Maybe it says something about my current state of mind that the more I think about the parallels between online marketing and a blind date, the more apt the analogy becomes. Whatever. Here are some rules that, I think, work equally well in either situation.
Disclaimer: I’m a guy. Consequently, some of these may seem a little man-centric, chauvinistic or outdated. Just remember that I’m (mostly) not here to give relationship advice.
Click to continue »A lot of development work involves medium and long-term projects: improving, then improving again. But here are three quick tips that you can do this week to check your website.
Get your mum (or dad) to try and buy one of your products from your website. Even better: use your mother-in-law as the human guinea pig. Give her a simple task, like finding a specific product, then shut up. Sit behind her and listen while she describes what she is doing. DO NOT HELP HER AT ANY STAGE.
It’s Christmas time. Retailers are busy, and stress levels are understandably high. But how often would you expect this sort of treatment?
Wouldn’t you rather the shop assistant spent some time with you, getting to know the sorts of things your Mum might like, and suggesting products other people in your situation bought?
The answer seems obvious, and yet many e-commerce websites fail to engage visitors at what’s known as the ‘explorer’ stage. They seem to treat people who don’t know what they are looking for as unlikely sales prospects —- and yet, isn’t it likely that the people desperately trawling the shops for ideas are likely to make a quick purchase when presented with a good idea?
Click to continue »Many website designs assume that the customer’s first point of contact with the site will be the home page. However, this is increasingly not the case, as more and more site traffic is driven by off-site links from search engines and paid advertising. In this case, the actual page a customer starts on might be several levels removed from the home page, and if what the customer finds doesn’t match their expectations, they are very likely to give up and go back to their search results to try the next page on the list — probably your competitor!
For this reason, it’s important to make sure that these “landing pages” are carefully designed with the customer’s journey in mind:
Click to continue »If you’re selling something on your website that visitors want to buy, make it easy for them to do so. Some e-commerce sites seem to want the customer to beg for the chance to buy rather than showing them the way.
No customer is willing to go hunting through website content hoping that what they’re after is eventually going to pop up. A site needs to be structured in a way that the buying experience is clearly set out, from browsing products to selecting them, to the checkout process, and even to post-purchasing activities. Additionally, products need to be displayed so that customers get a full view of what they are looking at. This should include photos and descriptions of the products to ensure nothing is ambiguous. These aspects are essentially the same as displaying products in a shop: they are what attract the customer to come in and explore further.
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