The summer marketing series is back this week! If you missed the last one on how to hire a qualified service provider or copywriter, it can be found here. As a lingerie copywriter, I look at hundreds of lingerie websites per month. I also shop lots of different places, which means I have the viewpoint of both a marketing professional and a consumer.
Lots of copywriters like to talk about ?pain points?, which are basically a list of fears that a potential consumer has when they think about buying from you. Truthfully, the reasons people click a buy button are pretty complicated and boiling it all down to customer fears is a little simplistic. Basically to make a sale you want to be likeable, have a website that doesn?t make someone want to slam their head against a wall and seem trustworthy. These obviously aren?t hard and fast rules. There are lots of unfriendly people running successful lingerie boutiques because they offer brands or options that other people don?t. Trust isn?t as important if you have a great return policy and people don?t have to take as much of a risk when they purchase something from you.
That said, there are some easy things you can do to create more sales. They?re all basic and summer is a great time to work on them before the Christmas/Valentine?s nuttiness sets in.
1. How user friendly is your website?
I just wrote a huge post about this for Handmade Success, so I?m going to try and refrain from going over all the points I made there. The gist is this: if people can?t find what they need, figure out their size and successfully check out through your website you?re losing sales. Lots of sites struggle with things like navigation and?search-ability. Others struggle with unhelpful product descriptions or difficult shopping carts. The worst part is that people won?t tell you what you?re doing wrong so you can fix it: instead they just won?t ever shop with you.
The easiest way to diagnose these issues is to have someone else go through your site and try to make a purchase. To create a great test environment, have them try to purchase something really specific that they might have to search for. Ask them where they get stuck and at what point they would have given up. You can also use surveys to ask your current customers what could be improved in terms of sizing advice and website features.
2. Do you have a personality?
As I said before, you don?t have to be the most?likable?person on the planet to run a successful business. That said, it really helps. Online shoppers have thousands of options these days and one of the ways to stand out is by being someone who people want to buy from.
This is much easier said than done and is something that I even struggle with. When I?ve spent all day thinking in the voices of my clients, it?s much harder to find my own. If you?re struggling, you can generally hire a copywriter to work with you on developing your brand?s voice and incorporating it into different parts of your marketing. Some people do this by outsourcing their blog to a copywriter, but you can also do it yourself with some expert advice.
3. Is your branding unique?
I?ve heard from three or four people in the past year who have paid for custom business branding and gotten branding based on stock art instead. It?s never fun to discover that your expensive website header or logo is duplicated in ten other places online. Part of this goes back to doing your research before you hire a service provider and part of this comes down to having a distinct vision of what your lingerie boutique looks and sounds like. If your branding isn?t unique, it?s easy for customers to confuse you with other websites. It?s also harder to stand out from the pack when you?re graphically one of the herd.?
Now, I?m not saying you have to invest in super expensive custom graphics. My photographic header is awesome and was created with stuff I had in my closets (yes, I really do have typewriters lying around!). It makes a strong statement about what you?ll find on the site, which is what great branding does. Make your branding as fancy or as DIY as you want, just make it look like you.
4. Concentrate on your product descriptions.
Product descriptions are like the little black dress of marketing ? they work for multiple occasions and go with everything. Product descriptions are important to your customers, to the Google crawlers and can also help you with suggestions one and two on this list.?
A great basic product description contains:
- 5 to 10 perfectly put together sentences free of all capital letters,?misspellings?and?gratuitous?exclamation points.
- A link to an accurate and helpful sizing chart.
- Any extra sizing information in case a product runs large or small or needs extra?accessories.
- A dash of personality to make the piece appeal to your customer.
- Two or three smart and natural keywords for Google to chew on.
If this sounds scary or you?re just not a writer type, copywriters can often create description templates for you to use to make things easier. I?ve done this for tons of clients and they?ve all been happy with them.
5. Take a chance on what brands you stock.
Treacle and I did this joint piece on The Lingerie Addict awhile back that touched on this subject but I think it?s important to mention it here as well. The advantage that online boutiques have is that they can focus on more unusual brands or sizes. If you?re carrying the same inventory as the local department stores then you?re not providing added value to your customers. If you think about the well known online lingerie boutiques, they either specialize in unique stuff or carry a huge range of things. Offering outside the box options creates lifelong customers.
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