It doesn’t matter what type of business model you use—B2B or B2C. Your website should be a sales tool. There is little value in investing money into building a website that fails to recognize the potential your website has for filling your sales funnel. Too many authors view their website as something they need to promote their book, but nothing more.
Unfortunately, too many authors think a website must be filled with hard sales copy to be a sales tool. This couldn’t be further from the truth. While there is a place for sales pages and squeeze pages, the primary goal of your author website should to make the whole website experience customer oriented.
#1 Reason to Build Reader Oriented Websites
A website that serves prospects before they become customers leads to customer confidence.
We all know that the competition on the internet is stiff. It can also be very stiff for local traffic as well. Your website must differentiate you from your competitors. Your readers are tired of being sold to. They don’t like being talked at. They want to feel that you are there for them.
There are several ways your website can serve readers from the moment they first arrive there.
- Provide customer supportive features such as FAQs and a forum that allows existing and potential readers to ask questions (and discuss your book).
- Treat prospects as though they are already valuable customers. Give them access to the kind of information that answers their questions.
- Include informative videos on how to experience the most benefit from your book. Avoid videos that are sales oriented. Instead, focus video content on educating and informing.
- Offer a place where customers can leave feedback about your book. If you’ve truly written an excellent book, you won’t have to worry too much about “negative” feedback. Look at negative feedback as an opportunity to show what your business is really all about.
- Ensure your book descriptions are clear and detailed.
- Use top-quality photographs, using multiple views if possible.
- Don’t write hard-sell content. Use content that is customer-need’s focused and informative. Include calls to take action, but don’t pressure with the “this offer only lasts for the next 24 hours” pitch.
These are all basic things that aren’t difficult to implement. They are easy to build into the website as it is developed.
Additional features that engage customers can also help.
Depending on the market niche your book serves, you may want to include other features that create a positive customer experience.
- Financial sites may benefit from adding different types of calculators—mortgage, investment, tax, etc.
- Some authors benefit from adding an interactive online forum where their customers can share tips. Look at Microsoft. Their forums turn users into their product support service. It’s a model that works.
- Live chat can be a tool for closing a sale or retaining a customer.
- Provide order tracking if you direct ship your books. It helps to keep readers happy.
When you approach your website as a customer service tool from the start, it will show through. The message you deliver is far more likely to achieve the positive results you want. When readers feel confident that you are going to deliver massive value, your reader base will grow.
Denise Rutledge writes website content from a marketing perspective. She teaches her clients how to engage with their potential readers through her membership site, WritingMyOwnBook.com.
