Many businesse
s have spent countless hours building a webpage to market their product. They learn the basics of web design themselves or they hire someone to get them started, put numerous products or services on there, and then wait. And wait. And wait. And nothing happens. The frustration this engenders can lead to real disappointment when it seems like no one is interested in their services. However, there is no doubt that E-commerce is the place to be now. Forbes mentions:
E-commerce sales in the US rose by $33 billion from 2011 to 2012. Mobile shopping alone is predicted to represent a quarter of all e-commerce by 2016 and by 2014, mobile will account for 30% of all US Internet access and will likely surpass total desktop usage.
With all the potential out there, there must be ways to tap into a profitable niche. If you have had difficulty converting page views to sales, here are a few tips that may help you get on the way to profitability. With all of them, an important step is to evaluate and test. Some of them may not apply 100% to your situation, but the principles certainly do. Once you have evaluated, make sure to test any strategy to verify that it will work for you in the long run.
Simplify
If you’ve been to an overly busy website and had a hard time figuring out what it is that they are all about, think of what the problem is. Many times people try to be a “jack of all trades and master at none.” Instead of trying to offer many things in an attempt to satisfy everyone, why not narrow your focus? Perhaps you have many products that you market, and in doing so, you only let your customers know a little about each one. Try focusing on some of your best-selling items or the items that you believe have the greatest potential, and talk them up! Give an extensive description of each one, describing in detail the benefits of that product or service and how it can solve your customers’ needs. This can help eliminate any lingering doubts the customer may have about that product and help establish you as someone who is committed to it.
Get More Opt-ins
Getting your potential customers to opt-in is an extremely effective way of boosting marketing muscle. By it, you have direct access to people who have already come to your site and who likely already have some level of interest. This gives you a chance to send out targeted marketing specifically to these people. You can also keep in touch with these clients, which helps build brand loyalty, familiarity, and trust.
When you have the opt-in option on your website, make sure it is in a prominent location in such a way that your customers’ eyes are likely to be drawn there first. Try putting it in a position of your page high up so that your customers will not have to scroll down to read it. Perhaps a prominent page you have consists of a sales letter. In this case, entrepreneur.com has this advice:
If you have a long sales letter, you should test placing your opt-in offer within your second “page” of text–after you’ve grabbed your visitors’ attention by identifying a problem they have and established your credibility by impressing them with your credentials, experience and glowing testimonials from happy customers.
You can also consider putting your opt-in subscriber form on every page of your website. This can be by means of a simple plug in that hovers in the corner, similar to the “follow” button that is familiar on many wordpress.com blogs. If you really want to be bold, you can try doing it by means of a hover add.
Hover Ads
Nobody likes popups. Nothing can be more annoying than getting to a website when a number of unasked for little boxes pop up that offer similar or related services that you then have to take the time closing. It got so bad that many browsers now by default block pop up ads from being displayed.
A way around this is to use what is called a hover add. Hover ads are similar to popups, but they aren’t popups, and won’t be blocked by browsers. When used tastefully and as unobtrusively as possible, they can be effective. You can use them tastefully by presenting an option to opt-in to a newsletter on them, or you can market a special sale that is relevant to where they were attempting to go. You can use them unobtrusively by not bombarding your visitor with them every time he or she clicks through to another page. Another way to make them unobtrusive is by giving the customer an easy option to continue on to where they wanted to go. Many large sites do this with a “continue on to page” hyperlink in the upper right corner-somewhere easy for a person to find, but not so prominent that they can simply click a large “No Thanks” button.
Focus on Your Customer
Many websites promote themselves, and rightly so. But this needs to be done in a way that focuses on customers. UXMovement.com says:
If your goal is to gain more users and customers, you should write headlines and copy that focus on them, not you and your company. Websites that talk too much about themselves or their company instantly turn users off…When users visit your site, they’re looking for a solution to their problems.
It’s a simple fact that people like to talk about themselves. Look at the enormous success of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and similar social media outlets, all largely filled with people talking about themselves.
Remember the obvious truth that customers came to your site to see how they could be helped, not how they can help you. They want to know how your product or service can make their lives better. If you focus on these things, and how your company is differentiated from others, you are on the right path.