In this article I have crafted a list of five things that you can do to make your website generate more business and also make your customer’s time on your website more fun and productive.

1. Make your website more accessible

With an increase in the number of people accessing the web via mobile device, having a mobile friendly website for your business is highly recommended. This site will provide information access to your customers wherever they are and whenever they want. They are likely to pass it on to their friends since they can bring up your website on their mobile and not necessarily a computer.

If provisioning a mobile friendly website affects your budget, then have a conversation with your developer and make sure they understand that you need this functionality in the website as soon as possible.

2. Offer Supplementary Information

It is important to understand that your users are always looking for information. They might browse your website for a purchase but before that they will like to check out what they are going to buy and perform any associated search. So make it a priority to provide supplementary information that boosts the primary content of the website.

Take the effort and time to provide the customers with product manuals, warranty information, contact details, videos etc. This is a direct way to emphasize that you care about your customers and make your site a gold mine for your visitors.

3. Make it easy to get help

Despite how much supplemental information or details about your product or service you provide, your customers might need more help. Make it easy for them to get help by providing FAQs’ (frequently asked questions) and by placing your company’s contact information prominently on your website. Provide an enquiry/contact form and help your customers get in touch with you.

4. Keep it organized

I have repeatedly mentioned about providing additional information, but at the same time make sure you avoid cluttering and information overload. You don’t want to drive your visitors away and hence it is important that you keep your website clean and well organized. Work with your designer to develop ways to keep information accessible, yet unobtrusive.

5.Optimise your website

Alright, you have your content right and your website looks pretty awesome as well, but what’s the point if you are not being found on the web. With more and more people searching information on the web, it becomes highly important that your website hits those top rankings on Google (and other search engines as well). Having a well optimised website and a proper search engine marketing strategy in place will help your website generate more traffic towards your website and ultimately generate more business.

So you have a retail store and you want to start selling online. Great! “Jason, I have a budget of $2,000, that should be enough shouldn’t it?”. No. Not even close. Think about how much you spent to set-up your retail store. You had to buy or lease a location, you had to design and build the look of your store, you had to buy computers and cash registers, it was a costly process. Imagine your online store as a second location for your business, only it’s open 24/7 and anyone from any where can buy from you. It’s a gold mine just sitting there. “But Jason, if I don’t have to buy any of the physical store items such as shelves why do I have to spend as much as my retail store?” You don’t, but you do need to spend on marketing your store in addition to getting the physical look and layout of your store working brilliantly.

Get the layout right.

Imagine you built your store, it looks okay, you had to skimp on the look a bit so it doesn’t look great, but it didn’t cost much. Then on your tight budget you couldn’t afford to have someone look at how the store was laid out so you just got a guy to lay it out, only in order to get to the cash register you have to jump over some desks and shelves. Your store would last long would it? Have you ever bought online and struggled to do buy items because the store was poorly built? I have many times. Don’t skimp on getting your store as user friendly as possible. Go to a web company that knows what they are doing and don’t be scared to pay for it. I’m not talking about $60,000 upwards, somewhere around the $20,000-$30,000 mark is appropriate to make sure your store looks great as well as functions well. It will mean you get a greater conversion rate and people will be more inclined to return to your store and purchase again. A great looking store will also assist with people believing the store is trustworthy so they will trust buying from you.

Market your store.

Once you’ve got a great store, you need to now continue your spend to get customers to visit the store. The more you spend, the more likely you are to make money. The more money you make, the more you can spend on marketing, the faster you can grow… It’s a pretty simple equation. Having said that make sure you’re hitting your target market. You could spend $50,000 but if you’re not hitting the right people the money is a waste. Speak to a marketing company such as ourselves and get a marketing plan put together. This will help you know what to spend, when and where to spend it. It’s about having the right marketing mix for your business.

Deliver on time, deliver the service.

This is very important and often forgotten. You need to deliver on time, by that I mean, give next day delivery. Don’t make your customer wait 6 weeks to get their item. People buy online for convenience, where as people go to stores if they want something urgently. This is all well and good, but if you provide convenience and speed you’ll blow the customer away and they will continue to buy from you even if they need something urgently. It’s all about the customer trusting your store for their purchases. On top of that, make sure you have timely service. If people enquire about an item they will generally only be looking at that item for a couple of hours. If you take too long they may have bought the item from a competitor or a retail outlet.

Conclusion.

You only get out, what you put in. Spend the money, get the store done right and you’ll give yourself the best chance at success. If you try to do it on the cheap you’ll never even give yourself an opportunity to succeed. Speak to the experts, get the right advice, invest where it’s needed most.

Yes, I know I’m not making much sense at the moment, but it will all start to make sense if you bare with me.

Your company is nothing without you and your staff, they are effectively what makes your company and what you stand for. Without them your company would not exist. Think about it…

Often in marketing we speak about why your company is different, what makes you better than all the others? Usually the response will be, we have a better product, or we’re cheaper, or our site is prettier. While all that may be true, the most unique part of your business will always be you and your staff as that will ALWAYS separate you from your competitors. If you don’t believe your people are better than your competitors, then you may as well go back to the drawing board and start again.

‘But Jason, I sell a physical product, as long as the product is good, the consumer doesn’t care about the people that make it’. Thank you for sharing that thought, but you’re wrong. Chances are you would have in some point in your life touched an Apple or Microsoft product, yes? Of course you have, knowingly or not. It’s no mistake that they are 2 of the biggest companies in the world. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple and Bill Gates, the ex CEO of Microsoft are two of the most famous faces that are linked directly to a brand. If I was to talk to you about Steve Jobs, you would immediately think of Apple, the same goes for Microsoft. Why are their faces so important though? It’s because they believe in their brand, the staff in their brand and their brands products so much that they have been willing to put their personal reputation on the line for it. If you’re not willing to do the same, do you truly believe your product is better?

I know I’ve probably provoked a fair bit of thought, and if you can stand up and say ‘my people are better’ we can proceed on a few simple ways you can start to make you and your staff put their personality to your brand.

1. Show us who they are.

This is really simple, just show us who they are. You could do that by adding an “Our People” page to your site with pictures of your staff members, their names and what they do. We don’t need an essay on them, just show us they exist. Although it seems a bit tacky and outdated, it actually subliminally gives people confidence in your brand as they can see the staff you have and that you believe in them enough to show us who they are.

2. Let them speak.

Probably the best way to bridge the gap between your staff and your customers is via a blog much like this one you’re reading now. It’s a great way for your staff to voice their thoughts and connect with the outside world. The most important part to remember about the blog is to write it with personality. It is way too tempting to write a boring professional format blog post on a business blog, but it completely defeats the purpose. Let your personality shine as that is what is key to making you and your staff be individual as well as making the posts interesting to read.

3. Marketing campaigns.

There are so many ways to let you and your staff’s personality shine through marketing campaigns. Whether it be you running around your plant farm in a tutu, a weekly video blog by your staff, a podcast with your staff, or a friendly photo of all your staff on a postcard you send to customers saying thank you. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it has personality, people will find it much easier to connect with your brand.

4. Get social.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, whatever you’re feeling. Social media is a great way to let your personality shine. If you’re posting boring announcements and not getting people involved, you’re doing it wrong and need to re-plan your social media strategy. Give your posts personality and ask people to respond to your posts, social media is all about connecting with people, so don’t just talk to them… Encourage them to talk back.

In conclusion, you need to love the people that make up your brand, get them involved and let them speak. Show off the personality, your not friends with your friends because they look good, it’s because of their personality. People are more likely to buy from you if they feel they have a connection with you and your people, no matter how good or bad your product is.

So do you believe in you and your staff? Do you believe in them enough to put them in front of your brand?