Every business knows that customers are a pain. They interrupt your marketing meetings. They demand attention when you’ve got important internal memos to write. And they keep you from tracking the number of “likes” on your Facebook page. If only there was some way to keep these pesky customers at bay!
The good news is that you have a very powerful tool at your disposal. If you use your website properly, you can almost guarantee that before too long your customers won’t be bothering you anymore. Here are a few tips on how to make that happen.
1. Never update your content: Your customers already know what you have to offer. If they need to know more they can always call and ask specific questions. And if they see the same content on your site week after week and month after month, they’ll get the picture that you’re not doing anything new or improved. They’ll eventually get bored and stop checking for ways you can help them.
2. Make sure your content is about you—not them: Hey, it’s your website and you should be able to talk about whatever you want. So tell them why you’re the best. You’re in business to sell your stuff. If they want to talk about their problems, they can go somewhere else—and they probably will.
3. Don’t give anything away: Remember, you’re a business, not a charity or an educational institution. Why would you want to give away your knowledge for free? Besides, if you start giving away helpful information, potential customers will probably just come back for more—and you’ll have to spend more time with them.
4. Don’t worry about making your site easy to navigate: It takes time to think through how people use your site and to arrange it so that it’s easy for them to find what they want. That’s time you don’t have. Your job is to make sure the information is out there. It’s their job to find it. And if they’re not smart enough to find what they want, do you really want them as a customer?
5. Forget about optimization: One of the best ways to keep potential customers from bothering you is to make sure they don’t find you in the first place! A good way to do that is to write your web content in insider language that nobody but you understands. Don’t talk about problems, issues, or solutions—just talk about the features of your products or services.
This isn’t a foolproof way to keep customers away. Some customers may still bother you if they happen to know your name and exactly what it is that you do. But if you follow these five steps, you’ll eliminate a lot of those irritating “lookey-loos” that are out there looking for someone to help them solve their problems and establish a life-long business relationship.
Now get back to that marketing meeting and polish that new logo you’ve been working on!
