How good a shop window is your website?

If you have an eCommerce website your website isn’t just your shop window – it’s your shop too.  But if you have what is often referred to as a ‘brochure site’, it’s intended to be a taster for people to get a feel for what you offer.

This means that your home page is, effectively, your shop window.  It’s the equivalent of someone staring in from the pavement to see if there’s anything to take their fancy.

Don’t waste prime real estate

Make every centimetre count.

Starting at the top:

Your brand banner:  Ensure your logo is clear and add your phone/email on the right so people can easily contact you.

Your banner:  the image must be relevant to your business, it’s not eye-candy!

Your opening headline: make sure there is a strong headline on the first screen so people don’t have to scroll to find out what’s on offer.  A great headline that is focused on your ideal client will capture their interest and encourage them to read on.

Your introduction: this needs to be short – around 100 words to introduce how you help your clients/customers.  Ideally it should also have a headline to lead people into it.

Your core products or services:  these need to be displayed as clickable boxes or images so people can go straight to what takes their interest.  This might be a row of three or, if you have more a matrix arrangement with two rows of two or three.  There really shouldn’t be more than six or people will have too many things to choose from.

About your company:  A thumbnail of your About page with a clickthrough direct to the longer version, gives people an idea of who they’re dealing with and maybe an indication of your values and standards.

Testimonials: This can be a couple of carefully chosen quotes from happy customers or a scrolling marquee with several testimonials featured.  If the latter ensure that the speed that the quotes scroll at is slow enough for people to read the whole testimonial.

Blogs: If you have a blog on your website (and you should for all kinds of reasons) have the last three titles/images showing up on the home page so people can see the kind of knowledge you have.

Your footer:  Typically this will include a repeat of your menu/navigation, your social media links and perhaps your contact information.

If you get all these on target your website will be a good shop window that gives people enough information to want to know more.  The aim is to get them to get in touch, not to sell them on your site.

Times they are a-changing

There’s no doubt that along with the aftermath of the pandemic and due to the knock-on effects of the situation in Ukraine there’s been a serious impact on the global economy.

Higher costs will affect businesses too – most businesses can’t survive without power and the increased cost of living means that employees will be hoping for pay increases to keep up with inflation.

But what about your customers?

They’re also suffering from the same issues as you are and their priorities may have changed.

All you have to look at are the personal goals of people over the years.  2018 showed the top three goals were:

1. Stop or reduce drinking alcohol
2. Eat healthier
3. Change/improve my job

Nothing changed in 2019 and 2020 with the same top three, but then something happened and in 2021 the top three goals were:

1. See family and friends
2. Learn something
3. Read more

Those are individual goals, but you can be sure that businesses have also changed their priorities.  Many businesses had to either close or change the way they operated.  Some reopened, but few are experiencing ‘business as usual’.  That means that the things that are important to the business owner will have changed.

You ideal client profile may have had certain issues – but are those issues still a problem?  

It’s time to talk to your clients about what’s going on in their businesses, what’s changed and what’s important so you can ensure that what you’re delivering is helping them.  It may be that you need to adjust the services you deliver to be more relevant to today’s marketplace.

Video can BE the radio star!

One hit wonders, The Buggles, hit the charts in 1979 with their single Video killed the radio star – and claim the title for the first video to be aired on MTV.  Then they vanished (eventually joining prog-rock band Yes).  In 1979 video was just making its debut into mainstream society.  MTV led the charge with popular music presented as the backing track to videos – the crazier the better.

Three-plus decades later and the Buggles are ancient history – as is MTV – but video has turned into the preferred way people want to consume information, entertainment, learning and more.  That means that YouTube is now the second biggest search engine in the world (after its parent company, Google).  So where does ‘radio star’ come in?

Audio on YouTube

Many people think that YouTube only hosts videos, but it hosts audio too.  If you’re not someone who feels comfortable appearing on video or you think you have the skills to make videos, you could create an audio file with a still image (check out YouTube thumbnails on Canva).  That’s one way to leverage audio, but it’s not the only way to make great use of audio.

Podcasts

One of the most popular media today is the podcast.  Everyone seems to have got on board.  The plus for podcasts is that you don’t need to be in front of a screen, you can bung a headset on and cook, run, workout, iron or simply chill out.  Also it’s a proven fact that information you receive audibly is retained well by your sub-conscious, even if you’re not listening properly – in fact, even if you’re asleep!!

There are several benefits to producing a podcast 

• You can run a series weekly, fortnightly, monthly – whatever you decide
• There are already places to put your podcast where potential listeners/subscribers are actively looking – itunes, Spotify, etc.
• There are no rules – it can be long or short or variable, it can be a talking head, an interview, a single item or a magazine structure with a number of shorter items
• You don’t need lots of expensive equipment a mid-range headset that plugs into your computer’s USB port is all you need
• There are free apps for editing (Audacity).

You will need to do some forward planning.  You’ll need to decide the shape and style of each podcast.  A bit like a book, each episode (chapter) needs to follow a format, so that your listeners don’t get their comfort zones challenged.

You might need to learn how to edit your audio file so that you deliver a polished product.  Alternatively, go on Fiverr.com and find someone who will do it for you for a nominal amount.

Remember that your content needs to:

• Have a consistent focus
• Be informative
• Be entertaining
• Give your target audience real value.

Promote your new releases on social media and to your email list and your subscribers will increase.

Build a great email campaign

There are many structures that work for email campaigns - this is just one example.

First you need a free document with great value to open the offer.  This might be a ‘How to …’, Top Tips, Checklist for …, or even a 3 mistakes [target audience description] need to avoid.

Set a pdf version of your document up on a hidden page on your website that you can direct people to where they can download it.

Now you’re ready to launch your campaign.

Email 1 subject: Title of your free document

This is the kind of message this email would have:

I’m often asked about [document subject] and I decided to put together what I’ve learned over X years in this business as a report.  This is now all ready for you to download completely free of charge.

I’ve dug deep and shared all my knowledge to ensure you don’t make any of the mistakes I have (some of which have been quite expensive) and give you the means to get from A to B in the most stress-free, direct route possible.

Getting your report is simple - just hit the button below:

[Give me my report now]

It’s a good idea to add a P.S. as well that tells them that there are more emails coming over the next couple of weeks and what they’ll share (a big benefit)

Email 2 subject: Do you suffer from [big problem you know your target audience have]

This is where you build your authority by talking about a problem that you know they have and sharing your advice on this.  

The email needs to be all value - no selling.

In the P.S. link to a blog or video on YouTube about the subject (yours, not someone else’s)

Email 3 subject: Does this sound familiar?

This is an opportunity to share a case study explaining how a business (like theirs) ran into a big problem.  DON’T give the solution, DO tell them that you provided the solution and DO highlight the benefits that they experienced when the problem was fixed.

The P.S. should be a message telling them to look out for the next email - which will have the solution!

Email 4 subject: Problem solved!

Tell your story of how you came up against this problem and how you went about solving it.  You can reference other ‘solutions’ you tried that didn’t work.

Then outline your solution (product/service): what it does, the format for delivery, third party validation (i.e. testimonials) and then make the offer:

You’ll need a landing page for this to send them to and perhaps a code for them to access a limited time discount.

Add a button that takes them directly to the page.

P.S. Remind them of cut off date and saving.

Email 5 subject: Have you claimed your special offer yet?

Remind them briefly of the problem, benefits and offer (solution).

Add at least 3 case studies/testimonials - featuring results.

P.S. Remind them that this is a limited time offer and the discount code.

Email 6 subject: Last chance …

Keep it short - just a reminder that the offer expires on [date] and the discount code.  Add a button to take them to the landing page - make it easy!

Schedule

You can set these emails up as an automated series on most of the email marketing platforms.  The question is frequency - some people will send one every day for 6 days - other people don’t feel comfortable with that, but they do need to go over no more than two weeks or your campaign will lose momentum.

Get everything ready first - your free download, the landing page, the discount code, the email campaign - then hit go!