Is this the missing link in your business?

One reason that may well be losing you clients is that your business is not working as well as you think it is.

When was the last time you checked all the links on your website or social media channels?  Have you actually tried to sign up to your own mailing list to make sure your system works?

Over the past week, I have come across no less than five separate businesses with broken links that the business owners were completely unaware of.  And one of them, I am embarrassed to say, was my own.

I set up a campaign and wondered why no one was signing up.  It was only after I doubled checked everything for the umpteenth time that I realised I had not refreshed my Mailchimp account inside my lead page and therefore all sign-ups were going to an old list with the same name but which was no longer in existence!  Excuse me a moment whilst I hang my head in shame.

Overlooking the obvious

And therein lies the problem.  Sometimes, we simply cannot see the wood for the trees.  We are so close to what we are doing and know how things should work, that we overlook the obvious.  So rather than rely on yourself to check things out, go ask someone wholly unrelated to your business to check your system for you.

I was talking with one of my clients this week who was concerned about the lack of sales.  We went and had a look at her website and everything looked wonderful.  On the front page was a quiz which promised an immediate e-voucher to visitors who completed it.  I took the quiz but nothing happened.  No voucher appeared.  The link at the other end was broken and I also did not appear in the mailing list.

Just stop and consider this for a moment.  Not only were my details not registered so I would never hear from this business, but if I were a genuine customer, I would feel a little cheated and lose trust in this company and possibly wonder if they could deliver on other promises.  Therefore, I would probably be unlikely to buy from them in the future.

Another website I visited left me completely frustrated because no less than three links were broken and just came up with 404 errors so I could not get to the information that was promised to me.

Once again, potential clients coming to this site would leave frustrated and with a poor view of the business.

Are you at a dead end?

And I have lost track of the number of social media posts that have links that when clicked upon go to dead pages or errors.  So frustrating!  And even worse when it is a link on the social media profile of a person or business.

So, go now and get somebody not connected with your business to go check out your website and look at any social media links you have.  Ask them to find out how easy it was to follow links, did they end up where they expected to, or did they find the process frustrating?

If you haven’t done your checks recently you really could be losing untold numbers of clients.  If you have a WordPress website you can install a broken link checker that will flag up any broken links for you.  If you would like someone to check your website or social media page for broken links and customer experience, come on over to my Facebook group and put in a request.  Either I or one of the other fabulous ladies in the group will be more than happy to do a review for you.

Do it now for your own sanity.