Website Strategy: Be findable. Be trustable. Be remarkable. Episode #3 #InTheLab
Be Findable
Building a website that no one can find and that no ones shares is like putting up a billboard in a wheat field near Davidson. It’s a waste of time and money. Why did you make a website in the first place? Why do you feel you need to be on the world wide web? If you can get your goal down to a simple, measurable, achievable outcome, you can now start working towards that goal.
No one really needs a website. They need a place where potential customers can find an address, phone number, specials, menu, hours of operation, who’s working Saturday, community involvement, what they care about, what they are interested in, how they approach problems, basically their story. Stop thinking you need a website and start thinking about what your future customers are looking for. What’s the biggest problem your potential customers are going to need help with?
Be Trustable
Just because you’re on the front page of Google doesn’t mean people are going to buy what you’re selling. If we get to your website and it isn’t easy to find what we’re looking for or looks like it was built with Dream Weaver you aren’t going to make the sale. If we don’t see your face on your “about us” page how do we really know it’s you behind the company? There are too many options out there and your competitors are getting smarter every day. The sooner you build trust the sooner you have a chance to convert a casual visitor into a raving fan.
You goal of your website is to get a visitor to want to come back to your website one more time. It’s not to make a sale today, it’s not to get them to buy now, it’s not to get someone to donate on the first visit, your goal is to build trust, trust enough that they would offer you their email address to subscribe to your newsletter/blog.
Be Remarkable
What’s YOUR moustache? What’s your superpower? What’s your blue ocean? What’s your “it” factor? Are you making the world a better place? Are you building something spectacular? Are you creating something the world really needs? What do people say about you when you leave the room? You may be remarkable already and not even know it.
I really like from Seth Godin’s Tribes. A simple three questions to ask about the Tribe you’re building, Who are you leading? Who are you upsetting? Who are you connecting?
As much a technology is ruling our world, we’re in more and more need for human connection. To be a part of something bigger than ourselves. A community, a group of some sorts, an organization you affiliate with. We all wanted to be on a team, cast, troop, project, or unit because relying on others and others relying on us is how you learn leadership, it’s how you learn responsibility.
There’s no class to learn responsibility, there’s no class to learn about ourselves in a major way. You have to go out on a limb and do something remarkable. Something worth talking about. Agreeing to do more than you are capable of. To do the impossible (or what you think is impossible but is just really another feat you’re going to surpass on the life long path of exponential learning).
Yes it’s exponential learning, it’s no longer linear. It’s no longer wait your turn, learn what you’re taught, it’s find what you’re interested in and take a deep dive. If we truly love a subject, we’re going to research it more, look into it further and spend more time trying to breakdown every different aspect on that topic. That makes learning enjoyable.
Your company needs to build experts, those are people who get better and better all the time. In the future everyone will be an expert at something. Be so good at something that people can’t help but talk about you. That’s truly remarkable.