Know your customer

[Point one]

If your business is selling then you will know your customers well. However for successful online selling you must narrow this perspective and choose a particular segment to target.

Consider how you can segment and divide your target web customers. For example you may be able to do it by age or by geographic region or both. Remember on the web you must start by selling to a specific targeted audience, so here we are not talking about all your customers, just those you wish to reach over the web.

As an example supposing you are a shoe retailer and wish to expand online sales. Realising that younger customers are more likely to buy online you target them. This then leads to your opening page the home page displaying the latest trainers and your advertising strategy maybe incorporating some online game retailers. So your typical brick and mortar customer may well be a middle aged person, but your targeted online customer maybe teenagers.

Know your product

[Point two]

You must know what benefits your product offers to your target customers. List the benefits and then list them in order of importance. Remove any contradictory benefits. If yoiu are selling the cheapest then don't compare it with the most expensive as this will plant doubt in your customers mind. Make sure you are selling one thing only and now you are clear about the benefits you are ready for your web pages.

[Point three]

Target your products for web sales that are most suitable for this. Different products may sell online than in your local sales. Consider factors other than simply the despatch cost and remember the target audience as discussed above. There is no point in trying putting children's shoes on the home page because they are the lightest, when you have decided that the targeted audience that you are advertising to is teenagers.

Web pages

[Point four]

Have a page for each benefit and additional pages for other things that you wish to achieve. For example a page to collect email addresses. Make sure that each page does one thing only.

The theme of simplicity rings through this document. Make sure that your customer is never confused. That you are never more than one click away from the home page. Navigation sytems or buttons should be clear and easy to use and at the very most have two naviagtion systems. (Navigation systems are the buttons you click to get from page to page on a web site).

Reduce distracting areas on each page. For example do not have fancy peripheral graphics and flashing images. This may simply distract from the main purpose of your page.

[Point five]

Remember each page has a specific purpose, usually to highlight a particular product benefit. Try to get products on the front page rather than fancy graphics and at all cost avoid graphic only entrance pages. Your home page text requires the most thought and is the most important text on your site. The first paragraph must capture interest and explain clearly the benefits of your product in order to keep the attention of the fickle viewer. Often viewers will have more than one window open and as soon as you loose their attention they will click on another window.

Products

[Point six]

You knew we would get there in the end. The customer must be able to see what they are buying clearly, so make sure your pictures are not just good but great. Make sure you have pictures of all your products and that they are professional and well presented. To persuade a customer to part with their hard earned cash you must present the product clearly.

Split your products into segments and think of the benefits they offer. Peripherals of interest to two segments can be included twice. Special offers can remain in all sections or can be targeted to the specific section they are displayed in.

If you really can't get your products on your front page, good product pictures must be viewed as soon as you click into the product section, which as we already know is one click from the home page.

[Point seven]

Once the products appear they must be well displayed and the pictures must expand if clicked on. The more expensive the product the more pictures and even video may be required. Imagine that you were parting with your money online. You would not just want reassurance that the product was good. But perfectly suited for your purpose.

Your Website

[Point eight]

Work with your website and let your website work with you not against you. Sounds stupid but how many times have you closed down a web site for a company you were interested in simply because it was so poorly designed you were lost and frustrated. I am constantly amazed by the number of times I have to use the site specific search engine to find a product or service that the company sells or in the case of one company three days ago I had to use the search engine to find its primary, yes its main product! Not only was it not on the front page it was hidden in the site.

More commonly websites are simply ignored. They are perfect when they are launched. But when a customer views the site two years later they see old adverts and pictures of products that have now been modified. Viewers are experienced now and pick up on any lack of care immediately and worse they assume that this applies to all areas of your business. If you are featuring last years models on your website then they will put you down as last years company. You would be better without a website.

[Point nine]

The fact that are your most powerful and fantastic and invaluable source of marketing information about exactly what your customers want is available from your website is ignored by most businesses. Information on what key words customers are using to find your site is quite simply the most important information you can have for highlighting marketing trends. For example if your website is organised into pages that are organised by product type. Your statistics can tell you which pages are the most popular and which pages are ignored. This information is now the heart of your business and once you get used to working with it you can introduce it onto pages with the products that you most want information on. The fromt page may be used for products that are viewed most frequently. You also of course check the information on pages that customers leave your site from without purchasing a product.

[Point ten]

You can collect contact information from many of your key customers simply by offering them a free download, prizes for completing a survey, better rates, more information. Simply as soon as they log into your website you can gain their email address. Once you have a mailing list you can target customers in your mailshots who are actually likely to buy. Response rates can go through the roof.

Not only that you if you offer targeted offers of interest to your customers you can bring them back to your site before they buy from your competitors.