Tips & Talk 20 – Here’s Why You Aren’t Getting Sales on Your Website

Hi there.

It's Sue.

And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

If you'd like to submit a topic,

DME, over on Instagram at gift biz,

unwrapped, people are coming over to your website.

You know,

that's happening because you're seeing it in Google analytics,

but they're not buying.

So you're getting the eyeballs on your site.

And for whatever reason,

they're not converting over to sales.

Why, why is that happening?

That's what we're going to be talking about today.

I want you to think of your website as your on

line headquarters.

Your website should be the home base where you direct everybody

to go,

because they're going to learn about you.

They're going to see your products.

If you have a blog,

everything should be housed on your website.

And the reason I'm bringing that up for conversation right now

is with the addition of social media and the ability to

sell on Facebook,

Pinterest, Instagram,

pretty much everywhere.

These days,

the lines start to get blurred.

It's kind of like when Kmart years ago started adding grocery,

it was like,

okay, do I go to Kmart for t-shirts or do I

go to Kmart for apples?

Are you a grocery store?

Are you general merchandise?

What are you?

That's the exact same thing that's happening online here,

because you're a website,

as I was just saying should be your home base.

But you start thinking a little differently when you can be

like, well,

but I can sell on Facebook and I can sell on

Instagram. I want us to all firmly understand that your online

presence, your main spot online is your website.

I'm not talking about here.

All of the elements that you should have included on your

website. I'm more going to talk about things that might prevent

people from actually buying from you once they arrive on your

website. Okay?

So not all the preliminary things like posts.

You might put on social media,

directing people to your website,

talking about once they actually get there.

Okay? So you've got people coming to the website.

You know that they're looking at other pages.

You can see all of this behind the scenes in your

Google analytics,

but no orders are coming in here are seven things to

check and maybe tweak a little bit to affect sales.

These are things that will prevent sales from happening.

First one first impressions.

When someone lands on your website,

what's the first impression that comes up.

Do they understand exactly what you do,

what you stand for,

what you make and what you offer.

And that's really easy to get across.

When you have the banner image that shows products,

I should be able to know from the second that I

get on it,

your website,

what you're all about.

I so should feel comfortable knowing that I've landed in the

right place,

because what I'm expecting to see,

let's say you're transitioning over from social media,

onto the website.

It should make sense because the colors look the same.

The products look the same.

There's enough similarity between the two that they know they've landed

in the same place.

So this is point number one,

do they get it?

The second that they're on the website within literally three seconds,

do they understand who you are and what you stand for?

The second place where things can fall apart on a website

are pictures.

Quality of pictures are all important.

And I'm not saying that you need a professional photographer to

get your pictures taken.

You can do it right from your phone,

especially with all the editing apps that are available now on

the phone,

your pictures need to be,

they need to be clear.

They need to be detailed.

And if you,

you want to add in some fancy editing,

you can,

and it has to be very clear or what your product

is. You can still have a lifestyle scene.

For example,

pottery, that's sitting on like a really cool like farm country

table, maybe or something like that.

But it has to be understandable what your product is and

be able to see the products.

Also, when you get to your individual product photos,

when you get over to your shopping pages,

make sure that for each product there's consistency within the pictures

and that the pictures are sharp and clear.

Okay. Enough said about that.

I think we all understand that are important,

but I will tell you if someone doesn't like the style

or doesn't feel comfortable with the quality of the pictures that

you have,

they'll leave and go somewhere else.

Because quality of pictures,

indirectly, unconsciously leads to the quality of your product.

It may not even be true.

You're a product,

maybe top-notch in terms of quality.

But if you pictures don't represent that,

how is your potential customer to know?

Okay, so that's the second one.

Third one is branding.

I touched on this a little bit,

right in the beginning with my first impressions,

but is your branding consistent from place to place to place?

If I was at a booth at a craft show,

and now I'm coming over to your website,

am I seeing the same kind of colors and the same

type of style,

if it's completely different,

that leaves a question about the credibility of the business.

Overall point number four,

personality, let's stick with pottery.

Since I pulled that out of the hat today,

to talk about if your pottery,

in terms of the website view looks just like two or

three other websites that they looked at,

what's the reason for someone to choose and select your pottery

versus anyone else's you haven't given us enough of a reason

to buy from you.

So in terms of bringing in personality to your pages,

some of that of course is done through color and the

branding, but also you show wheen you.

I can't stress.

How important as a maker.

This is,

you know,

the big brands don't have to do this.

Think of any big brand.

Let's say pottery barn.

They've invested at all.

A lot of time,

money, years professionals in putting in the personality,

into the brand crate and barrel or Williamson.

All of those,

you have an impression already,

right? Someone might not know you.

So that's where our individual brand comes in and is so

important. So how do you interject that personality into a website?

Your about page?

Don't let it be totally just like a resume,

you know,

have your about page.

Be in first person,

talk with a customer.

Personally, let them get to know you,

let them see you in all your quirkiness and craziness and

you know,

whatever you stand for,

because then people are going to relate to you.

And you're going to stand apart from any of those other

pottery websites that only show products,

very similar to everyone else's site.

So you want to interject personality.

And if you don't,

it's easy enough for them to jump.

All right.

Point number five navigation.

If I jump over to your website and I want to

get to know who you are for a second.

And then if I like what I'm seeing,

then I want to look at your products.

Is it easy for me to understand how I can get

to all of these places that I want to know about

your website?

That's navigation.

It's most typical that people have the navigation right up at

the top.

Some people have them down the side,

either way.

If I want to,

I know who you are.

Where's that about page.

Sometimes that's hidden at the bottom.

I would suggest for makers,

you leave it up front and center so people can see

and get to know you.

And the page is going to have a lot of personality

as we just talked about.

But when I go to your website and I'm looking for

something, is it understandable that I can get directed to where

I want to go?

So first,

maybe I want to learn a little bit about you.

I want to understand maybe where you're from,

what area of the country?

Not that it matters at all,

but I just want to know,

like, it just makes me feel more connected.

Maybe I want to understand a little bit about how you

got into your business.

I want to know him,

some of the materials that you're using in your product,

because that helps me decide if your product is for me.

And then I decide,

yes. So then,

then how do I get over it?

And look at all the products,

not just the products that are on your homepage.

Now, I want to see all of my options because I

to make a selection,

where do I go to do that?

Make it super easy for people to be able to figure

out where they need to go on your website,

to get the answers that they want.

What if they have some questions about shipping time or return

policies within your navigation,

wherever it is at the top,

on the side,

in the footer,

that it's easy to get to so that they can get

their questions answered.

Because again,

if they can't,

they'll go to another site that makes it easy for them.

Point six,

how slow is it for your website to load or out?

Let me reverse it.

Can your website load really fast?

The second that I enter your URL,

all of a sudden your website pops up or you've seen

it where it just circles and circles.

And then it takes forever for the website to load that

makes people feel a little anxious or nervous.

And if it takes too long,

they're going to go.

We have new time,

you know,

this life of instant gratification that we live in.

We're so conditioned that when we press a button,

we want to see things fast.

So you want to make sure that your website loads properly.

Some of the things that clog up the website in terms

of its speed for loading biggest culprit is really,

really large files for pictures.

You want to make sure that your files are smaller so

that they load faster.

That doesn't mean that you're affecting the quality of the picture

or the detail of the picture at all.

You just need to make sure that they load quickly.

And then final point is clunky checkout,

a checkout system that either I don't understand how it's working.

It's bringing me to all these extra screens that I don't

understand. This is a very,

very critical point because if I decide I'm going to buy

something, I added to my shopping cart and I want to

check out,

but there's some type of a hiccup there,

some type of a glitch where it's bringing me to another

page that doesn't make sense to me.

It's taking too long.

This is where people get really anxious that you know what,

maybe this isn't a true company after all,

maybe someone's taking my money and there's really no business behind

it. All of our antennas are on high alert.

Now for things like this,

right? This is where all of these barriers that might be

happening unconsciously,

you don't know on your website are things that can prevent

you from getting sales.

Let me review these for you again.

The first one is,

do they understand right away when they come to your website?

Exactly what you do this first impression is key.

Second. Are your pictures clear,

crisp, and truly represent the high quality of the product that

you make?

Third branding?

Do I understand?

Is it cohesive?

Is it professional?

Is it consistent from your social media or a craft show

booth that you have now?

When I come on your website,

everything looks similar.

Is there a personality there?

Do I get to know about you?

This is point number four.

Do I get to know about you as the maker?

Why you started let me into your life,

because then I'm going to be interested and I want to

support you navigation.

Do I understand where I need to go?

This is 0.5.

Is it easy enough to maneuver around the site to get

to where I want to go to get the answers that

I want,

that walk me to the sale.

Number six,

how quickly does it load?

If I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs,

waiting for your pages to load,

I'm leaving just the way it is.

And finally at checkout,

is there any type of a hiccup,

a glitch that makes me question whether this is a true

company or if my money is going to be taken and

used elsewhere and never to be seen again,

we all are so familiar now with online shopping that we

know what the experience should look like.

So you want to make sure that when someone's purchasing from

you smooth,

the screens go from one to another.

Everyone understands if it's PayPal,

it's going to jump over to PayPal,

which is fine,

but that the experience looks smooth.

This is a little seven step website checkup,

go place an order with yourself,

or have a friend go over to the website.

Someone who's not connected with your business at all.

Say, go buy something from my website.

Tell me what your experience is.

If you can find the products that you're looking for.

If you can learn a little bit more about me,

something you don't know about me,

even though we're friends,

what can you learn about what the business and buy something

from me and tell me your experience.

So often when we talk about websites,

we talk about getting people to the website.

You know,

how do we draw more eyes to the website?

And that is clearly the first step,

but another place that people aren't talking about all the time

is once we've got people there,

you can still lose the sale.

If your website doesn't have all of these things that I

talked about,

because when it does,

then people are going to see and find what they want.

And as they're checking out,

they're going to have confidence that everything is running smoothly.

And that is the way you're going to get sales over

on your website.

That's a wrap.

I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

of yours.

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