A story about a website · 2 minute read

Gary spent four grand on a website. 312 people came. Two rang.

The advert report on Gary's kitchen table, 312 visitors and 2 enquiries, his new website glowing on the laptop beside it

Gary runs a business in Ripon. Last spring he decided it was time for a proper website, and found a designer in Leeds. Four thousand pounds.

“What do you want it to say?” asked the designer.

Gary knew exactly what he wanted it to say. He’d been thinking about it for years.

It took two months. When it went up, Gary sat at the kitchen table and read every page twice. It said everything he wanted it to say. He showed his wife. He showed his mum. He had the address put on the van.

Then came the first report.

The designer had set up Google adverts, three hundred pounds a month. In March, 312 people clicked on the adverts and landed on Gary’s website.

Two filled in the contact form. One was a recruitment agency. The other was Gary, checking it worked.

Three hundred and twelve people had wanted what Gary sells badly enough to click. And the website said everything Gary wanted it to say.

So why did 310 of them leave without a word?

It wasn’t the designer’s fault.

Page two of the report said how long each of the 312 stayed on the website. Eleven seconds, on average. Nine out of ten never got past the top of the home page. Nearly all of them were looking at it on their phone.

Eleven seconds is enough to read one line. Gary’s first line was about Gary. Under it, a list of everything Gary offers.

Nobody buys a list. They buy a problem solved.

Every one of the 312 clicked the advert because something was wrong that day and they wanted it sorted. They didn’t care about Gary. They wanted a solution to their problem.

What Gary wanted the website to say was not what they needed to read. So they went back to Google and pressed the next name. Gary never knew they’d been.

Nobody did anything wrong. The website was full of what Gary does. The 312 wanted their problem solved.

That’s the job Robert Builds It does. We’re a marketing agency, and this page is what we make.

In one sentence

We write the page your customer needs to read, and put an AI receptionist on it. They read to the end, press the button, and she answers.

Here’s how it went for Gary.

We read his website and wrote the page his customers needed: two minutes long, like this one, about the thing that was wrong that day, not about Gary.

They read to the end. One button. Press it and she answers, in the browser or on the phone. She knows what Gary does because she read the same website.

She takes the name, the number and what’s wrong, and says Gary will ring back. He gets it on his phone wherever he is.

Gary’s adverts now go to that page. April’s report: 290 people came. Forty-one spoke to her. Gary rang them all.

The website’s still there. It’s for his mum.

Gary is made up. The report isn’t. Put your visitor numbers next to your enquiries and you’ll find your own 310.

Call Jackie. Tell her your website.

Five minutes later, a page built for your business is in your inbox, with your own AI receptionist on it. Jackie’s one too.

☎ Call Jackie on 01423 226701
Robert Builds It is ForwardX Limited, Harrogate. Jackie is an AI assistant and says so. Privacy