Tag Archives: team

How To Convert Organic Traffic Into Loyal Customers

The post How To Convert Organic Traffic Into Loyal Customers appeared first on HostGator Blog . You’re getting quality traffic to your e-commerce store. Now what? As a small business owner, you’re tasked with turning those visitors into customers. It’s up to you to woo consumers into purchasing your latest products. While it may sound difficult, don’t panic. Matt Ackerson , founder of AutoGrow, offers sage advice: “Once you understand that traffic is just like energy or water and you just need to create pathways to direct it where you want it to go, the rest is easy. Don’t make the mistake of over complicating it though. So many business people think success has to be complicated when it doesn’t.” Let’s make the process simple for you and the consumer. Here are five ways to convert your traffic into loyal customers. 1. Write Creative Product Descriptions When it comes to selling products online , storytelling really does matter. It only takes one click for a consumer to exit your site and visit a competitor. You can keep your customers’ attention and sell more items by crafting creative product descriptions. Descriptive text is an opportunity to highlight your products and showcase your brand’s personality. You want the product description to breathe life into the item. To achieve this objective, set the scene for the buyer. You want the shopper to imagine themselves using the product. It’s also helpful to skip the corporate jargon. Aim to use the everyday language of the typical consumer. Online women’s clothing retailer ModCloth uses expressive words to persuade its consumers into purchasing their inventory. Each product description digs into the emotional state of the shopper’s mind. Not only do you learn about the product’s physical dimensions, but you also understand how it will make you feel. When writing product descriptions, focus on turning features into benefits. How will the item improve consumers’ lives? What will the product help them achieve? Dig deep and touch their pain points. Stand out from the competition with unique product descriptions. You’ll appeal to your audience’s imagination and increase their desire for your products.   2. Create a Sense of Urgency With a jam-packed schedule of work assignments and family responsibilities, it’s easy for your consumers to delay buying products at this very moment. That’s why your team must nudge them to the checkout cart sooner than later. Creating a sense of urgency isn’t about causing a state of panic for your audience. Instead, you want to help them make a speedy decision about the products they already want. “Urgency can be blocked by your customers’ minds if you don’t give them specific instructions on how to solve the problem. Rather than giving vague instructions, tell people exactly what to do when the time comes and don’t be afraid to drive them toward specific actions,” says Gregory Ciotti , former senior content marketing manager at Help Scout. A few urgency tactics include adding a countdown clock to your sales page, showing the limited number of items in stock, and offering discounts on abandoned cart items.   You may want to spotlight product demand, too. For instance, you can show how many people have already purchased a particular item— using FOMO as a marketing strategy . A small dose of urgency is helpful for getting your customers across the purchasing threshold. Product value mixed with persistence means more sales for your business.   3. Offer Top-Notch Customer Support Research shows that “on average happy customers tell nine people about their experiences with a company.” If you’re delivering superb customer support, that’s an opportunity to generate more revenue for your e-commerce store. While online support varies from the traditional in-person experience, some of the same principles apply. Your purpose is to offer immediate, accurate help with a touch of kindness ( live chat is excellent for this). When speaking with your support reps, consumers should feel special. Begin with a warm-hearted, concerned tone when talking to customers. Your team will want to approach each conversation as if the consumer is talking to a friend, not stranger. Also, it’s important to train your support reps to solve customers’ concerns as quickly as possible. Shoppers respect business efficiency because it doesn’t waste their precious time. BaubleBar values its shoppers and makes offering customer service a priority. The accessories retailer allows customers to email and call their staff members. Plus, the company posts their availability along with the normal response time. And don’t be afraid to apologize to your customers. If you make a mistake, acknowledge your error and continue to provide high-caliber service. Quality service is the key to ensuring casual shoppers turn into loyal customers . Give your audience different support channels to connect with your team.   4. Build an Exclusive Community The desire to belong is part of your consumer’s humanity. In one way or another, we’re all seeking a chance to be part of a specific group, team, or club. Your e-commerce store can satisfy that consumer need by establishing a brand community. “We have an inherent need to be a part of a social community and to feel connected to others. It not only makes us feel secure and comfortable, it inspires us to take action to achieve our desired results as well,” writes entrepreneur Akshay Nanavati . Brand communities take many shapes and forms. There’s the VIP rewards programs with die-hard fans seeking exclusive perks. Or you can develop an advisory panel where consumers can give you insight on their interests and tastes. Fostering a community requires time and patience. You’ll want to create rules and expectations for your consumers. That way, you’re building trust early in the relationship. Go beyond the usual benefits of a community. Ask your brand advocates for their honest feedback in exchange for unique product discounts. And be mindful not to bog down your loyal members with excessive emails and push notifications. Communities ensure regular contact between your business and buyers. Elevate your e-commerce store with brand advocates championing your mission.   5. Present an Irresistible Exit Pop-Up Offer Believe it or not, your consumers aren’t excited to buy your products every time they land on your site. They may visit your store to just do price comparisons, or they might have a few minutes to spare during lunch and occupy their time by browsing your website. While consumer intent may concentrate on another purpose, your goal is to reel shoppers in and persuade them to purchase. And one of the best ways to do so is with exit pop-up offers. An exit popup is a message that appears when a visitor tries to leave your site. It helps your team refocus the consumer’s attention back to your store. This popup is a prime location for you to give visitors a special deal, offer an instant promotion, or add them to a particular email newsletter. Behappy.me knows how to capture the attention of visitors attempting to leave its site. The store offers first-time buyers an extra 10% discount to influence their buying decision. There’s always one last chance to entice your consumers. With exit pop-up offers, you can grab hesitant shoppers who need extra motivation to buy your products.   Turning Traffic Into Trust Persuading visitors to become customers isn’t an easy task. However, with a sound strategy and patience, you can get shoppers to the checkout cart. Start with drafting creative product descriptions to get visitors excited about your items. Then, create a sense of urgency with limited-time sales. And always offer five-star customer support to show consumers you truly care. Build trust to convert your traffic into loyal customers. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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How to Create a Style Guide for Your Website in 5 Steps

The post How to Create a Style Guide for Your Website in 5 Steps appeared first on HostGator Blog . Websites are online storefronts for small businesses. Because they play a pivotal role in the customer experience, your team must make it a priority. A style guide helps your small business develop a cohesive look for your website. Without a clear branding style, customers will disengage and leave your site. Style guides also ensure there aren’t any discrepancies in your branding strategy. Let’s streamline your online presence. Here are 5 elements to consider in your website style guide. 1. Brand Voice Branding is the overall perception of your small business. It’s how you differentiate your products and services from others in the market. Brand voice is part of building your website. You get to show visitors your brand personality and unique qualities. Voice can range from casual and calm to vibrant and risky. In the  chart below , each voice characteristic corresponds with suggested actions (and inactions) for businesses. For instance, a company aiming for an authentic voice should portray honesty and ownership of mistakes and stay away from marketing jargon. A description of your brand voice isn’t always enough. When developing your style guide, you also should include explicit examples for your team to follow. This tactic eliminates any uncertainty when posting copy to your site. Web design affects many internal departments. Your sales team needs to know the appropriate messaging to secure customers. The finance team is interested in the actual costs, and human resources wants to attract new employees. Therefore, it’s helpful to get input from your entire team when making key brand decisions. Choose a brand voice that inspires your customers. Then, you can start developing a website that represents your brand story.   2. Navigation Laying out your website is just as critical as selecting the right words and images. When visitors land on your site, they should easily tell where to go next. It’s vital that your team craft a straightforward roadmap for their visit. For starters, keep your main heading options under six. Too many choices can overwhelm visitors and can cause them to take no action at all. Drop-down  menus also can offer structure, giving visitors access to additional pages without multiple clicks. When mapping out your navigation, conduct customer research and examine data from conversion optimization tools like heatmaps. You’ll want to begin with what’s important. Andy Crestodina , the co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, provides his perspective: “In website navigation, just like any list, items at the beginning and the end are most effective, because this is where attention and retention are highest. Always seek to put the things that are most important to visitors in the most visually prominent places.” Effective navigation helps customers buy your products. So, streamline the navigation bar to increase engagement.   3. Colors Red, blue, purple, yellow. The colors on your website matter to your visitors. They can either spark an invitation to stay or ignite a reaction to leave your site immediately. Colors influence consumers’ perceptions of your brand. While each color represents something different for every individual, humans do recognize specific colors to represent different emotions. Yet, studies recommend that companies select colors that support the brand personality they want to portray, instead of aligning with stereotypical color associations. Your team then can add meaning to the chosen colors through other branding aspects. The  diagram below shows the connection between a color and a meaning. For example, lime green can translate into competence with a brand personality of reliability and intelligence. Colors relay an essential message your customers. Don’t force your brand to adhere to the traditional norms of what a color embodies. Find the right palette for your small business.   4. Fonts Fonts are usually the last thing on a small business owner’s mind. However, fonts help communicate your brand’s voice. Script fonts can portray a young, playful company, while a slab font can mean a bold, established brand. Google Fonts is an interactive library of more than 900 fonts. It’s an easy-to-use tool to experiment with fonts and compare your top choices. Avoid fonts that aren’t legible or clear. Consumers shouldn’t have to squint their eyes to read your text or take a second look just to be certain. Jill Chongva , a WordPress website designer, says: “It’s best to use fonts that complement each other and work together without being jarring for the reader. This usually means choosing a combination of a serif font and a sans serif font that don’t fight for the reader’s attention.” It’s also wise to not select fonts similar to well-known brands, like Coca-Cola or Nike. You want a distinct font that separates your small business from the competition. What font expresses your brand? Do your research and select one that will grab your consumers’ attention.   5. Images Images impact how consumers see your small business. With a couple of pictures, buyers can quickly determine whether they can see themselves with your product. In your style guide, outline the type of images that are acceptable for brand promotion. Specify the recommended file format and display size. You also may want to limit the number of images per page—leaving some white space. That way, your visitors don’t get bombarded with too many visuals at once. Invest in quality product photography . You want images that display the fine details of your product. For example, if you sell purses, consumers should see every pattern design. The image should give them a sense of how the product would look and feel in real life. Customers can become accustomed to the same old stock photos. For your website to stand out, you may want to shoot your own photos. Most smartphones are capable of taking high-quality pictures. So, encourage your team to share their photos from the last company retreat or team-building outing. Choose your images carefully. The image specifications make a huge difference for your website.   Your Website’s Style Guide Websites are open invitations for customers to learn about your small business. Style guides create a roadmap to establish your brand. With the right elements, your team can build a better customer experience. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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[Quantum Core] Australian VPS Host – NVMe Storage – 1GB Link – $1AUD for first month

About us Quantum Core is 100% Australian owned and operated and the team behind Quantum Core has over 20 years in experience in the Web Host… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1762501&goto=newpost Continue reading

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[Quantum Core] Australian VPS Host – NVMe Storage – 1GB Link – Starting at $5/m – 50% off invoice

About us Quantum Core is 100% Australian owned and operated and the team behind Quantum Core has over 20 years in experience in the W… | Read the rest of http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1760987&goto=newpost Continue reading

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How to Add Live Chat to Your Website for Free

The post How to Add Live Chat to Your Website for Free appeared first on HostGator Blog . A few years ago, a live chat service on your website was often considered a luxury. Now that the age of technology is here and customers are always able to access our sites from their smartphone, laptop, or tablet, a chat box is more important than ever before . Customer Think estimated that live chat use will grow a staggering 87 percent from 2017 until the end of 2018. If you’ve visited virtually any website that sells a product or service in the past year, it’s easy to see that they were spot on. Everyone is offering live chat as a way to retain customers, boost sales, and improve the overall customer experience. If you’re looking for a way to install live chat on your website, you’re in the right place. There’s a wide selection of paid live chat applications out there, but we are going to show you the best way to add a free chat software to your website. Picking Your Live Chat Application Before you can add live chat to your website, it’s important that you decide on the chat program you would like to use on your site. There are plenty of software types to choose from, but we are going to use Fresh Chat for this example. Fresh Chat offers free chat software for your website with increasingly useful versions for business owners who want to get more from their chat service. We are going to show you how to add the ‘sprout’ version today. The free version allows you to add 10 team members to your chat program so you can handle customer requests with ease. The other tiers allow you to add additional members and really flesh out your live chat functionality as your business grows. Here’s how to get started. Step 1: Sign up for Fresh Chat The first thing you should do is sign up for an account on the website. After landing on their homepage you can sign up by entering your email address on the top right side of the screen. You’ll get an email asking you to confirm your account while getting redirected to the Fresh Chat Inbox. Check your email and activate your account to continue. Once activating your account, you’ll get redirected to a page that asks for some basic information to get your account set up. Enter in your information in each text box like your name, phone number, company name, and your password. Click activate and login to continue. Step 2: Integrate Fresh Chat Now that you’ve activated your account, it’s time to link your Fresh Chat account to your website. If you click ‘integrate now’ on the top of your Fresh Chat dashboard, you’ll get simple directions on how to integrate the chat service on your company website. Here’s how it works. From your website back end, copy and paste the provided code into the section in order to allow Fresh Chat to communicate with your site (and your users!). Next, you’ll need to add this code snippet before The last step here is optional, but if you would like to add the ability to track individual users, use the code before in your text. Step 3: Add Team Members Now that you have connected your website to your Fresh Chat account, it’s time to start adding team members. As previously mentioned, you can have up to 10 team members on the Sprout account. From the Fresh Chat dashboard, click on the gear icon labeled Settings on the bottom left side of your navigation panel. This will open up all of your account settings. Under configure, click on team members to open up the team manager menu. Now you can add up to 10 agents by clicking the blue ‘add a team member’ button on the top of the team management page. You’ll have to enter in information such as their name, email address, and role on Fresh Chat. Here is an example team member we added. Once you’ve entered in all of the information for your new team member, click save to add them to your account. They will receive their own confirmation email letting them know that you’ve added them to the team. Step 4: Customize Your Chat Window Now that you’ve added Fresh Chat to your website and set up your team, you can now customize how your chat window looks on your website. Simply go back to the settings page from your dashboard and click on ‘web messenger settings’ and click the customize appearance tab to change the appearance of your chat window. After tweaking the customization options, you’ll be able to preview your new chat box on the right side of the screen. Here is one that we put together. Get Started with Live chat That’s all there is to it! If you follow these steps you’ll have a functioning chat function available on your website for your customers. There are plenty of great benefits to adding live chat to your website. The ability to directly communicate with customers can improve your lead generation efforts and help bring customers down your sales funnel . As your website grows, you may want to consider upgrading to a premium Fresh Chat plan. The additional tiers allow you to add more team members, gives you more freedom to expand on the chat framework you’ve created here, and makes it easy to track your analytics for improved customer experience. Find the post on the HostGator Blog Continue reading

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