How do you get more traffic to your online store?
It essentially all comes down to information, consistency, authenticity and showing up.
BUT here is the secret - it is never FAST, no matter how much money you fling at it. It takes time to build a relationship with your customers.
I mean, you don’t meet somebody for coffee and immediately ask to get married right?
You have to woo your customer...I call it schmoozing!
You need customers and when those customers land on your online store, you want them to buy! You need your customers to trust you enough to buy your products.
4 Rules for eCommerce:
Rule 1. Create a product they want
- Know Your Product
Rule 2. Get people to like you and your product
- Consistently show up
Rule 3. Communicate with your customers
- Be authentic and talk to your customers
Rule 4. Persuade people to buy your product
- Give your customer enough information
Sounds easy, right? Probably not, but I will show you 4 easy steps to make sure your customers know you, like your product and buy your product.
People buy from people they like and trust.
So the basics are: KNOW - LIKE - TRUST - BUY
You know what sells products? INFORMATION…and more information. Information creates trust, likes and knowing.
Here are the pages on your ecommerce store that you need for information:
KNOW - Home page, About Page, Team page, Contact information (not the contact page which is too generic), Social links & pages, Reviews, Community page, affiliates pages.
LIKE - Home page, collections page, landing pages, Ingredient page, Sustainability, Eco-friendly page, How-To pages, FAQ page, Blogs.
TRUST - Legal pages: Privacy policy, Terns of use, Refunds & Returns, Trust - like credit cards, and guarantee pages, Checkout page, Shipping page, Order notifications, Shipping details.
BUY - Product page, Cart page, Check out page, Thank you page.
The more information in your ecommerce store the better. Customers need more information about your product and here is the secret sauce - CREATE INFORMATION!
How many times you got frustrated with a store when they do not give you enough information when you are researching products. This is how you are going to win the game in the ecommerce arena against your competition.
Rule 1. KNOW your product.
The bottom line is, if you don't sell, you don't make money.
So you need a product that your customers want, because if it they don’t they are not going to buy it.
Selling is not easy or an inherent skill. It is definitely one of the skill sets that you need to learn and practice a lot. But you also need to know your product and be the expert of your product to be able to sell it to a customer. If you are passionate about what you are selling, you can persuade customers to buy from you.
THE BRAIN THING OF BUYING
It is a psychological game to get people to buy your product - it can be very emotional, it might fill a need and/or solves a problem.
According to research, shopping activates specific regions of the brain. It is well known that some brain areas are responsible for emoting happiness, while others are responsible for pain or discomfort. It is also what we call a fight or flight reaction.
It is no surprise that the parts of the brain involved in buying create a variety of emotions. Basically, our brains make a few instant decisions while buying a product. Do we like it, will it help us, and how much does it cost? Although, price is not always a major part because it depends on how much the product will solve our problem.
People have biases when making purchasing decisions. So understanding how we form preferences can deliver insights into why we choose different products and brands.
The bottom line is:
The overall message should answer = WIIFM (What’s In In For Me - for the customer)
Your customers is looking for a solution to their problem. Your product has to solve that problem.
Rule 2. Get people to like you and your product
CONSISTENCY Is Key
If you want your customers to choose you when they buy, you have to be consistently in front of them. You have to pitch up where they are.
Consistency takes effort and time. So make sure you schedule your time to market yourself and your business.
Once time has passed and gone, there is no retrieving time. It is not always possible to spend a lot of time in your business, because life happens as well and our plans go awry.
Create the time every day to devote to your business and schedule your information to go out on social media regularly, at the same time and same method.
There are different ways to show up:
- Website/Store
- Social Media
- Network meetings
- Advertising
All of the above information that you have created on your website, can be all part of the information that you market.
Here is the sad fact - It takes 21 touches before people will buy from you. This means you have to be in front of your customer 21 times with pieces of information.
The rule is 80% information and 20% selling - which means you create more content to inform your future customers about you, your products and your business - more information.
Rule 3. Communicate with your customers
You have to show up as you. People buy from people they know and trust. So do you think if you just had stock photos on your website and emails that people will get to know you?
So a few years ago, we attended a lot of networking breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and communicated with people as us. Now we have to do it online and it is a challenge because we need to show who we are virtually.
It is not easy to show personal information and photos on social media, but videos and photos will create that feeling that people know you. They have seen your face, heard your voice, and love your message and story.
Talk to your customer! Your existing customers are your low hanging fruit.
It is amazing what you can discover when you have a chat with your customers. You will be able to determine if you are selling the right way, the right language, the right price, the right media and what they really want and buy your products.
Find the top problems your customers face that you can solve. And how do you do that?
I call it the LOL Strategy.
- Listen to your customers, see what they need, and not what you think they need.
- Offer them something more than what they expect, and they will come back.
- Look after your customers, make them feel special and they will stay.
Your customer will drive your marketing and sales! if they like you and trust you they will buy from you.
- CHAT - get a chat on your website!
- Email - connect with your customer via emai.
- Social Media - schmooze on social media and connect with your potential customers by showing them yourself. BE PERSONAL!
- Send your buying customer a handwritten thank you card!
- Create a thank you video for your thank you page after they bought from you.
Be a personal brand!
That brings us to the next point.
Rule 4. Persuade people to buy your product
Give your customer enough information
I want you to look at your online store and create the E.A.T method.
Expertise - Authority - Transparency
1. Update your ABOUT PAGE on your website and add more photos, information, achievements, accolades, stories, and the big WHY - why you created your business.
2. Add more information to your FAQ pages - for instance, more general product information, how your product is created, what the ingredients of your products are, how your product can be used or not used, more shipping information, where your products originated from, etc. Listen to your customers to give them the right answers.
3. Community involvement - information about how you are involved in your community, what you do in your community and how you support it.
4. Update your product pages - more information such as ingredients, shipping, returns, specifications, why your customer should buy your products, how they will feel if they bought your products, and what the result is when they use your products and introduce yourself as well.
5. Last but not least, start creating articles or blogs. This is the ultimate information gold - the more information you create, the more traffic you will get from customers seeking the right answers to their questions.
TIP: How to create a good momentum.
Every day you have to take ONE action, one step for your business.
Action creates forward momentum. And before you know it, you are taking several action steps toward building your business.
If you don't start, nothing will happen.
Plan your week, month and year. You will have a global view of your activities, and you will not feel overwhelmed thinking about all the details you need to take care of.
How to start planning?
Step 1. Make a list of Themes/ideas of what you are going to write or post.
For instance,
- What international or national days popping up on your calendar.
- What special events are occurring in your industry?
- What special days are coming up - ie Mother's Day, Easter, July 4th?
Grab a calendar and some sticky notes and start writing out your ideas and stick them on your calendar.
Step 2. Now you can think of what you want to do these specific days.
How are you going to entice your customers to come back and buy?
Offer them a deal. People love deals.
I know it is scary giving % discount, but make sure they buy one and then you discount. Or giving a bigger discount if they buy 3 or 4 items. It is better to sell more than to only sell 1 item.
Be confident in what you are selling, and you know your customers will be back because they love what they buy.
Step 3. Create actions for each of these special days.
- What do you need to have ready to be able to sell?
- Do you need emails for your promotions?
- Do you need posts to talk about the promotions?
- How many days ahead do you need to start the promotions?
Write down a sequence and add it to your calendar. I use Google calendar, a paper calendar, and a project management tool or spreadsheet.
See more information how to plan to create more information and goals.
Check out my planner - Ecommerce Planner.
EXCITING NEWS:
I have some exciting news to share - I am launching a 5-DAY Shopify Bootcamp in April 6th 2023.
If you don't have a store, this is for you.
IF you do have a store, this is for you too.
Shopify has had so many new updates that you are not utilizing. I will show you!