Creative Marketing Solutions: Fresh, Effective Strategies for Attracting Clients and Customers from Marcia Yudkin
  Binge-Learn Courses Seminars Products Coaching About Home
     
FREE BOOK!
Receive a PDF copy of The Marketing Attitude with your free subscription to The Marketing Minute.
   Name:
   Email:

Your email address is kept private!

Learn how to become a marketing consultant in 10 weeks

Contact us

 

 
 

Selling Multiple Products? Avoid These Top Blunders 

by Marcia Yudkin 

When your web site sells more than a dozen items, you may face a fierce challenge of helping shoppers find what they are looking for. You'll need to classify products into categories, but these will serve as obstacles and even deal killers if those categories do not match those in the heads
of shoppers. 

I've seen again and again web sites using classifications that aren't known or understood by a portion of their customers. For instance, I once wanted to buy T-shirts and went to the site of a famous catalog company, where I found a category called "shirts." So far, so good. But then I had to choose between a category called "woven" or another 
called "knitted." There I got stumped. Are T-shirts woven or knitted? I was not sure. 

Learn From the Masters of No-Hype Copywriting
In 2013 and 2014, Marcia Yudkin convened the most articulate and experienced practitioners of no-hype copywriting for an exchange of ideas on writing copy that persuades without excessive showmanship or stretching the truth.  Presenters included Peter Bowerman, Nick Usborne, Shel Horowitz, Karon Thackston and others. Order the recordings from this telesummit.

Another time I was searching for a Toyota car part, ready to buy it, but I could not find it on the Toyota parts web site unless I knew whether it was part of the drive train, an accessory, the exhaust system or something else. I hadn't a clue. In both these cases, the site wrongly 
assumed that shoppers understood their jargon, and set that up as a barrier to an online purchase.

Let's suppose that you solve the jargon problem and someone finds what they are looking for. The next hurdle for shoppers concerns whether or not people can find answers to all the questions about availability, shipping charges, warranties and return policies that they could easily ask
if shopping by phone or in person. In the last year, I would say that only 50% of the time when I'm shopping online I've had all of my pre-purchase questions answered by the web site. Among the multi-product sites I've toured as a reviewer, I don't remember a single one that answered enough questions for shoppers.

Before your site launches, you can think up all the questions people might ask by imagining different kinds of shoppers - people from other countries, corporate buyers, gift givers, etc. - and what they'd need to know. Once
your site's been up for a while, collect the questions that come in by email and phone. Gather the questions and answers in a Frequently Asked Questions page and make the FAQ accessible from every page of your site. 

Write Product Descriptions That Sizzle and Sell
"73 Ways To Describe a Widget is an absolute goldmine crammed full of really useful information. As a copywriter, you can now hit precisely the right tone or emotion, eliminate every objection, knock out the competition, and produce an massive abundance of sales that just wouldn't have been possible beforehand. Grab this and watch your response rates and income go through the roof." - Steve King, Copywriter, England. Catalog copywriting made easy.

Especially do not make people put items into their shopping cart and begin checking out in order to find out the shipping charges and refund policies! Another epidemic blunder is not revealing the address of the company behind the shopping site. Not only is this necessary to set at ease the mind of any shopper worried about recourse against no-show orders or faulty merchandise, it's important for some people to know where items are being shipped from. 

Ditto for your privacy policy. Are you going to be renting out your list of customer addresses and bombarding everyone who's bought from you with frequent emails?

Online order forms range from easy to use and complete to baffling and aggravating. Submit yours to what I call "the grandmother test" - ask people who've never seen your site before to place an order and talk through the process out loud. Button your lips and listen. Note where they get stuck and fix your ordering procedures accordingly.

Finally, do you have testimonials attesting to the quality and value of what you sell and the pleasures of doing business with you? That's the cherry on the sundae of a well-designed site from a company shoppers recommend and return to for more purchases!

Copyright 2009 Marcia Yudkin.  All rights reserved.

Commission an objective, constructive review of your web site.

Read a book about web site marketing makeovers.

Learn more about copywriting techniques.


 

 
   
Inspired! by Marcia Yudkin
Publicity Ideas from Marcia Yudkin
Copywriting Techniques from Marcia Yudkin
Web Site Makeovers from Marcia Yudkin
 
© 1999 - 2016 Creative Ways  P.O. Box 305  Goshen MA 01032. 413-563-4134  Marcia Yudkin
Privacy policy: We never share your e-mail information. Period.
 
Follow Marcia on Twitter | YouTube
 
Free Newsletter | | Speaking | | Consulting | | Mentoring | | No Blog | | Affiliates