If you run a bricks and mortar location, you probably put a lot of time and effort into that location to choose the right one and develop it to help your customers buy from you. Did you put in the same effort to your website or did you outsource it and simply marvel at the finished product?
Each type of business has different needs: a car wash needs a substantial connection to water and sewer, as well as a large space for people to drive cars into. A restaurant needs to devote some of its space to the front of the house (for patrons) and some of its space to the back of the house (for storage and cooking). When starting these businesses, these needs are forefront on your mind. But what about your website?
Do you sell a product that is a major purchase?
- You’ll want a website that clearly demonstrates the product in a number of different ways – perhaps with flash animation.
- Give people a chance to “try it out” with a downloadable version with an expiration date.
- Provide plenty of downloadable documents (like pdf based whitepapers, reports, ebooks, and articles) to help people understand how the product works, and (most importantly) how it will benefit them.
- Use a multi-page format rather than trying to sell the entire product on one page. For example, include some text with a “next” button on the bottom of the page which takes them to the second page with more text and another “next” button at the bottom of the page, etc.
- Be sure to offer an easy to understand and easy to use return policy, guarantee, customer support, etc.
- The key is to build relationships first, then go for the sale later.
Do you sell a product that someone might buy again and again?
- If your product is priced low, you probably don’t have to spend a lot of pages to sell one product. Especially if they’ve purchased before. Spend one or two pages selling the product initially, then give people an easy way to sign-in as “favored customers” to easily order again.
- Guarantees and customer service may not be as important if there is a “temporary” mindset about your products but you will want to prove value in order to make the first sale.
- Rotate featured versions of the item on your main page. Do you sell something they have to wait to receive?
- If you sell a product that has to be shipped or a service (like freelance writing or web design) that the customer has to wait for, your website will need to not only offer your product but also address waiting times.
- If possible, give people a chance to view the progress of their purchase in a sign-in section (similar to how a courier company might track their products, allowing customers to follow along with a tracking code).
- Maintain communication through the process and follow up to make sure the product they did receive in its final form was what they were expecting.
If your product is a service
- If your product is a service, it’s difficult to show a picture of it on your site. However, you can either show a picture of you performing the service or (better yet) show a picture of a client who is benefiting from the service you provide.
