Let’s get started:

Day 5 – ask yourself  ‘Will my customers remember me?’

We’re going to learn to focus on repeat custom.  Do you think you could be overlooking the potential of repeat custom?

You shouldn’t be, especially if you’re spending hundreds on Adwords to break even with sales from new visitors.

But what if those new visitors purchased two or three times again?

You’d turn your £100 investment into £1,000!

You see, it’s all about branding, good customer relationships and providing value.

So, read on and I’ll tell you step-by-step how to make the most out of your current customers and how to get them to buy from you again in the future.  (It’s actually pretty easy!)

Be memorable:

Let’s start right at the beginning with a logo and tagline, the foundations of building a brand.

If I say Nike, do you think ‘swoosh?’  If I say MacDonald’s, are you immediately thinking about those golden arches?

What about your business?  If I said your business’ name, what comes to mind?

Do you have a logo?

No?  Then spend some time thinking about how you can make your shop memorable too.  Hire a designer and get a logo as soon as possible!

If you’ve got a logo already, think how it represents your company?  Old fashioned?  Sleek?  Expensive?  Luxurious? Budget? Colourful? Happy?  If your logo is communicating one thing, but your brand is about another, think about swapping or updating the design to something more appropriate.

Taglines:  ‘We buy any car . com’

Every website needs a tagline.  If your site doesn’t have one, you need to start creating!

Readers in the UK will have all experienced that annoying (but memorable!) ‘WE BUY ANY CAR . COM’ advert – it’s catchy, it sticks in your mind and as a result it’s engrained into my mind.  In fact, I’d probably look there first if I were to sell my car today.

Your tagline doesn’t need to be clever or fancy, it just needs to communicate what you do.  Though, you’ll get points if it’s particularly memorable.

Freebies:

I like to buy bits and pieces from Etsy.com and sometimes sellers will send me a couple of freebies with my order.  I love it and I must admit, I prefer to order from them again.

Why?

It’s all about value. You feel like you’re getting more for your money.

Additionally, the sample may contain something fantastic that I’ll want to buy again and it helps me remember that seller in the future.

So give it a try – give away a free sample when you ship out products.  Anything from trial bags of dog food to perfume samples, it’ll help increase your revenue.

Enclose business cards or stickers with the parcel:

You must enclose tangible representations of your business into parcels you post, so customers can be reminded of you down the line when they want to buy similar products again.

Business cards are great, but what about stickers or postcards? Fridge magnets?

Do you sell books?  Instead send out bookmarks with your company details on.

Whatever you send, ensure it represents YOUR business.  Think outside the box – be quirky and be memorable.   You’ll get points if you can think of an item that costs the same price as a business card, but will get used again and again…

Pretty packaging is pretty important:

Don’t just shove items into a Jiffy bag.

Put some thought and attention into it, especially if you sell luxury, exquisite or expensive items.  The extra care you put into your wrapping will help people to remember your brand in the future.  For example, I always remember that TopShop ship out their clothes in cute brown paper parcels with polka dots on.  I’ve only ever bought one item from there (and that was 14 months ago) but it’s stuck in my mind!

If you hand-make your own products, look into making your own wrapping too, it’ll be quirky and unique.  A great way is to stitch small squares of interesting papers together using a sewing machine.

Of course, if you’re selling something less exciting, like computer components, car parts or stationary, think about something simple, like leaving a ‘thank you’ note on letter-headed paper in the envelope.

Email marketing:

It’s worth collecting the email addresses of people you’ve sold to previously.  You can design a template and send out communications detailing your new product ranges, great offers and interesting news.   Reminding people you exist is a great way to get repeat business from the customers who didn’t bookmark your site after purchasing on a whim, or after conducting a quick Google search.

Snail mail:

This follows on from the above point.   If you’re posting goods to your clients, you have their address.  So, occasionally remind people you exist.  Send out a brochure, postcard or pamphlet about your new range and watch as the repeat orders fly in from past customers!

Have a chat!

Encourage conversation with your past clients.  Invite them to join your fan page on Facebook or add you on Twitter.  Find out what they liked about your service and more importantly, what they didn’t.  Chat with customers, build a rapport and learn from their comments.

Any problems that arise from conversations are your chance to shine:  make sure you use it as an opportunity to put things right, not to post a rebuttal or send an angry comment back!

Chat to your customers and get their feedback on what they’re looking for and then provide it. If you listen to them, they’ll only want to buy from your shop in the future.

PLUS they’ll recommend their friends and family.

And what if you offer the same great service to your customer’s friends and family?

They’ll recommend you to their friends and family too.

You’ll find eventually that your current customers are actually finding new customers for you.  And at this point, you’ve cracked it.

Word of mouth advertising will save you spending money looking for brand new customers and you’ll further increase that initial investment.

Think about offering discounts for new customer referrals to encourage it.

Email vouchers or coupons to your customers and allow them to be shared online.  They’ll soon spread virally; you’ll find them shared to Facebook and Twitter within hours (which is more FREE advertising for you!)

Finally:

I hope this guide has given you some ideas about customer retention and helps you to be in a position where repeat custom pays for the initial investments you’ve made in your eShop.

I also hope these tips from my eShop series have helped you in some shape or form, please do let me know if you’ve tried any of them.  I’ll even post ‘success stories’ right here on my blog.

So, let’s begin.

Day 4 – ask yourself  ‘Why should they choose my eShop?’

I’ve seen a million e-commerce sites like yours, selling a similar product line to you.

Have you ever thought about what it is that makes your shop different?  What makes you the best choice?

Why should I choose to buy from you?  All valid questions that other visitors will be asking too.

You might know why, but do your website visitors?

Think about the above questions and start S.P.E.L.L.I.N.G it out to your visitors: You need to make sure you’re telling them why your shop is the best.

Find something unique about your company (that your audience will appreciate) and shout it from the rooftops.  Make sure that competing eShops aren’t saying the same thing.  One trustworthy and established jewellery shop is better than six shops exclaiming to be the cheapest online.

What’s your best feature?

So, what does your company do better than all the rest?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Are you more secure/safer than your competitors?
• Are you open longer than your competitors?
• Can your buyers reach you by phone, but not your competitors?
• Do your competitors charge, and do you deliver for free?
• Do you have multilingual staff on hand to help, unlike your competitors?
• …

What sets you apart from the other eShops?  Write a list and prepare to tell your potential buyers!

Just remember: keep it truthful.  If you think your hand-knitted dog jumpers are the cheapest, do your research and check your facts.  Perhaps you think your shop is the most safe and secure in your niche?  Where’s your proof?

How to prove you’re the best:

Once you’ve come up with a unique selling point for your company, work into your ‘about us’ page or tagline.

Post evidence:  Look for press clippings, testimonials and reviews to help you back up any claims you make.  If your claim is about security, write down the measures your company takes to ensure visitors are safe.

When comparing your shop to competing businesses, your visitors should be able to see why yours is better straight away – it’ll  clench the sale!

Summary:

• Think about what makes your company different,
• Find evidence that backs up your claim,
• Work this into your about us page/tagline/sales copy.

Update:  I found this article for eShop owners:  tips for opening a successful eShop.  Enjoy!

So let’s get started.

Day 3 – ask yourself ‘do I list my product’s features AND benefits?’

Today we’re going to spruce up your product descriptions by adding in ‘benefits’.

You’ll show your audience how your product’s features will positively impact their lives and hopefully, they’ll buy from you!

But didn’t we do this in the last article?

Nope, we looked at problem solving.  We thought of scenarios in which your audience would need to buy your product.

Now we’re looking at your product’s specifications (features) and detailing why they’re important, how they’ll make life easier and why they’re great value for money.

People will see exactly what spending money on your product gets them.

Getting started:  Finding features.

This is probably going to be the easiest part.  Write a huge least of things about your product.

Think about the following to get you started:

• Your product’s design specifications,
• Accessories your product comes with,
• What your product can be used for,
• Its functionality,
• How it is priced.

Take a look at the benefits of these, and write them next to the features.  Think about what makes each feature you’ve just written down good, why would anybody care about it?  Who would it help them most?

If you’re struggling, look at the example below.

A practical example of features and benefits online:

Let’s go back to my pet store analogy.  During my research, I found the following website that sells cool stuff for dogs, including these dog life jackets:  http://www.kooldawgtees.com/fido_float_extreme_dog_life_vest.html

Look how the shop owner has detailed the product’s features. A bog-standard dog buoyancy collar suddenly becomes a useful, potentially life-saving aide:

U-shaped buoyancy collar keeps your dog’s head above water

Here are a couple more:

Bright vest colors for added visibility

Mesh underside for additional comfort & support

Instead of listing the vest’s ‘bright colours and mesh underside’ we now feel safer about the added visibility and we know our pet will be comfortable and supported.

Try it yourself:

Find a product you sell and take a look the product’s features/specifications.  Write down on a sheet of paper how each feature/specification will benefit the person buying it.  Now edit your site’s copy and work these in!

Summary:

• Talk about your products’ benefits,
• Drill home what it is these features will do for your buyers,
• Add them into your web copy.

Some great resources:

Marketing Features Vs. Benefits
Close the Deal with Logical Benefits
Newbies Guide to Marketing
Marketing Dictionary

Here’s yesterday’s post on ‘audience’ if you missed it.  I will be posting the rest of the questions over the next four days Edit: I’ll be posting these during the week instead now, thanks. Please subscribe to ensure you don’t miss out on any advice.

Let’s begin!

Day two – ask yourself ‘am I helping people solve problems?’

Look at your shop’s copy.  Do you list specifications or do you tell your audience how your product will solve their problems?  In reality, you should be doing both.

After identifying your target audience, use your product description and website copy to solve their problems.

Remember yesterday when we hypothesised about owning a pet store?  We created a ‘Paris Hilton’ persona and thought about how we’d sell to her.

So, with ‘Paris’ in mind, start thinking about potential problems she could be having as a dog owner, and how your products will solve her issues.

Where should I start?

Start with your product.  Think about what it actually does.

What’s great about it compared to the alternative? Imagine situations where your audience would need to use your product. What would they be using it for?

Don’t worry if you’re unsure, read the example below and it’ll give you some ideas.

Solving people’s problems – a practical example:

Think about those dog poo bag holders we sell in our hypothetical eStore.  Why would our Paris Hilton wannabe audience need to buy those?  To pick up dog poo, is the obvious answer.

So, let’s dig deeper.  Think about the alternative to your product.  Instead, Paris could recycle her used carrier bags to pick up dog poo.

Would your Paris Hilton wannabe enjoy walking down the road with holey plastic carrier bags from her local shop?  Probably not.  It’s hardly glamorous.

At last, something to start with.  So let’s look at working it into our description.

We’ll change it from:

‘Pink bone-shaped canister comes with refill (25 bags)’

To something that will solve Paris’ problem:

“Sick of carrying plastic, hole-ridden bags to pick up your dog’s poo?  This cute pink canister holds 25 bags and clips to your lead so you and your pooch can go for walks in style.  You’ll never forget your dog poo bags again, so no more embarrassment when he’s caught short in the middle of the street!  Only £2.99”

Can you see the difference?  She’s not just buying a poo bag canister, she’s buying a solution to a problem too. We’ve solved another problem in there too!  Using the handy clip attached to the canister Paris will never forget her poo bags again!

Bonus point: Did you pick up on the language I used? I purposely targeted the description to our Paris-wannabe audience (“walk in style”, “cute”.)

Still unsure?  Take a look at this second example:

It’s for a hypothetical website that is selling a top of the range computer:

Audience: Designer.
Problem: Does it take you days to load up Photoshop and design huge images?
Your solution: Upgrade to render your images quicker than before – save time and never wait for loading programs again.

Audience: Hardcore gamers.
Problem: Is your slow processor holding back your gaming experience?
Your solution: Encounter your games exactly as intended – with exceptional horsepower.  Upgrade today.

Can you see the difference?  We know our audience, we know their problems and our products can solve them.

A quick practical exercise:

Have a go yourself, write descriptions targeted at casual computer users who don’t venture past Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer on a daily basis.  What problems might they encounter?  Why would an upgrade to a faster machine solve those problems.  Think about up-selling too – could you convince them to buy an upgrade of Office from you at the same time?

Summary:

• Imagine situations where your ‘persona’ would need to buy your product
• Think how your product would help in those situations
• What problems would your product solve in your persona’s life?
• Work these into your store’s copy.

Image credits:  [Dog jigsaw]

I will be posting each question over the next five days.  Please subscribe to ensure you don’t miss out on any advice.  Let’s begin!

Day one – ask yourself ‘Do I know my target audience?’

Are you thinking about the people you’re selling to and the people you’d like to sell to?  Does your website appeal to their needs? If not, read on:

Why do I need a ‘target audience’?

Competition is fierce and I bet a lot of people sell similar items to your stock.

Let’s pretend you sell a large range of dog toys.  A quick Google search indicates 36,400,000 websites currently rank for that term.  That’s potentially  36,399,999 other websites that could get that precious sale instead of you.

You need to appeal to one audience to win all of their custom.

So, let’s find your audience:

Start with what you sell.  Ask yourself ‘who needs to buy my product?’ Sticking with my online pet shop analogy, you could say ‘dog owners.’

But be as specific as possible.   You can’t target ‘dog owners’ as your audience – it’s too vague.

Drill it down and ‘dog owners’ could be:

Girly owners with cute pooches who dress their beloved pet up in jeweled collars (Think of a Paris Hilton wannabe with her Chihuahua.)

Or -

Serious owners who take their sturdy dogs out on their hardcore walking sessions (Think of a Bear Grylls type with a powerful Alsatian.)

You can already picture the difference in audiences can’t you?

If you’re struggling try to do some research.  It’s always good to look at your past customers and work from there.  Alternatively, think about the type of person you’d like to buy from your shop in an ideal world.

Next, learn about your audience:

One of the worst things you can do is assume you know everything about your audience.

Get on Twitter or Facebook and interact with them.

Participate on forums that interest your audience to get a feel for what concerns them.

Use everything you gather to build up a persona and use this to help you get a picture of your audience (or who you’d like to be your audience.)

You may wish to draw a picture of a hypothetical member of your audience and write gathered characteristics around the edge of it.  Give your doodle a name to really bring it to life.

It’s time to make your website appeal to your audience:

You need to take the plunge and ensure your website appeals to your audience.  I’m not suggesting you change your website’s colour scheme or images (though you may wish to consider this later) start small and edit your site’s copy.

Ask yourself:

‘is my copy specific, will it appeal to my audience, or is it too general?’

Start with product descriptions.  Don’t stress – you can start small, just think of a couple of lines to describe your products (see my example below.) Write them out while imagining your hypothetical persona.  Why would ‘Paris Hilton’ want to buy this dog lead?  As you write, imagine you’re explaining the reasons to her.  Look at her picture. How would she react to your comments?  What would she like/dislike about this lead and why? How can you turn those dislikes into positives?

If you’re worried about changing your copy all at once, test first.  You can set up a A/B split test of the old and new copy using Google Website Optimizer and track completed goals (purchases) too.  You can see exactly what is working and what isn’t.

Struggling with the copy? Here’s a practical example:

I want to buy my dog a coat.  I’m a girly, Paris Hilton type.  (For the example’s sake.) I have the same needs as anybody wanting to buy a dog coat: it needs to fit my dog and keep him warm/dry.

I browse two websites to potentially buy from.  Both websites tell me the colour and size of each dog coat.  Both are equally priced.

But, on the second website there’s a further description, hand written by the shop’s owner, which the first does not have.

“Size Small, Powder Blue.  A cute fur-lined jacket to keep your pooch glam and cosy during cold winter walks. ”

Can you see the difference?  Both sites give me the same information (size and colour) but the coats on the second website tap into my persona, they tell me my dog will be ‘glam’ and ‘cosy’ too.  So I am prone to buy from the second store – it feels like I’m getting more for my money!

Lesson summary:

• Decide on an audience,
• Learn about what drives them,
• Create a typical persona,
• Rewrite your copy to appeal to them, and them only.

Finally, let me know if you have any questions or comments, or to showcase changes you’ve made to your eShop using my techniques.  Tune in tomorrow (and for the next three days) for additional techniques to help you improve your online shop!

Image credits: [Alsatian] [Chihuahua]

Author:  Dom Sagolla (@dom on Twitter)

I purchased this book after seeing it recommended on a Squidoo lens.  I enjoyed parts of the book, but found others a little too abstract to apply to everyday Twitter use.  The author clearly has a love of language, but the idea of using Twitter to write poetry in 140 characters or less seems a little outlandish to me.

However, I did fall in love with the idea that ‘everybody is a writer.’  The book was trying to reinforce that the platform has the scope to be used for any creative output you desire; it is not just a tool for trivial and senseless updates about ‘what you’re having for dinner.’

Below are seven tips I’ve extracted from the book that should help you add value to your tweets, gain more followers and generally improve your updates.

1) Lead the conversation

When writing tweets, always lead people to reply to you. Don’t just assume they will.

Take this tweet for example:

In my CNN column this week, I ask if there’s a formula for viral YouTube videos -what do you think? http://bit.ly/4UOsJw

http://twitter.com/mashable/statuses/6782622091

Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore has asked specifically for the reader’s opinion, instead of simply plugging his CNN column to loyal Mashable subscribers.  He’s leading a conversation, which is far more likely to obtain a response.

2) One thought per tweet

If you write web copy you’ll know that it’s best to stick to one point per paragraph. It’s the same with tweets too.

140 characters isn’t much – so don’t overcomplicate your tweets by trying to describe more than one idea at a time.

3) Would you write your tweet down and pass it to a friend?

With mobile phones hooked up to the Internet it’s pretty easy to tweet every inane thought.  So before tweeting, stop and think.  Is this worth writing down on a piece of paper and passing to a friend?

If you would write it down and tell a friend you can probably bet it is of value to your readers and worth tweeting.  If you only tweet valuable content, it’s going to earn you more followers!

4) Never demand attention, just politely request it

Follow Pete Cashmore’s example in the tweet I quoted above and only ever request attention politely.  Never demand your reader clicks the link you’re pushing into their feed.

Cashmore was plugging an article he wrote on a CNN to his Mashable readers.  He didn’t say ‘Go and read the article I wrote at CNN,’ he simply asked for the readers’ advice and slipped it into the conversation politely.

5) Stop counting your followers!

Stop worrying about your follower count and start thinking ‘how can I better serve my audience?’

Who is your audience?  What interests them?  What content are they retweeting the most?

Never automatically follow hundreds of people and hope they’ll follow you back.  It’s not about numbers; it’s about tweeting messages that your audience will value.  Your count will automatically grow from there.

6) Happy, fun tweets will get you more followers

People are naturally lured towards fun people, so boring and depressing tweets will lose you followers.

If you’ve got something negative to talk about, follow Hemmingway’s rule and try to turn it into a positive.  Estate agents do this all the time: a small house in the middle of the nowhere magically turns into a cosy rural dwelling.

7) Study your Twitter heroes

Is there somebody you’re following that you really admire?  Ask yourself what it is that draws you (and hundreds of others) to them.  Is it their style, or the content of their tweets?  Perhaps it is both?  Study the people you respect and emulate their good points.  You’ll soon have your own army of followers!

Final word:

If you’re a twitter user I really do recommend the book.  These are just seven tips out of hundreds more ready for extracting!

What inspired the design?

My bedroom inspired the design! My curtains are the creamy yellow colour and I have a lovely pink blanket similar to the Super Carly text above.

What are going to post on here?

Well, I’ve been drafting posts locally for a couple of months now and I’ve got a lot to finish off, a couple to polish up and some ideas scribbled down to write up.

I’ll be posting some great guides for bloggers to increase their visibility in search engines, some advice for eShop owners to help them convert more sales and a couple of posts to help people think about the usability of their sites.  I’ll also be punctuating the more serious posts with photo entries, book reviews and amusing tidbits.

Bug reporting:

Please let me know if you spot any issues.  I’ve tested as thoroughly as I can, using only a Mac without Parallels installed!

Text too feint?  Something broken in IE7?  Did I forget something? Just let me know by leaving a comment below.  Thanks!

Finally, subscribe to ensure you don’t miss any posts.

Carly xx

Author: Elliot Jay Stocks

I purchased this book because I know the author writes great articles in .net magazine and I’ve read his blog entries on several occasions. I must say the book has lived up to my expectations – it’s taught me some great new methods to use while designing interfaces and reinforced a lot of things I’ve often thought but never known why!

I think the main thing this book has proven, is that firing up Photoshop should be the last part of your web ‘design’ process. I know it sounds daft – why should a design tool be the last part of designing? After reading the book you realise it’s right! It’s obvious why!

Quite simply, this book teaches you to think about the following principle:

‘It’s not who you’re designing for, but what activity you are designing for.’

This book has taught me to establish what the main ‘goal’ or focus of the site is first and then design accordingly – not to jump straight into Photoshop! It has also taught me couple of new skills, from designing my structure on paper to planning and wire-framing.

Web design has to go beyond pretty.

Designing a website isn’t all about the glitz and glamour. That stuff helps, but you’ve got to get the foundations right first.

It’s not about shapes, colours and layers – it’s about making stuff work. It’s about tying together key elements to help the user to achieve their goal. A goal can be anything from ordering tickets to signing up for an email newsletter.

• To help somebody achieve their goal, you need to give them what Stocks terms ‘key visual signals.’ These point the user in the right direction towards completing the tasks on the site.

Thinking about your user is part and parcel in creating interfaces that users will love and Stocks’ book will help you grasp this quickly.

I recommend reading this book if you’re guilty of designing without thinking, or if you need to drive conversions on your website.

If you’ve found this brief summary interesting you may wish to purchase the book yourself. It’s available on Amazon, here.

Thanks for checking out Super Carly’s Super Blog, please do come back after the 20th when the site will (hopefully) have been launched

CARLY!