Service of one particular process took me a long way out of town to a property that I needed to cross a fairly major … but shallow … river to access. I had been to the property quite a few times and there was something of a causeway in the river bed that I could use to cross the river.

However there had been a major flood since the last time I visited so I took the departmental 4WD and went out one Friday afternoon to do the job. When I got to where the crossing had been I could see tyre tracks leading down to it on my side of the river and tyre tracks leading up from the water on the side of the river so I selected 4WD and low ratio and crept into the river.

24 hours later a Police 4WD winched me out of the river and in the interim I had discovered that the tyre tracks on my side of the river were from the last person who had driven into the river and got stuck while the tyre tracks on the other side of the river were from the farmer who regularly backed his truck down to the river’s edge to fill up a water tank.

These days I’m often reminded of that event when people come into Toni’s web design business and tell us that they want their website design to look like some other website that’s already out there and that belongs to someone else who does business in the same industry.

Obviously Toni’s clients think that because a particular website design is out there on the Web it must be working well for that site’s owner. And if you look around at particular industries you will begin to see some website design features that seem to be common to just about everyone in that particular industry … so many other people obviously think the same way.

But does that particular ‘look’ really work or are people just following blindly with their design because that’s what everyone else is doing?

When it comes to website design … no matter what industry you’re in … are you just blindly following the tyre tracks or do you REALLY know that a particular design that so many other people actually works?

Perhaps they all work because the design is perfect. Perhaps that particular design works because there’s nothing better. Perhaps that particular design doesn’t work at all.

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The style guide for your online shop that I’m talking about is something that you need to compile yourself so that as your online shop grows and you add more categories and more product pages there will be a uniformity across the whole shop.

There’s nothing more jarring and disconcerting than to visit a shop that has different font sizes … different text colours and even different page layouts on product pages that are just a single click away from each other.

increase the professional look of your online store

If you want to present your online shop as a serious, professional business then it has to look the part so you need to set yourself some guidelines as to what font size and colour you will use for headings, important points and the call to action.

Of course if you’re online shop is a busy one and you’re adding stock every day you won’t really need to compile a style guid for your online shop … you will be able to file all that information in your brain and pull it out whenever you need it.

But if you’re only adding stock every week or so you will soon find yourself going back to previous pages to refresh your memory about those picky little details that you need to get right if you want your site to look professional.

spend a little time now to save a lot of time later

Continually going back to what you’ve done in the past is both annoying and time consuming so to save yourself all that time and annoyance all you have to do is draw up a simple style guide for your online shop.

All you have to do is find a notebook and start jotting down all the style details for your headings, sub-headings, call to action and anything else you need to apply a uniform style to. Once you’ve compiled your style guide make sure you keep it within reach of your computer because you will find yourself referring to it frequently.

A style guide for your online shop may take a few minutes to compile but it will save you heaps of time in the weeks and months ahead … and personally I wish I had compiled mine years ago.

Now that I have compiled an online style guide I’ve got a lot of product pages to go back to and tidy up.

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I’m sure that you think you do give good customer service … but do you know for sure?

It’s all well and good to assess your level of customer service from your side of the business but what do the people think who stand on the other side of your business. What do your customers think about the level of customer service that your provide?

Are you brave enough to ask them? Do you really want to know the truth?

Why don’t you ask your customers what they think about the level of customer service the receive from you and your employees?

The answers you get may not be what you were hoping for … or expecting. They might even be somewhat confronting … but if you want to succeed in business then it’s time to find out what your customers really think about you and your business and the level of customer service that you provide.

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But here’s a story of an entire country that is doing an amazing job of promoting itself on a range of social media sites and it’s definitely worth reading … no matter how big or small your business might be.

Now I can hear what you’re thinking … if you can’t find time to promote your business on social media then what relevance would a story like this have for you?

Well the fact is that this country uses a social media team of just 3 people and some of the tactics they use to promote their country can be scaled down to something you can handle.

Read what they are doing and then think about what tactics you can use to promote your business on social media. Think laterally … think vertically … think outside the box … just let your mind do what it does best and don’t limit it in any way. You might be surprised at what you discover that could work for you.

The story starts HERE

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For now though let’s concentrate on those people who do use it on their websites and e-commerce sites. If you’re one of them  aware that Google Analytics is changing? Unfortunately we’re not talking little changes here … we’re talking big changes that will mean that you have to add totally new code to each page of your website and of course that’s going to mean time and effort on your part.

The good news is hower that even though Google Analytics is changing and Google has already released the new version the old version will still go on working for some time yet so you don’t have to rush off and grab the code and make the changes right now.

However you will have to do it at some stage and its probably going to be a case the sooner you make the change the better. But before you make any changes you need to find out what’s waiting for you when you turn the new analytics on and there’s an excellent article here that will take you through the changes.

Personally I’m almost excited about it … but then data, graphs, pie charts and all that stuff tend to have that effect on me

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This can be summed up in just three words … know your audience.

If you know your audience and write for them … not for yourself … and not for what you think might sell then your product pages will resonate with potential buyers, you will have product pages that sell and you will see the results in your bottom line.

So before you write the text for one more product page stop and think about your average customers.  In no particular order ask yourself these questions:

• What is their background … are they single … married … do they have kids?
  
  
• What are they looking for? Obviously they’re looking for the products you sell but what are the things that are important to them when they’re deciding whether to deal with you or someone else.
  
  
• What needs do they have that your products will meet?
  
  
• What makes them less likely to buy from you than from a shop down at the mall that sells the same products?
  
  
• What language do they speak? Are you selling to ordinary people or are you selling to technical experts who expect to be dazzled with brilliance?
  
  
• What do you need to do … to show … to explain … that will gain their trust?
  
  
• What do you need to do to encourage your potential customers to buy now rather than later?
  
  
• What do you need to do to encourage the people who are on your e-commerce site to share your product pages with their friends who may want to buy the same thing? Are a few share buttons enough of a hint that you would like them to share your products with their friends or should you ask them to do that?

Answering those questions will help you form a mental picture of your average customer and that mental picture will help you understand your customer and help you to write product pages that sell to your customers.

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You see new ideas, concepts and tools begin to appear on the horizon … you offer them to your clients and other businesses in town only to be laughed at in some instances (I was once called a liar by someone who firmly believed that people would never surf the Web on their mobile phones) … and then a year or two later you see many businesses getting almost conned into adopting what we had already suggested to them.

Suddenly there’s this mad rush to jump on the bandwagon … to be part of the latest fad … to do what everyone else is doing … without stopping and thinking about what they’re being offered and whether or not it will really work for their business.

Here in this town that latest fad … the thing that we suggested years ago … is QR codes and it’s very obvious that most local businesses that are adopting QR codes are doing so without giving any thought about how or why they should be using them.

QR codes = mobile phones
Obviously businesses should be using QR codes to encourage potential clients/customers to buy what they’re selling … to help potential clients/customers find out more about their business … to be an easy way for potential clients/customers to do those things when the business is closed or when the business is some distance from where the client/customer is.

And they should be doing all those things for clients/customers who have mobile phones because … well there is no way to read the data on QR codes unless you have a mobile phone that’s equipped with a QR code reader.

Poorly used QR codes

Location, location, location
So are they doing that? Sadly they’re not and here is a perfect example of the misuse of QR codes … it’s on a real estate sign that’s sitting out the front of a house across the road from us and you can see that there are two QR codes on the sign.

The first problem is where those QR codes are located. The sign is sitting on the ground … as it does for just about every real estate sign in town … and that puts both QR codes at a level that’s difficult for people to scan.

I managed to scan the QR code on the right but the one on the bottom is impossible to scan unless you want to get down on your hands and knees … I know … I tried for several minutes with no success

If you’re going to invest in QR codes for your business make sure that they appear in a position where it’s easy for people to scan.

Where will they take you?
And then there’s what’s at the end of those QR codes … what do people see who do take the time to scan them?

Remember … QR codes are scanned by people using their mobile phones … devices that have very small screens … so best practice is to send anyone who scans a QR code to a website or a page or other information that fits neatly on their small screen.

Where does this QR code … and several others that I’ve scanned around town … send potential clients/customers?

It sends them to websites that are very definitely not designed for mobile phones.

And you might think that if a real estate business is going to go to the trouble of putting QR codes on their signs you might find that they point to relevant information about the house that the sign is advertising for sale.

If you thought that you would again be disappointed. As I said earlier … I couldn’t scan the bottom code so I have no idea where that pointed. And the QR code on the right?

Well it doesn’t point to information about the house … it does not point to information about the agent’s local office … it points to the website for the national franchise and from there … well most people would give up trying to see any information long before they had drilled down to the local agen’ts page.

Be nice to people
If you’re going to use QR codes for your business be nice to your potential customers/clients and tell them where the QR code will take them.

The most effective way to use QR codes … and they really can be great selling tools … isn’t rocket science. It’s just plain common sense but if you want to read more about how to use QR codes then this article on Econsultancy.com is a good place to start.

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But keeping your loyal customers isn’t difficult and it’s definitely worth the effort because, not only will those loyal customers go on buying your product but they are also a valuable and highly vocal marketing team for you. If your customers like the service they’re getting from you they’ll tell their friends about your business … they’ll tell their neighbours … they’ll tell their the people they work with … they’ll even tell complete strangers about your business.

However, what you do with those customers once you have gained their loyalty becomes extremely important. Keeping your loyal customers may not take a lot of effort … or a lot of money … but it is extremely important that you do make the effort to keep their loyalty because it’s very easy to lose them.

That was brought home to me just this last week when there was an incident at a business where we have been loyal customers for some years and yet walked away that night feeling that we had been taken for granted and treated very poorly.

It’s bugged me ever since and I guess a measure of how much it bugged can be shown by the fact that I got up at 4.30 on a Sunday morning to write this:

If you have loyal customers then understand that their loyalty can be measured in seconds if they feel that you’re taking them for granted … or even worse, taking advantage of them.

You need to continually treat your loyal customers like gold or they won’t be your customers any more.

And I felt so strongly about it that I repeated that core message on a client’s Facebook page where we contribute our thoughts from time to time.

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Late last week we all heard that there were more Facebook changes coming … I can hear your groans and I know how you feel.

These Facebook changes will affect the way items will be displayed in everyone’s News Feed. The immediate impact for businesses is the way in which your cover photo will appear in the News Feed and once you have that sorted out you need to start thinking about posting more images (… and dare I say that perhaps the images you post should be relevant to your business).

To help you understand the changes here are two links and video.

This link is Facebook’s “official” online announcement.

This link shows you how your cover image will be displayed … and here’s a short video from Facebook that explains what they hope to gain from making these changes.

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Perhaps you’re thinking of giving it a fresh look with new colours … perhaps adding a little extra to the width of the page?

Monitors certainly aren’t as narrow as they once were and narrow designs tend to look cramped and take something away from the shopping experience for your potential customers so making the layout a little wider is probably a very good idea.

And of course you’re going to update your graphics aren’t you? A new header image … maybe even a fresh logo?

Of course you don’t want to go overboard and make so many changes that your regular customers won’t recognise your online shop now do you? You’ll want them to come back and shop with confidence because there’s enough of the old design to reassure them that you really are still the same people they shopped with in the past.

Yes, giving your online shop a makeover can be fun and it can be challenging but if all you’re going to change are your colours, graphics and the width of your pages perhaps your missing something.

What about your categories and your navigation links? Perhaps you need to look at them to see if you can simplify them … make them easier for your site visitors to follow … because they may not be working as well as you think they are.

At this time of year one of my online shops always experiences a drop in revenue because people aren’t buying so much of what I’m selling in the month or two after Christmas. But that still doesn’t stop me from getting just a little concerned when the sales drop off.

So today I’ve been using Google Analytics to see where people are entering my online shop … where they’re going once they arrive … and where they’re leaving and I’ve begun to realise that some visitors are struggling to find what they want because the category links give them too many choices and aren’t all that descriptive.

Of course when I built the shop I thought that the number of categories was perfect and everyone could find what they wanted because of the very descriptive link-text I used.

Right now a visitor to my online shop has a choice of 11 category links to click on … and the text used in some of those links is probably a bit vague … I was sure that those links were descriptive but not everyone uses … or understands … the same terms that I do.

So for me, the challenge is to reduce those 11 category links (I’ve been doodling on a pad and I’ve already got them down to 6 with some sub-categories to make the navigation even easier and more intuitive).

I also need to come up with text for those links that gives people a clearer indication of what they’re going to find behind those links. And I have to do all that and still keep the number of clicks from home page to product page to just three or less.

So do you need to do some work on the number of categories and the wording of your links in your online shop? If you do then tread carefully because while you need to be thinking of your potential customers you also need to be thinking carefully of your top ranking pages in the search engines.

While you can change colours, layout and graphics without any problems once you start fiddling with links and the page URLs in your online shop you really need to tread carefully.

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