This is like a million dollar question! Every business wants an answer to this very question. And the reason we ask it here is to illustrate this point.
Finding lots of people is not difficult. In fact, online, reaching out to millions of people is incredibly easy. The hard part is turning them form a viewer or visitor into a customer. If you want to know how to do this online, think about how it is done on the high street, in retail shops. In many ways, the two aren’t so different it’s just that one is a virtual shop as opposed to operating in the physical world.
High street shops attract customers by building a brand. Think about the leading high street chains you shop in regularly. They are well known because over time they have developed a strong brand which customers tie to what they sell. So for example, in the UK, Thornton’s is known as a toffee and chocolate shop, around the world, Costs is known for selling coffee, Boots is known as a chemist, and so on. Online, this is also true, and essential. You need to build your brand so that it becomes known, not just the name of the company, but what the company sells.
Shop windows are used to show off products and tempt people into buying by projecting a lifestyle choice, an aspiration and evoking mood and desire within the customer. Your website is your shop window so it should achieve exactly the same thing.
Inside a shop, it should be easy to find the product you are looking for, and then just as easy to find the till. You should be able to go around the entire shop without getting lost. And you should be able to find whatever you are looking for. The best shops also show you other things you didn’t know you were looking for but decided to buy anyway. Your website should be designed in a way that also achieves this.
In a sop, the staff should be easy to find, professional and friendly. They should be able to give you all the information you may need about any product in the shop, and they should be willing and able to answer your question if you have any. Your website should be able to do this too. Actually, it is even more essential where a website is concerned because it’s like an unmanned shop, so you need to be certain that it has been designed and built with the customer in mind, and that it helps them throughout every step of the buying cycle.
Turn your website into one of the most successful virtual high street shops. If you do this, you will not only attract the customers, you will keep them, and they will be paying customers too.
