Even if you do not follow baseball, most people know a player must touch every base in order to score.
First base. Second base. Third base. Home base.
If a player skips any of the bases, no score. Simple, right?
So why do many websites try to skip the bases and still expect to score?
For a website to be successful it needs to touch these four bases.
1. Traffic
2. Opt-in
3. Trust
4. Sales
Notice 'sales' is number four on the list. Yet most websites skip the second and third base. They go directly after sales.
So mostly they get tiny sales.
But what would happen if they ran all the bases?
Let's see why each base is so important:
1. Traffic
No brainer. And usually not the main culprit of tiny sales. But without website traffic there's no one to see what you've got.
Since most people do not buy on the first visit, traffic does not mean a thing if you can not keep in touch with your prospect.
This is why you need them to opt-in.
2. Opt-In
Imagine your potential customer says, "Yes, I'd like for you to keep in touch." Now you can contact them directly. Which means you do not need to rely on them coming back to your website.
Thanks to an opt-in you can now start building a relationship. But it's
Not time to ask for the sale just yet.
You still need to gain the prospect's trust.
3. Trust
Most businesses stumble here. They jump right to the sale again. Which again, leads to tiny sales.
But by building trust you begin to build a customer for life.
Offer ideas to help your prospect. Show them you want them to do well.
Then you can slide into sales.
4. Sales
Once the prospect is comfortable with you and your business, making the sale is easier. And once you make the first sale, your customer is more likely to buy from you again. As long as you've delivered on your promises.
Then your marketing efforts become easier since you've already proven yourself.
Is your website providing itself?
If your website tries to avoid even one of the bases it's not living up to its true potential. So here are the bases again:
1. Traffic
2. Opt-In
3. Trust
4. Sales
Take a look at your website strategy. Are you skipping any bases?
