Your website needs to be the place that closes the sale.
As well as telling your story, getting people's interest, giving them masses of information that befriends and beguiles them, you must tell them how to and enable them to place an order and buy.
A Website has to include
How to contact you - make it as easy as possible, a link to an email address, or a responsive telephone number, or preferably a contact/ order form
Exact details of what you sell, the prices and availablity
What information they need to order
You need to make it easy. KISS (Keep is simple stupid) is the order of the day here.
If you need more than 3 clicks from entering the website, to being able to order, you are making it too difficult for your customers.
Here’s an example from one of my favourite website marketing examples - Riverford
Here’s the homepage, - this is where i’ll usually go if i’ve looked them up “organically “ on a search engine - this means you’ve decided to look at Riverford, and have typed them into a search engine, or found them on a search engine by putting in a search term - e.g organic vegetables.
Then you’ve decided that you like the look of the homepage, and that fresh organic vegetables (without the allotment digging) would be a good idea - you’re not sure what yet, BUT
They’ve got a “See the range” button to click
Now you can see that they do 4 main sizes of Veg box, and you can work out how big your household is, and which you’ll need - Now you just need to click and choose one of them - i’ve chosen medium.
Here, it’s given me 2 choices, a Seasonal box, - mostly UK grown, and a Quick choice box, - more salad type things, - Most importantly it’s now given me the “Buy Me” option of add to basket.
Having the ability to buy via the website is now absolutely needed, and is a key marketing tool. The year after I put pay by credit card options on my website, my direct sales to local customers went up 247%.