Turn your website browsers into buyers

At #Startup2018 Irene Moore (@irenemoore_) Co-Founder & Director of Digital Marketing London and 90 Day Startup kicked off the lineup on the Digital Stage with the topic of how to turn website browers into buyers.

01 Principles of a Great User Experience

Step 01 was adhering to principles of a great user experience. If your customers are having a great experience (and a hassle free one) they are more likely to buy from you.

• Navigation

Navigation on your website should be easy. really easy. Lead your buyers on an enjoyable journey. Think about what your customers and clients are looking for when they visit your website. What journey do they have to go on to get to it? Have a bestselling product – make it the “hero” of your website!

• Expectations

Manage your client’s expectations. If you do this well they are more likely to buy from you. Be clear about your products and services. Let them know in plain english about your shipping and delivey times. Tell them when your items are out of stock and what happens next. Usually in the buying experience, the customer will leave if they doing find what they want or what they are expecting. For example if an item is out of stock you might like to recommend an alternativive product, ask them if they would like to be added to a waitlist/notified when the item comes back into stock.

Don’t be boring. Say somthing to attract conversation.

• Engagement

Engagement is becoming more and more important to your customers. Customers are buying from businesses and brands that have great customer service and are helpful, so invite your customers in and give them a create service. Don’t forget the purpose of your website is to sell. So ask your customers “How can I help you?” and “What do you need?” It is important to encourage this conversation as it will help you understand your customer more. It will help you make the sale (or understand why you lost it).

Don’t forget if you get your (potential) customer on your mailing list you can sell and engage with them in a different way than if they were just browsing your website.

02 Mindset of the Browser

Get into the mindset of the Browser. There are three stages/mindsets that your visitors might be in:

• surfing
• researching
• shopping

You need to serve people in each of these stages.

Surfing

A browser in “surfing” mode is relaxed. They are not thinking about spending their money. Their intention to buy is very low. They are browsing the web to be entertained. They are looking for “sticky” contect such as videos, quizzes or image galleries. Show off your product or services in an entertaining way to encourage them to stay.

Priority: attention grabbing!

Researching

A browser in “researching” mode is usualy looking to solve a problem or to learn something.  Therefore their intention to buy is medium/high and you have the potential to attract a sale and win them over. These type of browsers will be attracted by wish lists, favourites, comparisons and content that solves their problems for them or answers their questions .

Priority: Engagement!

This is an example of where you might want to have an option for some two-way conversation on your website – e.g. a live chat service like purechat to enhance the customer service experience on your website and help bring you closer to the sale.

Another example is to have a community / free Facebook group to provide support and help to your customers and build your relationship with them.

Shopping

A browser in shopping mode is looking to buy. Their intention to buy is high and they are attracted by the right product or service, an easy buying process and are attracted and incentivised by offers / added value.

Priority: incentivise them!

Don’t forget your incentive doesn’t always have to be a discount. You could “reward” your customers for shopping with you instead, a reward for buying more / spending over a certain amount. You could encourage them to favourite products and build wish lists directly on your website. Remember they might not buy right now.

03 Ways to bring people back

The final thing that you will need to have a strategy in place is for bringing people back to your website or to help them follow through on their purchase. This might include:

• pop-ups

We may hate pop-ups in our day-to-day lives however, it has been proven that pop-ups increase sales by 40%. Irene recommended using Nathalie Lussier’s PopupAlly for “polite” and intelligent pop-ups.

• retargeted ads

You can use retarted ads on mailchimp based on where your customers have been browsing on your website. Retargeted ads will mean that your browsers will later start to see ads for your products across the web. research shows that customers need to see your product between 7-11 times before they will buy it.

• abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails are sent to customers to remind them to make the purchase. We are all busy, therefore we are can be easily distracted and may not complete a purchase. Abandoned cart emails can help bring back those customers and encourage them to follow through.

FINALLY… Nurture your relationships

The power is in your relationships. Nurture your current buyers with offers, treats, exclusive content and special experiences as sometimes all you need is a small number of regular buyers.