Car for Sale / Website for Sales

The car was like an early 2000s Cadillac sedan. I'm not up on my cars like I used to be or I'd say which model it was. It was white and looked clean, so they at least did that much right. But then there were the wheels. They must have been 18" wheels and they shined like they were plugged into the wall. Lots of chrome, lots of bling. That's actually what drew my attention to it - those shiny wheels. So what did they do wrong here? Well, with having those pimping rims on there, they're really narrowed down who their audience is. My parents won't be interested in that car because they don't want those wheels and they'll think that the car was maybe driven kind of hard... and they'd probably be right and yet they're also an audience that would be interested in a Cadillac.

The best way to sell this car would be to put normal wheels and tires on it (maybe they even have the originals still). They can then put the wheels and tires on Craig's List and get top dollar for them, separate from the car. The car would look more normal and attract a wider audience. It's a simple change and they would get more for the car, more for the wheels and have more people to sell it to. Problem solved!

So what in the world does this have to do with websites, Tony? Well, I was thinking the same thing as I considered blogging about this. I knew there had to be some parallel lesson and there is. It's all about who your website markets to. Are thinking too narrow? Are you using a big net or small net? Are you too "niche?" (I hate that word because some people pronounce it as "neeeeeeeeeeesh" and I say it more like "nitch" - I may be wrong but I like how I pronounce it)

Do you have your ideal customer in mind and only market to that exact person? If there are 10 people in a line and you're marketing to person #5, what about persons #3 and #6? By slightly widening your target audience, you can double or quadruple your audience and get more sales!

So how do you widen your audience? Well, it'll depend on the website and marketing in place but one easy way to do this is with landing pages. Do your keyword research to find another slightly different audience and then set up a page that targets that group. Put it in your site map so that search engines find it and then do some link building to that page - then rinse and repeat.

There's an easy way to cheat here, too. Look at your website statistics. They should tell you what keywords people are using to get to your site - if you have no idea what I'm talking about, then get Google Analytics installed. Take some time to look at those terms and some patterns should emerge. This is not only cheating a little but also showing you what your website could rank better for if you only add more copy to match what people are searching for. Think about it, you're already ranking good for those keywords (which are probably long tail / 3-5 words) so adding a bit more content can make you rank even higher because your website will be more relevant.

Just tweaking your website and marketing message and do a lot of good.

And if you're interested in a used Caddy with blinged out wheels, it's parked over on Broadway.

-Tony

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