botpoo.com/blog/2017/11/23/how-your-site-can-help-a-small-business-win-at-customer-se...](https://www.botpoo.com/blog/2017/11/23/how-your-site-can-help-a-small-business-win-at-customer-service/) ------ dccoolgai Well, you get what you pay for and all that. They probably already know this, so don't expect them to offer to tell you about things you don't need to know about. ~~~ tomp Oh please, it's just their website, no need to be so rude and cynical. ~~~ dccoolgai "Cynical" in what way? I didn't mean to offend - and I'm not even sure that was my "tone", just that the only people that need to be cynical here is you. The site is not really that useful. ~~~ tomp To me it was sarcasm/sass, just like it was for "just do it" (in other words, if you can do it yourself, why pay them?). ~~~ dccoolgai I took it as snark. It's possible to be both helpful _and_ curt (and still behave well) in the same statement, and that's why I got out of HN for awhile. ------ brudgers 1\. A sales funnel is a sales funnel is a sales funnel. A new website isn't. That being said, there are plenty of examples of websites that facilitate selling: [https://www.crayon.co/blog/design-websites-that-sell-more- vi...](https://www.crayon.co/blog/design-websites-that-sell-more- visitors/), [https://uxmovement.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-web- site...](https://uxmovement.com/how-to-make-the-most-of-your-web- site/)....and your new domain is more likely to be on a list of sites like that than not. 2\. You're not paying for their advice or feedback, you're paying to save time because it's your first sale. If you aren't going to get help finding your first customer...it's going to be harder. Of course, maybe that is true in general. 3\. You can get good advice online. And it's even better if you already know the answer to the question "What do you need help with?" and it's not that hard to find. There's some common sense involved: "If it is hard to find a solution online, Google won't give it to you" and "I'll always remember better than a salesperson. The salespeople always remember that I never called back." Good luck. ------ muzani Yes. It's very important for a website to have a clear target customer audience. If the audience is ambiguous, then it's going to take forever to find out. Once you have some traction, then you can start optimizing for them. I'd say don't do some things: 1\. Beware of trying to make everything into a product (and having a competitive advantage). Unless you have real demand and sales, it doesn't matter to the user if you have 10 options. For a few cases, it's good if you do, but for the most part, it's not. 2\. Focus on something they all have in common. As in something they can all get. People hate it when you try to sell them something they don't want and can't get. Also look at what they like. Does someone like a product that can do XYZ? If yes, that's the audience. If not, make it custom-made. 3\. Use something easy to use. A lot of things are hard to make, but there are very few that are really hard to use. Make something with Google. Something easy and quick. You can always make a better one later. ~~~ muzani Also, avoid creating products before there is a problem. The worst business are products that aim to solve problems for people who don't yet have them. An example would be an app that does facial recognition. There are other apps that do facial recognition, but this one focuses on babies or kids, and uses facial recognition to make little faces on a computer. Good idea? No. Better? Yes. ------ codegeek You should pay attention to everything from the website but also your current situation. As a general advice, the following points will help you: 1\. If you are already a consultant who charges from $100-200 per hour, then there is not much point in talking about marketing since you probably don't need it. At this stage, you have built a good reputation and may even have a good number of regular customers already. 2\. Are you just starting out? I am not saying to spend $100-$200 on advertising but if you want to reach out to more prospects, it will take time but at the same time, you need to invest in marketing because it is one of the key factors in getting sales. A/B test different marketing strategies. 3\. If you are still a newbie who has not started yet, you can do some research on the web and also on Linkedin to find out different strategies and tactics. In fact, if you are not at all familiar with marketing, I would read some books on marketing if you want to learn. Yes, there are tons of resources on the web. ~~~ tobltobs > are you just starting out? In this case i would go with: "I'm a little worried about marketing my brand" ~~~ codegeek "I'm a little worried about marketing my brand" is a concern which can be overcome with some research and some hard work. I would say you should get started right away and figure out how you can increase revenue. Not doing anything is no solution. ------ ninju Check the comments. I think the thread has addressed some of your concerns. The answer is it depends. I have seen clients spend $2k per month in AdWords, Facebook and other advertising and the campaign was so low that the ads didn't run long enough to conclude what would have made a significant difference for them. The key is to go where your customers are and in some cases that means spending a little extra to have a more sophisticated, targeted message. The bottom line is you won't know if you don't try. ~~~ tobltobs Thanks for your reply. What I found so interesting about the whole situation was that he was a long time customer with very good rating but somehow he thought that his competitor had way better website and he even wanted to get rid of that competitor's web site. ~~~ ninju Weird ------ andrewtorkbarker I have read the comments but not all of them so forgive me if I missed something. This is a hard question to answer. I'd look at your competitors and see where you can find success. You can also look at the success of a competitor to see where your weaknesses are. You want to be sure you are doing something good and that your competitors are too, if not better. What do you think is right? Does that help?