In the modern era of sales, your ability to maximize the efficiency of your web presence can be considered one of the defining traits of a superior sales force. Email, social media presence, and websites serve much the same purposes today as phone calls, in-person networking, pamphlets, and storefronts, adding an entire new dimension to any multimedia sales campaign. In this article, we’ll be focusing our attention on ways to increase sales with your website-your digital storefront, informative brochure, and yellow pages ad, all rolled in to one vital presence. So read on, and discover four simple ways a well-designed website can increase sales.  

Image. 

Above all else, your website serves to increase sales by improving the image of your company and your brand. This works on almost countless levels, starting with the simple fact that ‘good companies have good websites’ in the minds of most prospects. A shoddy, low-effort website with a dearth of useful information or poor navigation will leave an impression that sales people engaging those prospects later will have to work hard to overcome, assuming the prospect ever even makes contact.

You website can also control your image in other ways-you don’t want the top mention of your company or product online to be something from a competitor or disgruntled reviewer. You want to control the narrative with your own content, as much as possible. First impressions count for a lot, so building a strong website that leaves a strong first impression can make a break a company.

Seeds. 

A website can be utilized as a way to plant seeds for later purchases and thus increase sales in the long term. If, for example, you maintain a website with excellent tangential content that sees a lot of traffic, your product will be the solution first to mind if any of your visitors finds themselves needing such a thing. You’re not necessarily trying to sell with any of your content-rather, you’re establishing yourself as a paramount authority in an area that will likely generate sales down the line.

Pipeline.

In a more direct approach, your website should serve as a viable line into your sales pipeline. Collecting information for opt-in email, contact forms for simple questions, phone numbers, and every way you can think of to pull a prospect into your sales pipeline can be utilized on your website to increase sales. Presumably, anyone visiting your website is prime for being pulled into your pipeline-make sure you have as many unobtrusive avenues into your system as possible.

Direct sales. 

Some customers visit your website because they want to buy from you. It’s in your best interest, if you wish to increase sales that you allow them to do so. Whatever your product, whatever the complexities involved in a sale of your services or materials, there’s almost certainly a viable way to sell it over the internet. It’s a maxim in every other form of sales, and it applies just as well to your website as it does to phone calls, emails, flyers, and sales meetings: If a customer wants to buy, let them buy. You gain nothing from obfuscating and delaying. If a prospect wants to buy here and now, they should be able to-or they’ll go to a competitor and buy THERE and now.

These are just a few of the myriad ways a website can be used to increase sales. The baseline secret behind all of these is this: think broader and think like a customer. Any tactic you can use in other areas of sales can be utilized with your website, with enough creativity. It’s a flexible, powerful platform for sales, so use it to its fullest potential.