One of my new Landing Page Cash Machine Workshop members had put up a web store to sell hand painted glassware. He wanted to know how to increase sales.
Although there are many areas for improvement that he could work on, I gave him three specific recommendations to start with.
1) Get to know your customers.
Who is your ideal customer? What is he or she looking for when they end up here?
Why is this important?
Because as my copywriting mentor David Garfinkel says, "Start where your customer is."
That means if someone is there looking for gifts, then speak to them about gift giving. If they are more one gender than the other, use words and illustrations that they'll connect with. If they are older or younger, speak in terms that they commonly use.
2) Seed your Customer's Imagination
His store is filled with items and the line item descriptions, but with no drama or emotion. As a result, there's really no way for a customer to be drawn into his store.
What's more compelling?
Description 1) "Angel Fish Design – Hand Painted – 19 oz. Bubble Ball with candle"
Description 2) "At the end of the day, as the sun sets, light the candle inside this glass Bubble Ball and watch how the image of the beautifully hand painted Angel Fish dances on the walls of your bedroom. Use an ocean scented candle to really set the mood for an evening of rest and relaxation."
Those to whom an item like this is appealing will respond much more emotionally to the second description than the first. For those who aren't interested . . . well, they're not your market. You'll be amazed at how a little drama and color will help your sales.
This is a large task, given the 1700 items in his store. That's why I suggested using Adwords.
3) Send targeted traffic with Adwords
Results are going to be a LONG way off if you're going to have to do some original writing for 1700 items. That's why Adwords is such a great tool for immediate feedback and results.
I recommended he begin running Adwords ads and point them to the newly described items. The reason is because he can write ads specifically targeted to the items he has for sale, and direct that traffic to the product's page.
Don't ever send targeted traffic to your home page. Instead, help the customer buy from you by giving him what he already asked for.
So, I recommend that get Perry Marshall's Definitive Guide to Google Adwords so he can learn to run Adwords ads to the pages he writes his descriptions for to see how well those pages convert. As he updates more pages of his site, he can expand his Adwords campaigns to those new products.
This, by the way, is the most natural way to grow a website, and the easiest way to build an adwords campaign, too.
To be fair, there are other things he needs to do, including improving his Search Engine Optimization on his site, begin building a list, send weekly specials to that list, and create special pages for the time of year.
But if he begins with the items I've recommended, he'll be on a path to build the store into something of value.
By the way, he's got beautiful stuff at his hand painted glass store. Go take a look and comment below with what you think he can also do to improve the sales of his site.
To Your Success,
–Mark