Bizstartup.ie - Start Up Kit

Set targets realistically

Work out what you feel is an achievable number of lookers to bookers, ie the percentage of people who arriving on your website go on to purchase.  This will typically be between 0.5pc and 2pc. 

The best e-commerce platforms in the world achieve about 10pc but that is unrealistic for all but the largest global brands.  In your web traffic reports you will wish to compare the number of unique visitors with the number of customers in order to work out this ratio.

Ensure the right traffic is coming to the site

In the communications mix, a website is the wrong place to get attraction; rather it is a place to fulfill an already established customer need.  If there is a large attrition rate, there is a chance that you are getting irrelevant traffic. 

Have a good look through the sources of traffic to your site through your web traffic reports; additionally check the search terms which people are using to find you.  There may be a chance that in the mix there are people stumbling across your site who are looking for something else entirely.  This isn't a crime in itself, but it will help you decide if your website doesn't have enough relevant traffic, or if it does have enough but can't convert it.

Deal with key customer needs up front on the home page

Often businesses have a set of questions which many potential new customers want the answer to.  These may be about price or delivery times or product style or similar.  Your website should be a like a newspaper headline, not a murder mystery novel.  Get to the point of the story in as few words as possible; don't leave it all to the last page.

Think about your calls to action

What would you like site visitors to do?  Order a product online?  Pick up the phone?  Fill in an email?  Be very clear to your customers about what you would like them to do.  If you can convert more visitors to customers on the phone, ask them to phone you, or schedule a call.  If people are happy to buy online make that easy.  But always guide the customer about what they might need to do next.

Think about your customer journey

The needs of customers start quite general but quickly get specific. 

For instance on the home page a site visitor may be asking "I would like a decorated cake, does this company do this?", but once they have established that you do, their questions become "how much does it cost/", " can I get a certain design?", "how long does it take?" and so on.  So make sure that at each stage of the journey the content on your website addresses the specific needs of your customers at that stage of their journey.  And as per the previous point always make sure that the next step on that journey is very clear to them.