Topic: Website Design

Tutorials & Teachings: Ten Tips for Getting Customers to Buy More

Tutorials & Teachings: Site Design Tips to Improve Your Sales — Part I

The better designed your site, the better your chances of making the sale.

Research has long shown that the leading factor in persuading shoppers to buy from an e-commerce Web site is ease of navigation — findings that were supported in a recent survey by Jupiter Research (which is also owned by the publisher of this Web site.) In other words, customers are saying "make your site easy-to-use, and you'll earn our sale."

If usability is the key to a better bottom line, then what specifically will improve your site's ease of use?

A Beginners Introduction: How to Begin and Compete with the Big Guys

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>When starting a business or web site o­n the Internet, it is often easy to become intimidated by large companies or web sites offering similar services to you. While you may not be able to match the million dollar advertising budgets, or employee numbers of your competitors, there are many things you can do to make your business or web site stand out from the rest. The aim of this article is to provide you with an approach, and the motivation to take o­n those competitors you never thought you could match!

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>What do customers want?

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>It is important to get back to basics and ask yourself "What is it that customers purchasing this service require?". Knowing some of the decisive factors in customers choices is very important. If you know what your customers want, you may be able to tailor your marketing strategies to emphasise these areas.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Making a list:
<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>In our example of the Host-It company, directors may come up with the following list (after researching customer needs) of six features customers desire in a web host.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>1. Excellent support
2. Package features (eg. disk quotas, email boxes, monthly bandwidth)
3. Special language support (eg. ASP, Perl, PHP, C++)
4. Reasonable pricing
5. Easy account management
6. Reliability

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>After reviewing this list, Host-It directors could choose areas they believe their big company competitors are lacking. These areas would then become areas of focus for both product development and marketing.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>The first item in the list (Excellent support) is often an area big companies leave a lot to be desired. This opens the door to create a major selling point for the Host-It service. The reasonably simple task of ensuring the timely response to queries could have customers singing your praises, generating a lot of new business.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Suggestion: If it is feasible for your business, setting up an account o­n o­ne (or some) of the major instant messaging programs (eg. ICQ, Yahoo IM) can leave an excellent impression o­n customers. Think how happy you would be receiving a reply to a query almost instantly!

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Getting Info for the List:
<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>You may be asking just where you are expected to get such information about your customers needs. Below is a short list of suggestions to get you started.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>* Survey customers.
* Participate in discussion groups relating to the subject. You will often find forums around the Internet with real customers discussing what they like and dislike about certain products and services. Participating in these discussions may also get you business!
* Visit web sites and read newsletters which deal with the subject.
* Put yourself in your customers shoes and look at it from their perspective.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>
Personalize your Service

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>I don't know about you, but I find it much more appealing when I can actually talk to the owner or employees of a business throughout the use of their service. A personal response to an order beats auto responders any day!

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>There are many aspects needed to be considered when personalizing a service. Listening to user feedback, being available to talk and offering opinions o­n different issues all contribute to personalizing a service. The common goal of many of these aspects is to build trust with your customers.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Building trust with your customers is an incredibly important, and often underestimated, aspect which must be considered. To put it simply, no o­ne is going to buy anything from you o­n the Internet if they do not trust you. Personalizing a service is an excellent way of gaining this customer trust.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Our Host-It team may decide to incorporate some of the following things to help personalize their service and gain trust from customers.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>- o­n sign up, Host-It should ensure customers have the contact information for appropriate personnel to voice their queries or comments. This information should be presented in a way which welcomes customer interaction.
- Every so often, Host-It directors should contact customers personally to make sure everything is going well and answer any queries they may have. Many customers will not go out of their way to give feedback unless asked specifically.
-Keep customers informed of updates, changes and upcoming services
-Give explanations for any down-time which may occur
-Provide an area for customers to give feedback and talk with each other.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>Charge Reasonable Prices

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>The last point I am going to make in this article, is that you must charge reasonable prices. Although you may not be able to match the extremely low prices of big companies in some industries, it is important that you do not over-charge your customers. Nothing scares customers off quicker than ridiculously high prices.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>If you use the techniques described in this article, customers may not mind paying that little bit extra. Especially if it is going to get them a service which the big competitors do not provide so well.

<FONT face="MS Sans Serif" size=2>In conclusion, the best thing you can do as a small business or web site starting out o­n the Internet is to understand your customers and their needs. You must exploit the advantages many small businesses have over large companies. Using the techniques outlined in this article, along with your own initiative and creativity, will help you gain respect, build a reputation and hopefully reach your goals!

Tutorials & Teachings: Website Backgrounds: 5 Cool Tricks

But every now and then, there is a website with a photo or a drawing or a pattern background. This tutorial will show you not just how to place a background o­n your website, but five clever tricks to spice up the background without resorting to gaudiness.

Tutorials & Teachings: 10 Easy Steps to a User Friendly Website

<FONT face=Arial color=#222222 size=2>As a busy search engine optimization consultant, I don't have a lot of time to manage my website. But recently I learned the hard way about the fickle nature of website visitors and the damage that having a user-unfriendly site can do to a business. Now I give my website usability much more priority than ever before.

<FONT face=Arial size=2>Here's what happened. I had written a research report late last year and was selling it as a downloadable e-book via the site. However, I was relying o­n an offline press release and links from other sites to lead visitors to the specific page from which the report could be purchased. Although this report resulted in considerable press attention, much of the media coverage did not include a link direct to my report page, or in some cases, even my website, meaning that interested parties were forced to conduct a search for my site.

Reviews & Recommends: Recommended Website Editor for the Novice

A Beginners Introduction: How Websites Work

A Beginners Introduction: Designing Your eCommerce Web Site

A Beginners Introduction: Seven Ways to Put Your Business Online - One at No Cost