5 Tips To Convert Web Traffic into Sales

Below are 5 useful tips to help you turn your visiting website traffic into sales. There are thousands of tips, websites and companies out there who will offer advice – free and paid, but I thought I might add some of my own thoughts.

Our business – Polaris Design Studios - started out in the same way as many others, an innovative idea and a skill set that other people wanted and needed. From gaining a few local customers our business has grown to encompass clients from as far afield as Costa Rica and Australia. As our website has grown in popularity, it’s become easier to convert our visitors into paying customers as we now have people visiting the site who actually need our service.

The one thing that will keep your business thriving is a return on your investment or ROI as it is commonly known. You’ve often got to speculate to accumulate and the bottom line is having the courage to invest in the hope/certainty that you will get a return. One of the main driving forces behind your success is you. Your determination and commitment will ultimately determine the level of your success. Yes, you will at some point have to invest money, but there are lots of things that you can do yourself. One of your major investments will be a website unless this is something you can develop to a high standard yourself. Other things like Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing can be done without a large expenditure if you’re prepared to put in the time and the effort.

I hope you’ll find these tips useful; I always look forward to hearing your comments. Feel free to get in touch with your comments, I value them.

1. I think the first tip is probably the most important and relates to your website. In order to convert visitors into traffic, you need to instil confidence in potential customers. One way to do this is to have a superb looking website with flawless functionality. Basically, your website needs to look good and work well. If you put buying goods into real time, you’re more likely to purchase goods from a shop that is clean, well presented and shopper friendly. This applies to your website equally. If your website hasn’t been updated within the last 18 months, it’s really time to consider giving it a facelift or at least adding/updating your content. Find a web design company who you feel comfortable with and strike up a long term relationship.
2. Offer secure on-line payment. In this day and age people have grown considerably more suspicious and paranoid with regards to parting with money on-line. Provide various payment options – Paypal, Sagepay, etc. Also consider giving your clients the option of paying via on-line bank transfer. This puts the customer in control and can boost confidence.
3. Offer guarantees and flexible payments. At Polaris Design Studios, we’re committed to providing quality web design and development and we make sure the customer gets what they pay for. We don’t expect people to give things away for free (we always ask for a 50% deposit), but be flexible with regards to your payment options. If you’re selling goods, offer a money back guarantee (and stick to it). Treat your potential customers as you would like to be treated. One of the best ways to generate business is by word of mouth. If a shopper has had a great experience on your website, they will tell other people. People always like to boast about bargains and great products!
4. Great communication is a key element of boosting your sales. If someone makes an enquiry, respond to them as quickly as possible. The longer you leave correspondence, the greater the likelihood that people will look elsewhere. When you do correspond via email with your potential customers, try and produce unique mail. Customers like to feel valued. If you write personalised emails, this will make your potential customer feel important and individual. Don’t just copy and paste pre-written emails. Include the customer’s name (if you know it) and refer to specific parts of their enquiry.
5. Give your customer an incentive to buy from you. What can you offer that competitors either can’t or won’t offer. Enter customers into a prize competition when they have purchased from you. Offer a free gift/product with a minimum spend. Give reductions on shipping costs if customers buy more than one item.

I hope this article has proved somewhat helpful. We pride ourselves on our Customer Service. Our clients are our revenue and allow us to maintain our business. Without them, our business wouldn’t exist. We recommend that you treat your potential customers in the same way, and they will buy your products and services.

At Polaris Design, we thought it might be useful to provide our visitors with what we think are the top 10 tips for a great website. Unfortunately, there is no magic recipe to create the perfect website, but to encourage people to visit again and again, some of these suggestions might help.

We’re always keen to hear your views so please feel free to leave your helpful comments for other visitors to our site.

1. Have a common theme and design running through your website. Keep all the pages the same. Navigation is the tool that visitors rely on most when visiting your site. Keep it in the same place on every page, that way no one gets “lost” and frustrated and presses the dreaded red X.
2. This tip relates somewhat to the first in that a good structure for your website is essential. Search engines and visitors like your website content to be well organised and easy to read. Use headings that are clear and point potential customers in the direction that you want them to go!
3. Customer exposure to the internet is huge. With huge numbers comes variation. It is important to take into account the needs and abilities of potential visitors to your site. Can your site be accessed by people with a visual impairment? Do the images on your site appeal to people of many cultures and background? Is it possible that your content may prove offensive? How easy would a sufferer of dyslexia find your site to read? Have you avoided the use of clashing colours which may affect people who are colour blind? Is the content of your site pitched at a level that can be read by the masses?
4. Make your website look professional. In days gone by, it was a novelty for a business to have a website and many amateurs tried their hand at creating their own. A website is now an integral part of any business and like other aspects of your business, it is something that you should invest in. Unless you are able to create your own professional looking site, it is imperative that you source a company who can build you an attractive, functional site. It may be tempting to spend as little as possible on a website, indeed, I’ve seen people who are only willing to spend as little as £150 on a small business website. Ultimately, you get what you pay for. If you generally retail your online goods at £50, you wouldn’t suddenly start selling them for £25. Website development is exactly the same. Although a website is not something that you can touch and feel, it is a tangible part of your business. For a well constructed website, you should be looking to invest a minimum of £300-£400 for a basic site and upwards of £1200 for a simple E-Commerce site. Check out on-line portfolios and ask for references.
5. A simple tactic to increase your online sales is to offer related items to what your customer has already purchased. For example, if you sell dog collars and a customer buys one, you might recommend that they buy a leash or a water bowl. Simple but effective.
6. Include testimonials on your website. Some consumers are still somewhat suspicious of purchasing on-line. Give your customers confidence by showing them that other people have visited your site, purchased items and are satisfied with them. Don’t try to pull a fast one and include fake reviews. Treat your customers as you would like to be treated – fairly and honestly!
7. Communication is key to building good customer relationships. Make a promise to your customers that you will respond to their enquiries within 24/48 hours and stick to it. Show yourself to be reliable and trustworthy, it will do wonders for your online reputation. Instilling confidence in your potential customers is a key factor in turning visitors into paying customers.
8. Incorporate social media into your website. Social media is a massive phenomenon which has great power in getting people to your site. Give your visitors the opportunity to share your site with their friends, work colleagues and family by ensuring you have social media functionality. Encourage people to bookmark your site and Digg your site. Have highly visible social media icons on your website, particularly when you have special offers or sales.
9. Consider registering your business/website with your local Chambers of Commerce. Being associated with a credible, well known association can build confidence in your business. You may also find that after joining your local Chamber of Commerce, there may be several ventures that might benefit your business, for example, the opportunity to speak at a C.O.C event, the opportunity to provide sponsorship. Membership to local Chambers of Commerce can cost as little as £180 per year.
10. Update your website content regularly. An easy way to do this is to create a blog. Let visitors to your site know what you’re doing, how you’re progressing and your general thoughts on your specific topic. A website that remains static for a long time becomes uninspiring and boring! Give your customers something to think about or comment on. Encourage your customers to interact on your website and be part of your website community. The more people you have participating in your website, i.e. leaving comments, positive feedback, you’ll tend to find, the more you get!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this short article and that it’s proved useful in some small way! We’re in the process of implementing many of these points and look forward to launching our new website in the very near future. Keep visiting and if you require any help or advice, feel free to get in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.

As always, we appreciate your comments and feel free to leave your website URL (great for creating inbound links!!!)

Website Design

An integral part of any business in these times is a website. Many customers will now base their opinion and first impression of your business as a result of finding you on the internet. A website should be considered to be your store front and as such, it is crucial that you pay heed to how the site looks and operates. Think about when you go shopping, be it for groceries or a brand new outfit for a wedding. Think about how the store is laid out and then think about the moment when you go to the till and the cashier gives you the bill. How often have you been checking your receipt as you push the trolley out of the store wondering what on earth you've spent money on. I'm sure we've all done it and believe me, this is nothing to do with chance.

These are clever tactics by large stores to encourage you to part with cash. Have you ever wondered why the bakery is generally located at the back of the store? The luring smell of freshly baked bread draws you into the store (sometimes further than the fridge where the pint of milk that you need is located!) and encourages you to spend more time in the store. Next time you're doing your grocery shop, look
at the items on the shelf that are at eye-level. Notice that these are generally the most expensive items with the prices increasing from left to right (the way that we are trained naturally to read!). The cheaper items tend to be on lower shelves (we have to put more effort into buying these ones, including bending down!

It comes down to this, the longer you spend in a store, chances are, the more money you'll spend. This applies on-line too. The first obstacle is getting people to your site, the second is keeping them there and the third is encouraging people to spend money in your store. It is important to lay out your site in a clear
and logical manner and keep people interested. Personally, I can't stand adverts. When they pop up in a box in the middle of my screen, I generally close the site, go back to my search results and go to the next website down in the hope that these annoyances won't appear on that site too. If you must have adverts,
try having them in strategic places and give the visitor the choice whether or not they want to view them. Another point to bear in mind is that when these pop-ups are clicked on, your visitor is generally directed away from your site so they really are counter productive.

When considering the design of a site spend some quality time thinking about it. Many web designers will give you pointers and assistance with the design of your site. Most of these designers are professional and it generally pays to listen to them. If you have your own ideas of how your site should look, share these with your web designer but be prepared to come and go. At the end of the day, if you insist on a specific design, the web designer will go along with it (they may not publish it in their portfolio!) because they earn a living from creating websites. Website designers are usually qualified and have up-to-date knowledge regarding
website design, planning and implementation. If you take the design aspect of your site into your own hands (unless you have a good design background) you may suffer in the long run. If you are unhappy with the suggestions made by your designer, speak with them. Alternatively, shop around until you find a designer that you feel comfortable with. Ultimately, any web designer will give you the best advice possible since this will result in increased traffic to your site which may in turn lead to repeat business for the web designer.

One aspect of your site that you will want to look impressive is any graphic images relating to your business/product. You should always bear in mind copyright issues and the best advise I can give is to sign up to a site that offers stock photography. Some sites will provide limited free photographs that may just suit your needs. Ask the web designer to make sure that any images in the site have alternative text that search engine crawlers can pick up. This is a small issue that is often overlooked but can result in a greater number of visitors to your site.

When Polaris Design are asked to design and develop a site, a popular question that is often asked is "why am I not on the first page of Google?". This comes down to search engine
optimisation. I would consider web design and SEO to be two separate pieces of work, although most designers/developers will design a site which is search engine friendly. You should understand that SEO is not an exact science and that there are never any guarantees of where your site will rank
with search engines. There are many aspects to consider including how long the domain has been registered and how many inbound links you have to your site. There are lots of companies and freelance SEO experts out there who are only too willing to offer their services. Alternatively, find out for yourself how to best optimise your site. If you're prepared to spend a few hours in front of a computer, you can do wonders for your page ranking independently and negate the need to pay someone else to do it for you. If you want your website professionally "optimised" be prepared to pay for the services you will receive. Generally, the payback should be good as you will have greater numbers of visitors to your site.

Finally, when considering having a website designed and developed, be prepared to make a financial investment. For a basic Content Management System, you should be prepared to spend a minimum of around £350 upwards. For an e-commerce site, starting prices will be around £600 to £800 and upwards depending on your requirements and functionality of the site. If you consider the cost of advertising, these prices are fairly small in comparison and are generally one off fees that will give you a respectable looking
website. You should look to have your site revamped every 12 to 18 months to keep it looking fresh and the content relevant. Be wary of companies and individuals who claim to produce all-singing all-dancing CMS E-Commerce websites for £150, you get what you pay for! Reputable designers and developers put a lot of time and effort into their profession and this will be reflected in the prices that are charged.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article and I wish you well in your website design project and business.

Polaris Design

Well this is post 2 so I've managed to remain committed to posting on this blog for 2 days now!

Paul is now learning Sharepoint, C# and Epi Server. To be honest, it all goes a bit over my head but I'm sure it will ultimately help us in our quest to become an all-singing, all-dancing multimedia development company. At the moment, we have a couple of projects on the go. Virtual Business Solutions is very near to completion, as is the Yardie Cottage website. We're trying to cool off with the projects at the moment so that Paul can dedicate more time to his Sharepoint Development training.

As the 2IC, I'm trying desperately hard to learn what I can about Joomla. Being a non-computer person, I must say I'm finding it rather complicated and I have absolutely no eye for website design, but I am trying very hard! I'm currently practising using our practice website - The Virtual Pub. Initially, we intended to develop this site but time constraints have banished it to the development dungeon. Maybe I can do something with it when I learn a bit more!

Lastly, we're finding that our server seems to be down a lot recently, I need to contact the hosting company and find out why because as I'm sure all you fellow developers know, as soon as a site goes down, the first person that clients turn to is the website developer (even though you developed their site 2 years ago!).

I'll sign off now, but in the meantime, as always, please visit the site: http://www.polarisdesign.co.uk/

Brand New Blog

In an effort to increase traffic and try to understand a bit more about SEO, I'm making an attempt at my first blog. Polaris Design Studios is approaching it's first birthday and it's only been in the past 4 months that business really has started to pick up. It's been a long, hard, slog but ultimately it's been worth it.

Despite Polaris Design only being a small, family business it has recently gone from strength to strength, becoming more than just an opportunity to make a small amount of extra cash to help the family through the tough times that everyone seems to be experiencing at the moment.

Paul is working exceptionally hard to balance his full time day job with the demands that Polaris Design are putting on him with regards to the design and development of websites and other multimedia. We've now got our very own office courtesay of my Dad and Brother. Paul spends so much time in there now, I'm sure it's become a home from home.

Life in the house continues to be juggling act with two children under the age of 2 and a half. Finding the time to help Paul with the design and development is becoming increasingly more difficult. I'm sure it'll be worth it though!

Hopefully I'll remain dedicated to this blog, but in the meantime, please visit the site at http://www.polarisdesign.co.uk/