Paradigm Blog

Are your marketing efforts paying off? How do you know? Are you reaching customers from a magazine ad, word of mouth, or your web site? We suggest clients ask “How did you find us?” when a customer calls them. Understandably, this can be hard to remember along with other daily tasks.

Solution? Get a toll free number specifically for use on your web site.

Using a toll free number will allow you each month to have a record of how many customers found you through your web site. You could repeat this process by having a toll free number for a magazine ad you run or a tv spot you buy.

By knowing where your customers are coming from, you can then cut out advertising that doesn’t perform and invest more into avenues that produce results.

The web is still largely an uncharted place. When new visitors arrive at your site they may know nothing about you, even if you have the products and services they want. How do you overcome this? One way is through testimonials.

Testimonials communicate the level of service, dedication and quality you offer to potential customers and clients by the voice of your established satisfied customer base. Let’s put this in a relatable context:

Which company would you buy from?

Based on the testimonials alone, I would buy from Company B. Company A says they provide great service, but look at what Company B’s testimonial communicates:

• When I order something, I will get it.
• They have quality products.
• Their products make good gifts.
• I might get a bonus product with my order.
• They communicate with their customers.

When dealing with a business online that I’ve never met face to face, never talked with over the phone, and never ordered from, suddenly I’m more at ease with buying from them because their current customers have had positive experiences. Granted testimonials are not the only step in the process of securing a new visitor’s confidence, but they are another tool you can use make your site seem less like a stranger in their wild web frontier.

More on using testimonials

• Example used from our client www.blackmountaincoins.com
• See our site for our web site services.
• For help gathering testimonials and adding them to your site, contact us today.

You’ve registered 12 domain names and you want to choose one to launch or rebuild your site under. Which one do you choose? Let’s put it this way: which one can your customer find?

If Google knows a particular domain name it will give your site a better initial start of attracting people to come to your site. Consider one of client’s two domain names:

Which domain will customers find when searching Google?

It’s pretty obvious. Buyers will find the first domain and won’t find the second domain at all. If Google doesn’t know you, people won’t find you when the search. And if they can’t find your site, they won’t buy from you.

Want to find out if Google knows a domain you own? Go to Google.com and search your domain with a prefix of “site:” such as “site:www.domain.com”. Here are two searches from our example:

• search Google for site:www.propaid.com
• search Google for site:www.prop-aid.com

If Google doesn’t know of any of the domains you own, don’t worry. There are ways to overcome this. But if you own a domain that Google knows about, why not use that to your advantage to draw visitors and buyers to your site?

More on Domains Names

• Example is from our client www.prop-aid.com.
• See more on our web site services.
• Want help with your domain name? Drop us a note.

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer who is shopping online. You come upon two sites which both sell a product at the same price.

Which site would you buy from?

The first description is vague, cold and impersonal. Immediately you wonder:

• What is this product?
• What am I getting?
• How can I use this product?
• How is it packaged?
• What if this isn’t the product I was looking for?

The second site however is informative and friendly. All of our questions are answered:

• What is this product? Fishing rod made for use with Bait Lures.
• What am I getting? A 6′10″ medium-heavy fishing rod.
• How can I use this product? Best used with the listed baits and jigs.
• How is it packaged? Bubble wrapped in PVC tube.
• What if this isn’t the product I was looking for? No hassle warranty with satisfaction guaranteed.

Clearly the second site provides the better description and, based on description alone, it is far more likely you would buy the product from them.

So the next time you are getting your products together to sell online, or considering what you can do to sell more of your products online, consider taking a second look at your product descriptions and ask yourself: Am I really answering my customers questions about this product before they ask them?

More about product descriptions:

• Second description is from our client Kistler Rods
• Jakob Nielsen plugs the benefits of Informative Product Pages
• See our site for e-commerce services
• Need help on your site descriptions? Let us know.

One way to improve your web site (ahem … increase sales) is provide better product photos. This may sound obvious, but it really goes overlooked. Consider the following listings for a men’s watch on one of our client’s site:

Which would you buy?

Before: A single watch photo appearing on the site which zooms to 400 x 300 pixels.

After: Four different views of the item. Main photo is larger and clearer. Even at this reduced view, small item details can be seen. Photos two and three show product functionality and use. Finally the fourth view shows the item individually packaged. All images zoom to 800 maximum pixel width … double the size of the original photo.

The main idea is to help your visitor understand your product:

• Professional photographs show product in best light.
• Large “zoom” views spotlight details of product quality
• Multiple views show how customer can use the product and/or dimensional qualities of product.

Help your customer understand what this product is, what it does, and how they can use it.

In the case of our client, who sells wholesale lots online, it is important to show each product is a quality item even with an inexpensive price and that each product in the lot is individually packaged. Photos quickly communicate these principles.

Ultimately they help your customer decide if they can trust you and buy the item with confidence.

More about product photos:

• Product example from our client Closeout Services.
• Nielsen says High-Quality Photography is a key to profits.
• See our site for product photography
• Need help on your product photos? Contact us today.