Web Site Success
by Paula Mariedaughter & Jeanne Neath, Quilt Professionals
If you want to sell, you need to market!
Marketing your products to potential customers is a vital part of the success or failure of your expansion to the Web. Marketing means knowing your customer’s needs and doing everything you can to meet those needs! Every element of your Web site -- design, navigation, color, and content -- must be tailored to your buyer’s needs and desires. If you are a quilt shop, it doesn’t make sense to use a stark, corporate design. Engage your visitor with text and visuals you believe will appeal to them emotionally. When we are emotionally engaged we are more likely to buy. Creating your Web site is a major accomplishment! But your job as an online retailer has just begun.
Where is your sales force? A skilled salesperson is one of the most valuable assets in any retail business. You don’t want someone who avoids customer contact. You do want a salesperson willing to approach people to learn what they need, someone who will help them find it, who offers coordinating fabrics, and can even suggest other tools or coordinates of possible interest to the customer. This salesperson actively engages the customer and presents your products as the solution to your customer’s need. You as a business owner want enthusiastic encouragement to help people decide to buy.
Your shopping cart is a high tech way to display your products, but it will not automatically sell your products. You are that ideal salesperson we described who will make the effort to close the sale! Treat your Web site shopping area like the aisle of a landmark department store. Think carefully about what merchandise you display in the cart and describe it clearly and in admiring terms. Provide excellent photographs and enthusiastic text to reach your customer. Here is my example of a product description for a batik fabric:
“The rich colors in the batik ‘Sunset’ features magenta, vivid blues and a touch of persimmon orange. Other Hoffman batiks that coordinate with ‘Sunset’ include: ‘Midnight Blue,’ ‘Heliotrope,’ and ‘Hibiscus.’ Contrasting batiks from Hoffman include: ‘Pumpkin Spice,’ ‘Foxglove’ and ‘Nearly Gold’.”
Yes, it will take you longer to enter the products in the shopping cart. But, if you enter that same batik as “Multi blue/magenta #34,” you have made no effort to market your product. Because your customer cannot see and feel the fabric in an online situation you need to extend extra effort to praise your products and make them easily available in your cart.
Even if you are selling services such as longarm quilting services or sewing classes, use your best marketing skills to describe your product. Many times I see shop owners ignoring the idea of successfully marketing their classes. I observe incomplete and boring class descriptions. Don’t depend on the phrase “See our shop samples” to sell a class because your reader may or may not stop by the shop. Instead, put an excellent photo of the shop sample on your Web site. Describe your class project accurately and with enthusiasm with the idea of having the reader think, “This sounds like a great class for me! I must sign up before the class fills up.”
Paula Mariedaughter and Jeanne Neath are Web designers specializing in Web sites and e-commerce for quilting and sewing related businesses. For help with your Web site, contact the authors through phone 1-479-677-2235, voicemail 1-888-671-0636, e-mail paula@quiltprofessionals.com , Web site www.quiltprofessionals.com .
Reprinted from SQE Professional, February 2007 |
