I’ve seen some crummy sites. What about you? How could they make any money? A poorly done website ruins credibility and runs visitors away before your site has had a good chance to present your offer.
There are several things retail store managers have to do to make it in today’s world and many of these tactics are directly applicable to websites.
First – The store has to be clean. The floor, the walls, the actual furniture itself, and, the bathroom! That’s where our comparison falls apart as there is no bathroom in a website.
Second – The store has to “make sense”. The arrangement of the inventory, the signage, the bedspreads on the beds, and the logic of store branding logos, posters, and policy signs has to look professional as well. Overall, your site’s look has to be clean, neat, and “feel good”.
Third – What about colors! The ladies in this business know things about color and what goes with what than most men would never know.
In furniture stores the colors need to be those that are popular in furniture today, not last year. Wouldn’t you think that this applies to websites?
Fourth – The salespeople have to speak clearly and without obvious defects in their speech habits. It’s the same with websites. In retail stores the salespeople need to be clean and spiffy and give their full attention to the customer in order not to appear disinterested.
You can see where this would apply in websites to pictures of people, like in testimonials, and scrupulous attention to detail and spelling.
Spelling! There’s a biggie. It deserves a section of it’s own. It is said that a potential customer’s enthusiasm will notch down a bit for every misspelling and grammatical error. It pays to proofread!
Experts suggest that you should have another person do your proofreading for you, since you are not as likely to catch all of your own mistakes.
Fifth – The sales area has to be kept neat and businesslike, but not barren and empty. Like the rest of the place, it has to be neat and clean. It should be easy to purchase!
Sixth – One last thing, in our stores we always strove to have the best music possible playing in the background and it had to sound good everywhere in the store. The music was loud enough to hear but not so loud that it made talking difficult.
In the website world that might compare to having clean, easy to understand audio and video. Hmm…is there a place for appropriate background “score”?
Your website should be perceived by your visitors as a good place to do business. Your site should be accommodating and straightforward to make purchasing as easy as it can be.
Your website says a lot about your business, so you need to make certain it is saying positive things.
If you want to make sure your website isn’t falling short on the details of general houskeeping, find a few sites that are trying to do something similar to what you are attempting, and use them for comparison sake. That’s a good place to start.
And my favorite! Keep it simple. My sales pages start at the top and go to the bottom. It is hard to confuse your customer with top to bottom?
Keep it simple, kill off the clutter, make it easy to read, and don’t allow spelling and grammar errors. Your customers will like that and be more inclined to buy.
Oh, one last thing. Ask for the sale. Don’t waffle here, be strong. You know what you want them to do, and, if your copy is any good, it contains many benefits for your visitor. Customers want those benefits (like more sales, higher conversion rates, and fewer returns) and they are willing to pay to get them.
Be very direct, but smooth. Say to the customer… “Click this button. When you arrive at checkout make sure the quantity and the price is correct. If it is, continue with your purchase and start profiting from an improved website right away!
Thank you for your business!
Riley West
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/profitable-low-cost-strategies-for-your-website-707095.html
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