Web 101: it's a sales brochure, stupid!

Hopefully you're already sold on the fact that you need a web site. Now we're planning what should be presented therein.

Remember to give your customers a point of action that’s easy, like visiting your easy-to-remember web site, the half-step between your advertising and your brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, it should identify clear benefits to the visitors.

Every step of marketing is a sales pitch. From the first words in your advertising, you're trying to convince people to stay with you throughout the pitch. Later in the process, you're asking prospects to take specific actions. After they've visited your web site, the next step should be clear: to call, email or visit.

Unless you're closing the deal on an ecommerce web site, its purposes should be as sales literature and a point of contact, not a dumping ground for hard-nosed disclaimer speak, dry facts and boring data that makes legitimate prospects cringe.

Some business people have become hardened by a few unappreciative customers. Don't let your resentment be your prospects' first impression of you. Focus on the same benefits one would find in your printed brochures.