One of the most common mistakes web marketers make is forgetting to think like their customers. In a previous article I suggested approaching your marketing as if you were your own potential audience. In this article, I suggest reviewing your marketing efforts from your visitor’s perspective.
As a web marketing professional or website designer, or even just as a blogger, you spend a lot of time on the Internet doing research, using ecommerce sites, and even just reading news. When you do a search and a result comes up promising certain information will be found upon clicking, how do you react when you find something else entirely?
Personally, I don’t even give the website a chance. If what I was promised isn’t immediately obvious I just scowl and go back to my search results.
You think being the number one result on a Google search results page will increase your business? You are only potentially right. It can, but if you don’t provide what you promise, you lose that business right away.
Always provide what you promise, and make it obvious and easy to find on your landing page. If your ad copy or description is too specific for your front page, then set up a specific landing page for that copy.
If you do anything other than what you promise, you are just lumping yourself in with the cliché misleading websites that are ruining the reputation of ecommerce in general. Don’t do it. It doesn’t help you, it doesn’t help your visitors and it will hurt your reputation and make you look desperate. Worse, it might even be considered Bait and Switch, a form of fraud that can leave you open to lawsuits.