When something appeals to you or a customer demands it, it can be simple to produce new products and services for your company without having a comprehensive strategy or long-term plan in place and instead just responding to the situation as it arises. Before you know it, your product line has expanded beyond control, with more items being added while less and fewer are being sold. Although at first it looked like a fantastic idea, it isn’t working out that way. What’s next?
It’s time to trim back an overgrown, lovely blooming bush in order to preserve and enhance its beauty, to once again properly enjoy it, and to allow the flowers to receive the food they require to flourish. A recent potential client was found to have 47 links on the homepage of the company website and is quite successful in some areas of the business. 47 links! This means that there were 47 options available to any site visitor. And that was only on the home page.
There were just as many links and options on the site’s resources or product pages, which were next.Can you picture how you would feel if you visited a website with such fantastic content? There were simply too many wonderful things, and as a result, the website was not bringing in any money.
Over the years, several clients have indicated that they want to start by writing a large number of tips booklets. Despite their admirable zeal, there is typically no plan behind it. How many will be written and published, and for whom and when? Is it more likely to be successful to increase the variety of delivery methods available for each title or topic while reducing the number of booklet titles or topics? How about setting time restrictions for each subject, retiring some products temporarily, and “putting back in the vault” for a set amount of time like a well-known mouse-oriented company does with its kid’s movies?
Is the material you’re providing developed and presented in a way that identifies the beginning place for a beginner, an expert, or someone working in management or marketing? If not, why not? Less is more in this case, as in many others. Giving someone who visits you or your website a clear road map can also be helpful in directing them so they understand what step to take and when to do it. Make the “by when” date on an offer legitimate rather than a phony attempt to pressure a sale or keep it open longer than you’ve said.
ACTION – Consider how you feel when you visit a website or speak with a vendor who offers you too many options and/or is unsure of which products best meet your needs. You may inquire a little, look around a little, or you may immediately flee the scene as quickly as you can, never to be seen again. You have the chance to test what is working and what may function better to serve your customers and your business by taking a look at your website and how you interact with clients and prospects.Those decision you make leaves room for new decisions later on, allowing you to add new elements and replace any that you eliminate in order to reduce the likelihood that you would be rejected by confused individuals.
