so yesterday i had a coffee with a friend. they run a small consulting shop and he proudly showed me their new website. they were working hard on it for months, and to be honest, it was looking good. it was responsive, had a great design and good copy.

however...

they were still failing to attract new clients and leads over their website. he asked me if there was anything glaringly wrong with their website. one thing jumped out: there wasn't a call to action. prospects would have to scroll down the whole page, find the contact form, fill out 10+ fields and hope somebody would get back to them.

but this was just a symptom, and not the main problem. the main problem was this: they failed to understand that websites are processes.

all websites "sell" something, whether you are selling an actual product, a service, you want to do outreach, get more attention or just simply share your ideas. but it takes time to get visitors interested and willing to buy your service or product. and this is a process. take any sales professional and you'll find an efficient, tested process they stick to. and we can do the same with our websites, fully automated and scalable.

let's have a look at the process in detail. it starts with strangers coming to your website. maybe they saw you at an event, got your business card, found you on google or some article you wrote a year ago. they have a look at your website and in case they are interested, they want to learn more.

next you start talking specifically about what you do and how you can help your clients. as you convince your audience that your product or service is the right solution for their problem you move them to the next stage via a call to action where they become leads. this can be done with a free email course, a cheat sheet or any other value exchange.

at the next stage, your audience is convinced that you're able to help them solving their problem, but trust and connection is still missing. as people only stay a short time (if you get more than 20 seconds you're really lucky) on your websites, this step is needed in order to extend the conversation in which you can nurture the connection and exchange value. drip campaigns or well crafted newsletters (no, not these awful spammy things, but something like a personal email) are good tools for this step.

lastly, by giving away valuable content and helpful tips you establish trust and set yourself up as an expert in your domain. only now you have all the ingredients to make a successful sale.

it is important to note, that the only goal of each step in this process is to help your visitors get to the next step. this is not about you, it is about how you can help your clients.

so think about your website for a moment. do you have a process similar to this in place? if not, you're losing money.