Should Generating Revenue From A Website Be The Prime Motivator?
A pure sales site has only one purpose... to generate as much revenue as possible at any cost. In other words, your experience--good or bad--is inconsequential to the ultimate goal of the site and may well sacrifice customer satisfaction to make a sale.
How many times have you gone back to buy from a website you've had a lousy experience with? My guess is not very often. I know I don't. How many times have you gone back to buy from a website you've had a great experience with? What was the difference between the two experiences? Do you think the website you had the great experience with was a customer oriented site? And, might it be the other website you had the bad experience with was a sales oriented website?
A business can't survive very long if it's prime motivator is purely focused on sales and revenue. Sure, it may last for a while, but not long-term.
As webmasters and marketers, we must strive to create a long-term business relationship between ourselves and our customers so that they will continue to buy from us for as long as they have a need or desire for our products or services.
No One Does It Better Than Amazon.com
Arguably, http://amazon.com is one of the largest customer oriented and successful website businesses on the planet. They're proof that "build a customer oriented website and they will come." They go out of their way to personalize the shopping experience for every single person.
When I visit Amazon.com, I see a very different selection of products than Linda, my wife, sees when she goes shopping. They know what I've purchased in the past and understand my buying habits. They also understand that my buying habits are different than Linda's and are different than yours. So, they tailor the individual experience for each of us. It makes us feel like the site has been designed around our specific desires.
Amazon.com has gone to a tremendous amount of effort to individualize our experiences. Why? Customers are their prime motivator. Would it have been easier and cheaper to build a strictly sales oriented, sales motivated website? Sure. Would they be the most successful website on the planet if they had done that? Do I really need to answer that?
Customer Oriented, Customer Motivated Website
Okay, so you get the drift of where I'm going with this. You may not be out to kick Amazon.com from the top of the ladder, but the principles are applicable to any website whether you're selling one product or millions of products.
With that in mind, you've decided that your website is going to be customer oriented whereby customers are the prime motivator and your business will revolve around their satisfaction.
You already know from your past experiences that customers will go back to websites where their experiences have been positive. You also understand that the web's a finicky place and it's a "one strike and you're out" business environment. Therefore, you're going to develop your website using your own experiences as a customer as your guide.
What did or didn't you like about the websites you've done business with in the past? What brings you back to the ones you've had good experiences with time after time?
Give Your Customers What They Want
Customer oriented websites will win out over sales oriented sites every time and for the long haul. Develop your customer oriented website to ensure them a satisfying experience and they will tell their friends about you and so the word gets around. Pretty soon your site will be flooded with friends of friends of friends who will all become life-time customers. Lots of happy, satisfied and paying customers means a long-term, profitable and prosperous business. Enough said?
Author Bio:
John Wright is the co-founder and vice president of Your Site Solutions (http://amazon.com) and has many years in the Internet industry. John's experience covers website development, copy writing, deployment and marketing.
Your Site Solutions is a single source provider of e-commerce software, hosting, products and services to meet the needs of tomorrow's Internet businesses.
If you've a website but not making a lot of... Read More
Creating your own website is great fun! But how is... Read More
If you own a web site or if you are... Read More
Why your site should be developed with CSS and semantic... Read More
Some wise human once said "Learn from the mistakes of... Read More
Unarguably, the most important part of your website is content.... Read More
There are two important reasons to build your website from... Read More
There is nothing wrong with making your own website if... Read More
There is unlimited possibilities when it comes to designing a... Read More
Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For... Read More
Here are 10 dynamic website advertising tactics to super-charge your... Read More
There is no doubt that reprint articles can serve lots... Read More
It's a fact, Page Not Found, known as a 404... Read More
We've all surfed the web and seen some awful web... Read More
QUESTION: My business is very small, just me and... Read More
Automating your online business is one of the most important... Read More
Just about every list of the "Top 10 Web Design... Read More
Not all links are created equal.While all of your links... Read More
Never put form over function. Why? Because it's crucial that... Read More
Drop Capitals are frequently used in many newspapers, books and... Read More
Here is a quick list of components that make a... Read More
You just created a new web site but want to... Read More
The title tags of your web pages are more important... Read More
Flash is a powerful technology that can help you create... Read More
Page ranking by search engines such as Google are not... Read More
shuttle from O'Hare Alexander ..When your company built its website, did you think about... Read More
Never put form over function. Why? Because it's crucial that... Read More
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative... Read More
You've thought about it and you're ready to go. You're... Read More
We've all seen and read product testimonials. They're a very... Read More
Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini... Read More
Are you building a direct sales or mlm business online?... Read More
We've all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make... Read More
Websites, there are literally billions of them out there in... Read More
Do know your audienceIt's important to know your audience. If... Read More
The HTML editor is usually a webpage design software that... Read More
Your web site should always adhere to standards!A professional web... Read More
Just what is web copy? Some people think that web... Read More
In this article I will give advice and tips of... Read More
Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important... Read More
This is my second article on maximising web site viewability.... Read More
For most people graphic design does not come easy. Unfortunately... Read More
In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a... Read More
I've seen articles (and websites) that suggest you can buy... Read More
Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the,... Read More
Why your site should be developed with CSS and semantic... Read More
Home PageHome page should clearly indicate what the site is... Read More
Mechanical spiders have to eat. In fact, they usually have... Read More
The most popular method to build webpages today is to... Read More
No matter what product or service you're promoting, unless you... Read More
Web Design |