We’ve just finished painting the house, fixing up the barn and raking the yard. Our house is looking pretty good these days. And I just put a whole pile of nice dry leaves in the chicken coop (much to the consternation of the chickens who thought it was a herd of foxes and hawks combining forces)
It’s really nice to pull in the driveway and see things in (relative) order.
However, I was brought up short by my virtual home . . . and its need for some TLC.
See, it’s easy to get excited about the traffic you can drive to your website with social marketing.
I’ve already seen an increase in activity since I’ve stepped up my presence on LinkedIn and even tweeted a bit.
But then what . . .?
What do they do when they get to your website – your home?
Thanks to a couple kind visitors, I found out that my website had several broken links and some squirley publishing problem that my software support person had to send me a video about to fix! Which led me to examine my analytics closer and try to figure out what’s happening for my visitors.
I want them not just dropping by, but leaving their calling card. Hey, even giving me a call for my copywriting/ marketing services or grabbing a great course off my website.
So, with all this getting busy in the social marketing sphere, I’ve realized I need to go back to basics, too. I’d like to be spending my weekend unlocking the secrets of Twitter. But I’ve decided to refocus on home base.
Here’s what I’m looking at for starters:
- Fix those broken links. Can’t invite people into a condemned home.
- Think carefully about the different paths my visitors are taking . . . and what I want them to take.
- Look at my website and ask myself for each page, what do I want my visitor to do here? Each page is an opportunity to convert – the question is to what?
- Revise copy, design, links to get my visitors on these paths.
- Then, get back on Twitter and unlock its secrets.
Pam Foster, web-writing queen, has put together a great web copy checklist that I’m certainly going to put to use for my own web site . . . as well as my clients’. You might like to take a look at it. It’s superb.
http://www.awaionline.com/2009/11/client-friendly-web-copy-checklist/
So get engaged with social marketing – it’s a great way to build a buzz and get some traffic.
But make sure they don’t just come swerving through your house like a bat out of hell. Give them some direction, serve some tea and cookies and encourage them to linger for a while and sign the guest-list at the very least.
What do you have on your website checklist?
