put your business plan into action on your website?
Your website is your primary tool for promoting and selling your products and services. If there’s a disconnect between your business plan and your website, you’re missing out on a lot of sales.
Most people won’t make a purchase the first time they come to your website. That’s a big leap.
You need to create a series of small steps that people can take that moves them toward working with you or shopping at your online store. This gives potential customers the opportunity to get to know, like and trust you.
This is called a sales funnel or marketing funnel or purchase path, and it starts with knowing your end game.
Make time today to revisit your business plan. Does it outline your sales funnel? If not, create a visual business plan to see how everything fits together. Write “my website” in the center of a piece of paper. Use arrows to map out the flow from marketing activities to lead generation to the eventual sale of products and services.
Once you know your sales funnel it will be clear what you want people to do when they visit your website. Then you can put your business plan into action on your website with a really obvious call-to-action that guides people down the purchase path. You may ask people to subscribe to your newsletter, request a sample or a free report, sign up for a wholesale account or contact you to get a quote for custom artwork. It all depends on your website goals.
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Want to find out what to change about your website or blog to make it get the results you need?
You could win an impartial first impression review of your website or blog by Lisa Verdi (value $75). The winner will learn specific strategies to boost the effectiveness of her/his website or blog (excludes Etsy shops). The winner’s assessment will posted here at CraftMBA so everyone can get some tips about creating an effective website.
To enter this contest, email lisa [ at ] mindfulbiz.com with “Crafting an MBA contest” in the subject line and include your website or blog url in the message. For one extra entry, tweet this post and include @lisaverdi to be sure it gets counted. The winner will be randomly selected and contacted by email. Contest closes at 12am EST on Thursday, April 21, 2011.
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Lisa Verdi knows that an effective website is the pathway to a sustainable creative business. Sign up at MindfulBIZ and get the free plan to let go of the stuff that gets in the way of growing your creative business. Connect with her on Twitter @lisaverdi.
I love the idea of drawing a sales funnel. As a visual artist, it’s much easier for me to understand than writing out a business plan that looks like a grant proposal. Thank you!
I am very visual so the the idea of seeing the business plan as a sales funnel or path resonates with me.
A big thank you to everyone who entered this contest. The tools at random.org were used to pick the winner. Congratulations to David of DACustomFrames.com for winning the website assessment! It will be posted here on Crafting an MBA soon.
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