By Bob Walsh
It has to be one of the most asked micro-ISV questions: How do I build my web site right? There’s no one right answer, but there are a number of things that if not done mean you don’t get the prize. Here are my top three to chew on:

State your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) ” This is a must have. In one or two sentences, you need to spell out precisely why what you are selling is worth the readers’ money and time, in a way they understand. Your USP is not your features, it’s not even your benefits. It is why your prospective customer should buy your solution to their problem, in terms they understand.

Another way of saying this is “AAA is a BBB that unlike XXX lets you do CCC [choice of adjectives], does DDD.” Where AAA is your product name, BBB is what kind of product or service it is, XXX is your competition (an actual product or more general “straw man”) and DDD is your primary differentiator.

State your Price ” Don”t be coy, don”t make me guess, don”t make me email you, don”t bury it. You have a solution-Great. How much? Without knowing the cost, it is impossible to assess whether your solution fits me.

Show me ” I need to see, not just read about what you are selling. Why? Because if what you are selling looks attractive, professional, reasonable, I”m prepared to go further in judging what you are selling. If on the other hand, what you”re selling does not look attractive, or isn”t there to be visually assessed, its game over and you”ve just lost a sale.

Here”s an example of the above in action from goCRM’s web site:

The makers of goCRM raised their hand today in The Business of Software forum, asking for feedback on their site. They got the top three things right:

• They”ve stated their Unique Selling Proposition center stage:
  

  “goCRM is the simplest way for you to manage your everyday business tasks. Take control of your customers, suppliers, prospects, staff, quotes, orders and much more. Easy to use and easy to install, goCRM is a pleasure to use throughout your working day, designed specifically for the demanding small business sector.”

• What”s the product? goCRM.
• What kind of product is it? A CRM to manage your everyday business tasks, designed specifically for the demanding [like you] small business sector.
• Why is it better? You can take control of your customers, suppliers, prospects, staff, quotes, orders and much more; it”s easy to use and install, and it”s a pleasure to use throughout you”re working day.
• They stated the price - ??5 per user per month.
• They showed you what it looks like, and what they show looks professional, attractive and seems well suited to the problem.

Of course, the makers of goCRM need to do some further work before this site is really ready to sell their software. And for your edification, I”ll put on my Not Nice Hat tomorrow and rip into them with a post. But for now, my hat”s off to them and so should your”s: they got the 3 most important things on their micro-ISV web site right.

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