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BUILD A SITE THAT SELLS
Avoid the common mistakes when designing your site
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You may have a great looking, well-designed site and have promoted it aggressively, but sadly it fails to deliver your sales targets.
Generally, the reason a site like this fails to deliver, is that it does not convey the key benefits of the products or services that are offered or promotes a sales strategy that annoys, frustrates or even angers your potential customer.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Your Sales Message must define your unique selling proposition and show the key benefits your products offers. These MUST be immediately evident when someone visits your web site.
Always develop the content of your site with your target audience in mind. Ensure site navigation is simple and that the layout, colour scheme, fonts and graphics are pleasing to the visitor and create the image you want for your company and deliver your message to your target audience.
The Visual Design must ensure that the look-and-feel and content is consistent with all of your other corporate branding, marketing or advertising materials. Don't let your sites design over-complicate the user interface!
Update your site content regularly so that people have a reason to visit again. At least once a month! Add new content that is valuable to your visitors, such as a monthly product special, helpful tips or noteworthy news articles.
Ensure your site is easy to use. Find yourself a friendly Newbie to the internet' to perform a usability test on your site. If your site isn't accomplishing your objectives then Change It!
Another method is to ask your customer base to comment on your site. Consider performing a customer survey!
Measure your visitor traffic, page views and return visits. Its crucial for determining the health of your site. Look at what percentage of potential customers come to your site, view the first page, and leave immediately? The rule of thumb is that a visitor makes up its mind about staying on a site in 10 seconds.
But if someone spends a minute on the home page and then leaves, the content is most likely not appealing enough to hold the individuals attention.
Be competitive, be different and strive for the best marketing mix. Make your sites image fit with the pricing levels of your products. A discount retailers site should have a different look and feel to a site offering luxury goods.
If you are relying on a company to deliver your goods for you, it is vital to track how long it takes to deliver your products.
Consider how easy or difficult it is to return your product.
Customer service is the most critical factor in the e-commerce business. Therefore, you must create a good communication route between yourself and your customers. Email is great for responding to customer inquiries. However, it is too slow to salvage an online sale.
Real-time online chats and voice over IP services enhance the online shopping experience and give a website that personal-touch which is the big criticism of the Internet shopping.
Thinking about your target audience and your overall marketing strategy will help you to develop a site that is more than just another site. It will convey your sales message, promote your corporate brand, be easy to use and maintain customer relationships. It will be a vital part of your companies sales and maketing strategy.
Written By Chris Falck
Director Rose Data Systems Ltd
***************************************************************** Chris Falck is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer, Designer, and Webmaster of AUTOREPLY2U - http://autoreply2u.co.uk and eCom-RDS - http://ecom-rds.co.uk. (Amongst Others).
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Copyright 2001. All Rights Retained by Author. *****************************************************************