What are the main objectives of your website? You might have many but the top two are most likely something like:

1. Sell more products (whether by online sales or by generating leads)

2. Inform and up-date customers, employees, and vendors on products and services.

If you are not regularly refreshing your existing current content and writing new website content, you are missing the opportunity to develop a site will become a valuable tool supporting business activities from sales to employee training to customer and vendor service as the business grows.

Writing Website Content without Becoming a Writer

Don’t worry. No one is suggesting that you write all of the new website content yourself. Writing for a website can be a full-time job and you surely don’t have time to add it to your crowded to-do list. However, through outsourcing, making the most of existing relationships, and a few other methods you can create a content generating machine with only a small initial effort on your part. This will give you the constant flow of new, targeted content your website visitors crave. So, how do you get other people to write website content for you?

Add a business blog to your site. Blogs are important to your company’s site because it gives your business a personality – a friendly sense of who you are as a company – in the otherwise faceless world of the Internet. A business blog can also help build your credibility and establish your company as an industry leader.

Speaking of industry leader, Dave Taylor shares great first-hand experience about the benefits of a business blog in “Can Blogs Really Help Businesses?”.

A business blog is a great place for people to contribute articles. You can pay a blogger to write for your site through elance or payperpost, or if your budget is tight you can recruit volunteer guest bloggers. People rarely write for free, so offer them the notoriety of full credit for their posts and valuable links back to their site. You might also be able to trade services or products for posts.

Create a forum. A forum is like a message board, and is a great opportunity for visitors to ask questions and get answers from each other. People enjoy seeing commonly asked questions, and ideally, it draws in readers to participate in conversation about your business or industry. You’ll get repeat traffic to your site. Start your forum with just a few categories, and then get the conversations rolling by asking a few provocative questions in each category.

There are a couple of downfalls to forums. First you need to be sure you have enough traffic to your site because if you don’t have people to talk in your forum, it will look like no one cares. Another issue is that you cannot sensor what is written. Depending on your business, you might not feel comfortable giving up your editing power.

Still, a forum is probably the best way to build a community amongst your readers and there are plenty of professional forums out there that do a great job of pulling people into websites and creating content.

Invite vendors to create content. Vendors are always looking for ways to get the word out about their products. Offer each of your vendors the opportunity to add content to your site. Make it fair and routine by creating a contribution schedule.Set the rules clearly regarding how many links they allowed to their own site (if any), article length, tone, and make it clear that you will be editing.

Accept and display product or service reviews. Set up the functionality on your site to support product reviews from your customers. Amazon.com’s model of this functionality puts the customer feedback directly on the bottom of the product description page. Even negative reviews can increase sales by telling potential customers about the worst aspects of a product allowing them to decide if they can live with that or not.

Invite employees to write. Make it a development opportunity for a staff member. Most employees will welcome the time away from their regular duties which brings up the point that you should be careful not to make writing website content a chore based on deadlines and deliverables. If you are not paying extra for it, let it be a reward.

Use pre-written content. Use online aids to make the work less time consuming. You can either purchase pre-written rough drafts online, or use free public domain content.

Private label content is readily available and affordable and should be considered a rough draft of material that will be rewritten. You can buy the rights to packages of articles that you can use on your site. Rewrite the articles so that they are specific to your business and different than the original – the rights to these articles are sold many times over and you want your material to be unique and unlike that on other sites in your industry.

Public domain articles are copyright-free, which means you can use it on your site without needing to get permission. Subscribe to free article distribution websites to get this material emailed to you. Watch for stipulations though; many times you will be required to keep the article intact and include the required author’s name and bio. Often you can’t change the article in any way.

Outsource writing by hiring a content writer. There are several job boards online where you can post a project for free. Make any budgetary constraints known and you may find someone who will fit the bill. You can also hire a company offering professional copy writing services such as Lead Optimize or Invesp who will search engine optimize each of your pages for particular keywords while writing website content. The greatest thing about professional copy writers (and often the biggest sticking point for their clients) is that they are experienced with translating what you tell them about your company and services into truly effective content that will generate sales leads and sales.

Conclusion - Too Easy

There are many options available that allow you to practically automate writing website content. Use the stakeholders in your business to give your site varying viewpoints and styles, and to make your website dynamic and interesting. New informative and interesting website content will keep your readers coming back for more, and eventually help turn them into qualified leads and customers, too. Adding new website content on a regular basis will pay you back many times over in repeat and new traffic.

Cross Selling: The Art of the Up-Sell

Cross selling is offering items to your customers that complement or enhance their originally intended purchases. Some people call it up-selling. “Oyster” “Erster,” whichever you call it cross selling adds both volume and margin to your sales.

We experience cross selling every day online and off. Remember the last time you went out to dinner and the waiter let you know about a new Cabernet that would go wonderfully with your meal? Perhaps you ordered the wine, even though you were originally planning to just have water. Or, what about the damage waiver on your rental car that covered absolutely everything, protecting your own insurance deductible and rates? Maybe you didn’t know they offered this protection until the sales rep told you about it, and you were happy to have it. These are just two examples of cross selling in action.

There is an art behind effective cross selling, and it’s important to strategically plan your cross selling efforts to avoid counterproductive results.

Cross Selling Tips to Increase Sales

Here are a six cross selling tips to optimize your website for cross selling.

1. Know your customers and why they are coming to you and what their needs are, then match your products or services to their needs. Cross sell to create solutions.
2. Create linkages between your products in your copy and images so there is a logical and consistent relationship between all that your company offers online.
3. Start your cross sell ideas with one or two relevant items to avoid overdoing it and causing confusion.
4. Plan your cross sell copy and placements carefully. Carefully placed embedded links can be very effective but do not draw attention away from your main products. You want to compliment, not compete.
5. Bundle and package logical items or services together and consider offering a discount to make it appealing to the customer.
6. Use web content that will help you cross sell. Strategically selected customer reviews and professional referrals will entice the reader to make additional purchases.

Take a gander at Jack Aaronson’s article on “Effective Cross Selling Online.”

Traditional (non-Internet) Cross Selling Ideas and Techniques

Keep in mind that even if your business is predominantly online, there are many customer interactions that come out of web-based inquiries…

It doesn’t matter if your business is conducted online or offline, you’ll need to provide training to your representatives to ensure consistency and effectiveness, and to guide them into becoming ideal cross selling employees. It is important to have your staff cross sell tactfully, at every logical opportunity, and in a way that is not offensive to the customer. Cross selling should be viewed as a customer service interaction. It should add value.

When training your staff on effective cross promotional methods, focus on these important behaviors:

• Identifying and answering the customer’s need before any cross promotion is attempted.
• Focusing on matching customers needs to products and services that can help them, versus a forced sales pitch.
• Picking the right time. When the customer is trying out a product, and has finished asking questions, it is a good time to introduce other, more premium products or services. For example, if they are looking at the bottom-of-the-line auto insurance policy, once they understand what the policy includes you can point out that a more premium policy will cover more, and give a few specifics. This is called “up selling.” Another tactic would be to offer a bundled discount for adding their homeowner’s policy. If you are in a business that sells warranties, wait until after the purchasing decision has been made by the customer.
• Promoting only relevant products and services.

Avoid the Pitfalls of Cross Selling

You run the risk of losing your customers in the sales process if you don’t implement cross selling techniques properly. Online customers are easily distracted, and they will quickly get frustrated and lose patience with a cumbersome check-out process. If people get confused online - or get sidetracked - they might not close the sale and may abandon their order altogether. Obviously not the result you want.

Follow these tips to avoid the common pitfalls of cross selling:

• Don’t promote irrelevant products and services. Doing this shows your customer that you don’t understand their problem or need, and creates a less personal relationship.
• Avoid using scripted dialogue. People turn off instantly when they realize someone is reading what they are saying or it is contrived. Build trust and relationships by keeping it real.
• Stop when they say “no”. Don’t keep pushing. Annoyed customers are not satisfied customers.

Excellent article on this topic by Jamie Roche: “Cross Selling Hazards”

There’s Always a Way To Cross Sell

Take advantage of cross selling opportunities because it’s a powerful, effective, and inexpensive tool you can use to improve your bottom line. No matter what your business, there are always creative ways to cross sell products in which you can create a win-win situation for your customers and your business. Customers will be pleased with your service and attention, and you will reap the rewards of a fully optimized (and profitable) promotional strategy.

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