How to Design Your Website to Drive Sales
*Affiliate Link Included in this post
Designing a website can be confusing and overwhelming, I get it. You spend so much time curating the perfect images and drafting engaging copy and then launch to crickets.
I am sharing with you the tips I have learned over the years that makes my customers websites not only beautiful but also drives sales. Having beautiful design is useless if your customers are confused where to click or can’t find the information they are looking for.
Before discovering these strategies, my clients end up giving up on their websites and going back to social media to run their business. Social media is awesome for driving potential clients to your website but it is not the best for capturing a real paying customer. Think of social media as the sidewalk outside a crowded outdoor shopping mall and your website as your actual store. You want customers to actually come inside your store not just look through the window.
Tip #1 You do not need a link on your homepage to every page of your website.
When a potential customer lands on your homepage, you want to direct them where to go. You want to guide them to the button you want them to click on.
It is like they are shopping at IKEA following the arrows on the ground. They always lead you past all the beautiful room displays that spark your imagination and inspire you to buy. If you just went downstairs to all the racks of boxes first, you would be overwhelmed and not know which to choose. Chances are you would walk right back outside and not buy anything.
In website lingo… your clients would bounce. Want to learn more about bounce rate? Check out this article from one of my favorite Wordpress SEO plugins.
Tip #2 Make Purchasing Your Service or Product Simple
Once a customer decides to purchase your product or service, you can still lose them if your checkout process is too long and cumbersome.
I am a big fan of the one page checkout. They should be able to enter they personal and payment info and click 1-2 buttons and be done. I hate websites that make you enter redundant info or make you jump through twenty checkout pages before you actually get to buy. Chances are your customers will get cold feet way and walk away leaving your product or service in their shopping cart.
In this day and age, TIME is very valuable. Ease of doing business is very important. Make purchasing from you easy, fun and pain free.
*That is why I often recommend Squarespace vs Wordpress to my clients. The e-commerce solution is much more intuitive to use and does not take as much techi knowledge.
Tip #3 Give your customers a reason to give you their email.
You creating a beautiful Instagram picture that caused your dream client to watch your Instagram story. And from there, she clicked on your website intrigued. You have started a relationship with her. Now it is time to draw her in even more and offer her a free sample of your product or service. Hey, it works for Costco!
Don’t just ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Give them a reason to sign up!
Offer them a Freebie or special access to something they want. Here is an example (full disclusre I am affiliate of BluChic).
