By Ron Robinson, General Manager of Oakland Group
[August 8th, 2001]

See Also   Want A Sticky Website That Sells? Forget Content!   Giving Customers What They Want   Rule Busters Lose   Building Your Web Site's Sales   Abandoned Shopping Carts: Enigma or Sloppy E-Commerce?   The Only Visitor That Counts Is A Repeat Visitor   Three Steps to Get More Customers   Your Web Site - Do It Yourself? or Get Serious!   How To Make Them Buy Now   The Future of E-Commerce Stinks!   Beware Overload   Does Your Site Have Stopping Power?   Online Sales Psychology That Works   And the Broadband Played on, and on...   How Your Web Site Can Learn From Newspapers   Promise Not to Tell   Where's Your Community?   Understanding Your Visitors   The Seven Deadly Web Site Sins   The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Part 2   The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Part 1

Your Web site is finally up! You're all excited about how good it looks and the products you're offering. You're thrilled about the opportunity you've created for your business. You're ready to service and ship all the orders you hope will now come pouring in.

Right about now you may be wondering how you're going to drive traffic (shoppers) to your site and, just as importantly, how you will turn a predetermined percentage of those visitors into sales.

As the old saying goes: "Don't put the cart before the horse." You may be a bit premature in thinking about closing sales at this point. Building site traffic is great; everybody knows that high traffic numbers are the key to high sales figures. However, if your Web site, and the services it offers, isn't ready to build sales, then high traffic numbers may simply mean a higher percentage of shoppers could possibly leave your site without buying anything you have to offer.

Mixed Messages
In today's competitive Web market, there are a number of ways to ensure not only that you attract the maximum number of buyers to your site, but also that you entice them to return repeatedly.

Many Web marketing articles and newsletters maintain that the key to successful selling is high search engine placement, meta-tags, mass e-mailings and other marketing activities, which can be premature if a site is not ready to develop a sales relationship with the visitors (high or low volume).

Think about the last time you were at a parade or festival where people packed the streets and merchants were doing landmark business. You may have noticed that very few people walked into one particular merchant's store. Perhaps the windows were too dark. Maybe the storefront was unappealing or the entrance was too narrow or blocked. His merchandise may have been poorly displayed. While that merchant had all the same benefits of the huge crowed as his fellow store owners, he sold very little because he couldn't present his business attractively, nor convince passers-by that he was serious about serving their needs.

Your Web site may be telling potential customers just the opposite of what you think it is. It may be telling them that you aren't serious about providing the kind of service and products that they've come looking for. You want to be sure that this isn't what is happening when someone comes to shop at your place of business-your Web site.

Rebuilding Your Site to Measure Up to Success
I'm going to help you develop a Web store that will be ready for the huge traffic numbers you want to generate. You will know how to convince potential shoppers that you're fully prepared to attend to their needs and service their purchases-and you will be there to help them next week and next year.

The following tips are easy to employ, but Web merchants often overlook them, mistakenly believing that all they have to do is "build it and they will come." Successful merchants get them to come-and buy. And buy again!

I have learned that if you follow these simple rules, you will not only convince shoppers to buy from you, but they will form a lasting relationship and will become loyal customers who feel that you are worthy of their patronage. My experience has been gathered over more than seven years of helping thousands of Internet merchants build their sales and become successful, as others have failed and disappeared from the e-business scene.

Generally, the more of the following suggestions you employ, the more apt you will be in guaranteeing your success. You may choose to follow other marketing guru's suggestions for maximizing traffic-many actually work-but your site has to be ready when that traffic eventually comes pouring in. You may be facing a week of hard work to modify your site to meet these "measures of merit," but the results will definitely show up in your bank balance.

Order Tracking
Offer online order tracking on your site. If a prospective shopper sees that you offer online order tracking that enables them to check the status of their order-even with UPS or FedEx from your site-they are assured that you have invested in a continuing relationship with them. Many shoppers prefer the anonymity of being able to buy and track their order online rather than leaving a message on voice mail and waiting for someone to reply. Numerous online resources (or a CGI programmer) allow you to add this inexpensive feature to your Web site.

Publish Your Contact Information
This should be on every Web page on your site. Over the past seven years that our organization has assisted online merchants, many of them told us that they were concerned that they might not be able to handle the volume of incoming requests if they published their contact information. Each was extremely surprised at the low volume of calls that resulted from publishing their contact information on their Web sites. By publishing your contact information, you create trust and shoppers believe that you are willing to communicate with them about any of their concerns. They feel that it's all right if they get voice mail when they call, but the important thing in the back of their mind is that they can contact you if they need to. It's trust you need if you are going to induce them to buy from you.

Give Detailed Information on Each Product
It's best if you can saturate your Web site with enough information that you become known as an "online authority" regarding the products you provide. Don't put all the information right up front on your site, but do allow the shopper to drill down quickly to detailed information with just a couple of clicks. If you make your information complete and authoritative, you'll be surprised at the number of Web sites that link to yours because they regard it as a good source of information on the products you handle. Those links mean additional traffic. They also tell your visitors that you are knowledgeable about your product line.

Continued: more tips and secrets to help grow your site's sales