Content is King

On the web, content is king. You won't make any money at all if your content is woefully anemic or nonexistent. Nobody wants to go to a website that says "we're great, call us". Do you? I sure don't. If you want people to actually call you, you need to tell them what you do in as much detail as they care to know, and then tell them to call you.

It used to be that a webpage was like a billboard. You throw up a website for your business that lists your phone number, services, prices, and ask them to call you or come by. You'd pay a crap-ton of money to get your website built, and then just sit on it.

It amazes me how many websites are still like that.

No limits

The whole landscape is different now. People visit websites to learn as much about the company as they can--on their own time. And you need to provide all the information they need to make a buying decision on their own, without the aid of a sales representative. That's the bottom line, here.

Sure, maybe you'd like to provide a sales representative to help your visitors out. Maybe you'd really prefer that their first call be directed to your sales department. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Great, fine.

But that's not what your visitors want.

It's a hard fact, and you just need to deal with it. Given a choice between a website with long, detailed articles describing every facet of a company's business doings and a website that says "Here's what we do, call us", the prospective customer will go with the website with the most content, every single time.

In fact, that's important enough to make it really stand out.

Given the choice, the customer chooses content over call-me every single time

I kid you not, that's how the web works these days.

Are there any limits?

Well, sure. Avoid profanity. That's pretty much it.

Otherwise, no word limits. If it takes you 50,000 words to describe your company, then write them. If it takes 16 separate articles, each 2000 words to describe your juggling supplies, then write them. Content is king, and if you want to rule your market, you need the content that supports it.

Bad Content is worse than No Content

Even when you have all those thousands of words to describe your products and/or services, it's still not enough. Visitors need to be told what to do about it. Tell them to call you! Tell them to email you! Tell them! TELL THEM!

Tell them what you have, and why they need it.

A few notes about language

This is worth spending some time on. If you haven't noticed by now, this website has about as much corporate double-talk as a snake has legs. The style is conversational, the reading level is fairly low. You don't need a degree in Marketing to understand anything I've said here, and I've really only offended other people who try to build websites and fail.

Language does matter. What matters most is that you speak your customer's language. And the simple, hard truth is that 99% of your visitors speak "conversational English". So your website should be written in conversational English.

Close the deal

And after you've told them everything, tell them to open up their wallets and give you what they can. Don't be shy about it. Close the deal. Don't say "Our sales representatives are standing by waiting for your call". The visitor translates that to "Our predators are waiting to pounce on you."

Instead, tell them "Call us so we can help you. Or better yet, give us your phone number and we'll call you."

Sure, some visitors will still translate that to "We'll sic our sales department to try to eat you," but frankly, most people are happy to hear that you want to help them.