So, you want people to come to your website. You want them to read it. You want them to buy your product or service, or submit a request for quote. You want… want… want!! Hrumph… well, what do your visitors want? Ever ask yourself that question?
I’ll let you in on a small secret. NO ONE wants to hear about you, your life or your business. They don’t give a damn about the patient you saw last week, the services you offer or how great you are. They care about themselves.
People are selfish when it comes to information. They’re only interested in something when they learn “what’s in it for them.” Your website is pretty much useless to them if it doesn’t contain the information they need.
So, how do I make content centered around them and not me?
It’s sorta like when you want someone to like you. How do you do it? You ask them interesting questions about themselves and then talk about the topics that they seem to be the most interested in. You ask them lots of questions, nod your head knowingly and pretend to be equally interested in EXACTLY the same thing. If you can talk intelligently about the topic without dominating the conversation, all the better. Remember, you’re talking with, not at, the person.
The same applies to the web! Analytics helps you to ask the questions. The stats and figures provided by analytics tells you what your visitors want to know about. Then you create content focused on what appeals to THEM, not you! Change your website so it caters to your visitors. (Companies like October 17 can help).
So how does it work… gimme an example.
You’re a chiropractor in ABC town. You have a new practice with a few regular patients. You want to attract more clients and encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. Some of the things you can do to start the process of getting to know your visitors are:
- Put content on your website that tells them how they can contact you, who your practitioners are and the latest news about your clinic.
- Add an articles section to educate people.
- Add a few videos and case studies about the services you offer.
- Make sure your newsletter signup and contact information is prominent on every page.
- Add google analytics or a similiar program to start tracking statistics about your visitors and how they interact with your site.
- Hunker down with your online marketing team (like ours) to review and strategize. Once you have achieved the above you can begin to examine what works best for your particular audience. Discover what who they are and what they need.
Yep, that’s right, currently you don’t know what your potential customers want. Analyzing the situation from a user standpoint will help.
So, think to yourself: Who are the people that ideally will visit my site?
For example, if you were a chiropractic clinic you might ask yourself, “Who are my ideal patients?” Are they:
- Residents of ABC town who’ve never been to a chiropractor before.
- Residents of ABC town who have a chiropractor but are looking for a new clinic.
- Residents of ABC town who are looking to participate in another service your clinic offers (massage, naturopath, orthopedics, etc)
- Residents of ABC town who have specific physical ailments and are looking into the available treatment options (e.g. physiotherapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, etc.)
- Residents of ABC town who are already current patients, but who misplaced your address or phone number and need it quickly to get in contact with you.
- Random people who just ‘find’ your site.
Once you have answers to questions like these you can begin to create web content that answers the questions your audience is asking, content that appeals to your users emotionally. Copy that provides them with what they need at that given moment. If you continue to talk about yourself, they won’t listen for long. The main reason your audience is searching the web is to obtain information that suits them, not you.
Need help getting started? You can give October17media a call, we’re specialists in helpful marketing stuff like this.
