Alightintheattic asks; is your Attic web site sales and marketing effective yet?

Is Your Site Effective?
Some of you are getting traffic to your attic sites but for some reason your your email box is still empty? Hmm?
Here's some poll stats:

(1)Users surfing to gather information for personal needs is the most common activity (72%)

(2)Most users find new web pages through other web pages (88%) and through search engines (82%).

(3) 32% use it for 10-20 hours per week

(4) 85% using it daily

(5)Average user spends 5 to 15 minutes looking for information and gives up after 15 to 30 minutes

(6) Reasons for shopping on the web (personal): the most cited reason is convenience (65%) followed by availability of vendor information (60%), no pressure from sales people (55%) and saving time (53%).

(7) Reasons for shopping on the web (professional): the most cited reason by professionals was availability of vendor information (35%) followed by convenience (32%) and saving time (30%).

(8)Type of Information (Personal): most sought information is details on products or services (85%) followed by price information (75%). Closely following is availability information (71%). Males are more likely to use the web for professional reasons than women, but they are equally likely to use it for personal shopping reasons.

(9) Type of Information (Professional): Professional shoppers also are most interested in finding detailed information on the web. Availability (38%) and price information (37%) are almost equally sought after.
... if not, why?
Experienced users seem more likely to use the web to search for product information, but they look for the same kinds of information as novices.
(10) The most common reasons for leaving a site was that it was too slow, which was cited by half of the respondents (50%). Other common reasons for leaving were that the site was confusing, (46%) or that they couldn't find what they were looking for (46%).

(11) While speed alone was the main reason for leaving sites during personal searches, speed, having a confusing site, and not being able to find the information tie for the top reason at 28% for professional searches.

So we have 5 - 15 minutes to grab the user and bring him to your site using links, banners and search engines and if we miss him in the 1st hour we still have another 10 to 20 hours left. And once he gets to the site he needs to be able to find the information he needs as quickly as possible or he will leave.

If your web statistics are up but your sales are down you need to review your site- Is the site easy to navigate, do you have your prices listed on your site, and is the information on your website easy to read (not to wordy, short paragraphs- quick to the point)?

Oh and most importantly- Is your sells pitch on the site? Most people forget that the website is the thing that is going to close the user to buy your service/product and/or contact you. Remember that no pressure from sales people (55%) was the third reason people utilize the web for personal use. This is a soft sell, not a hard sell. The user knows that there is no high pressure salesperson that is going to sit them in a room and sell them on the product; the user knows he has more control in the sale. It's either a yes or a no and if you don't have information they need, that they can easily obtain, then they say NO.

So, is your our site effective.....yet?