Having a website based business is great way to reach a large market but it is not what many imagine – it is hard work and it is never done. Starting a website based business takes iterations – you have to find best way to communicate the problem and your solution in an instant. You have to be willing to talk to customers to see what brought them to you and you have to be willing to experiment. You really have to have your ears and eyes open – surveys and follow-up emails are great and inexpensive ways to gain valuable insight. Salesforce.com is a perfect example – they are masters at doing this and it is reflected in their success.

In the case of our flagship software application, called Phitch, which makes it easy for small business to optimize their inventory, it has taken numerous iterations to create a website that describes the problem. After all, it is one thing to get a visitor to your site, but is another to have them click and buy from you.  The key is talking about the right problem. In the beginning, we assumed most visitors would want to learn more about how Phitch can put more money in their pockets – especially in this tough economy. While this was important, what visitors also really wanted was a solution that was an easy delightful experience – they just wanted a “just do it for me”. In other words, we also had to design our message to appeal to this issue.

While it is tempting to put more and more information on a website to address each problem you uncover, this is where real restraint comes in. It is easy to add more content – it is hard to do in a manner that will be read by a visitor. A website is just like your appearance – you have an instant to make a first impression. Getting the opinion of others, especially those with experience in journalism or communications is a great way to improve your website. If you can afford it – this is well worth the investment but be prepared to change your content frequently.  You have to continually hone your content to make it shorter and quicker to understand.  Too often, I see website pages that are four pages long and you have to scroll through a long list of information.  A website should be like an onion that a visitor peels – a very small onion with short and direct pages that guide your visitor to contact you. Have just enough information to get your visitor to call, email, try, or buy.

The final difficulty is to design a short compelling message to the visitor regarding your solution to their problem. You really have to identify with your visitor – who are they – envision a name, age, education, etc…. Find something that will resonate with this picture. In the case of Phitch, I envision a small business owner who works out of his/her home with no other employees and they are passionate about their craft or product.  They have education but they are not trained in inventory management. They import many of their goods and there are looking to add world class supply chain expertise without having to add staff. They are looking for simple and affordable solution that simply tells when to order and how much to order. To communicate this message we do in a way that our visitors can relate – we compare poor inventory management to coronary artery disease – that it is a silent killer.

About John Krech: Launched Phitch as a software tool to help small businesses best manage their inventory.