Ah yes, the question on many business owners’ minds: why aren’t people buying from me?! And to be clear, it’s a fair question to ask if the future outlook of your brand is starting to look like 💩.
Naturally, Frasca Digital has put together this article to address some of the foundational questions a business owner may want to ask themselves if sales and marketing efforts are returning dismal results.
Below are 6 questions we urge struggling store owners to ask themselves:
- Am I selling 💩 no one wants?
- Is my customer experience 💩?
- Am I offering 💩 people can get somewhere else?
- Is my brand 💩?
- Is my marketing 💩?
- Do I have my 💩 together?
Let’s get cleaning 🧼 !
1.) Are you selling 💩 no one wants?
You may love your product, as many business owners do. You may have handcrafted it with care. Heck, you may have just sunk your life savings into inventory from Ali Express after a drop-shipping guru told you that “XYZ niche” is so hot right now.
But none of that matters to your store visitors or future customers – and honestly – they probably don’t care that your $50 artisan beads were made with recycled plastic from the ocean. Sorry, not sorry.
If your store is struggling to make sales you need to have an honest look at the products you sell and the demand for those products. Rely more on data and research than a super hot tip or biased advice from a friend or colleague.
Keep in mind that there must be an inherent desire for your product from your target market. You simply cannot create that desire with marketing alone.
“Copywriting cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exists in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already existing desires onto a particular product.” – Eugene Schwartz
Building desire and urgency for your products is the biggest factor for your success. If you don’t desire your own products – or make them desirable – your customers won’t either.
2.) Is your customer experience 💩?
Ask your friend to buy something on your site using their computer or phone. If they can’t find your add to cart button, your visitors can’t either.
Here are our top contributing factors that can dictate whether a user buys from your website or your competitors’:
- Easily Navigable Website Design
- Website Speed & Performance
- (unique) Images Available for All Products
- Offering Free Samples / Trials
- Phone, Chat, Email Response Times
- Friendly Customer Service
To put it simply, your website visitors should be able to seamlessly navigate your site and enjoy buying from you.
Customer experience has a huge impact on whether first time visitors buy. And, if first time customers are happy with their initial experience, they can quickly become repeat customers! That’s a reward worth chasing.
Here are some metrics to quantify your customer experience:
- Conversion Rate
- Net Promoter Score
- Customer Lifetime Value
If your visitors want your product, but get frustrated by your site, you’re not going to generate sales. Start with a design, then fill in the operational and customer service pieces along the way!
We also did a blog post on “Why Customers Quit” that can also lend some tips on how improve customer experience.
3.) Are you selling 💩 people can get somewhere else?
Start by asking yourself this: Can your customers get the same exact thing cheaper and shipped in two days on amazon?
If the answer is “yes,” then these people aren’t going to buy from you. You need to offer something they can’t get elsewhere.
What does the modern online shopper consider when making a purchasing decision?
- Price
- Fast Shipping & Delivery
- Socially Acceptable Branding
- Convenient Customer service
- Quality Aligned with Expectations
- Specific Product Features
You should try to be significantly better than your competitors in at least one of these areas outlined above, with pricing being the most valuable.
As an alternative approach, you could focus your products on the needs of an underserved niche.
For example:
- If you sell soap, sell soap to people with eczema
- If you sell chocolate, sell chocolate advent calendars
Get creative with your product offerings and narrow down on your target 🎯 audience.
Don’t forget to check on your competitors and see what they are doing, too.
Even if you are selling in demand products, and people can use your site, they are going to shop around and see if your competitors offer a better deal.
These next questions are the toughest, but can help take any company from good, to great.
4.) Is your brand 💩?
Even for us, good branding is really hard to describe, but you know it when you see it.
Naturally, we found an appropriate branding book for this article that we highly recommend reading Brands and BullS**t: Excel at the Former and Avoid the Latter for actionable branding advice.
Here are the top takeaways from that book:
- People often buy for cultural and emotional reasons, not logical ones
- People who connect with a brand attribute positive qualities to its products
- People use cultural brands to express and define themselves. It’s a human need
COVID-19 tested brands and their cultural awareness as racism and equality were being championed across the US.
In short, brands who fail to connect with culture will often find themselves disconnecting from customers.
5.) Is your marketing 💩?
If you’ve addressed the other 4 questions, you must have a store that people enjoy, and you’re selling an in-demand product people are willing to pay for. But, are you getting the sales you want?
Ironically, the biggest mistake marketing beginners make is investing money to bring people to their website. Instead, marketing dollars should be focused on making conversions.
Website traffic is easy to get. But its the sale that online store owners really want.
So what are the essential marketing channels your brand needs to get started?
- Email Marketing
- SEO
- Social Media
These of course won’t work unless you address the top 4 questions. Once your store does begin convert well, then it makes sense to spend money sending people there.
Keep in mind that ALL your marketing and sales efforts are a reflection of your brand. Make sure your marketing materials are consistent across all channels, and don’t turn marketing off. Continue learning and iterating until revenues are maximized and expenses are minimized.
6.) Need to get your 💩 together?
Join the party of millions of business owners who are out there every day transforming their business from 💩 to 💍
It’s far from easy, but Frasca Digital can help. Contact us today and we’ll give you a free audit at no charge.
Disclaimer: No, we are not in the waste management industry, but people do pay us clean up our competitors’ 💩.
