Thursday, November 6, 2014

Is There an Art to E-Commerce?


According to scientists, some of us are left-brain oriented and some right-brain oriented. One part is credited with creative activity while the other is responsible for logical activity. Additionally, each of us is either more one side than the other which accounts for engineers and artists developing answers to the same problem, in completely different manners. 
 
According to Wesley Yuhn at Media Oasis, ever since Google launched Hummingbird, the directive to use more creative content has taken to the forefront for ranking and listing purposes. Does this mean that your logical methodology of describing products and services on your e-commerce site will suffer and if so, is there an art to structuring your site without starting from scratch? 
 
The Answer to a Better E-commerce Site

Wesley Yuhn states you don’t have to start over from the beginning, but rather start creating replacement pages and adding pages that you have not previously used.

  • Rewrite and update your “about us” page first making it more interesting to read--ending with a call-to-action to download your website app, sign up for emails when specific products go on sale or for notices of eBooks that explain in full detail the way that some of your products are helping others.
  • Second, rewrite your “Home Page” to reflect that you are going to be taking random surveys over the next year and would like customers to volunteer to answer them, explain in a story scheme what some of your newer products do and why you are offering them.
  • Finally, add blog articles that relate to some of your items – try to avoid the “how to” type and go for more of a creative article that is just fun or silly and is not a sales pitch. For example, Wesley Yuhn suggests, if you sell Diabetic Prescription Vitamin Supplements such as “Zinc”, write an article that goes something like “Z is for zebras who don’t have diabetes”, “I is for Island where you could live if you didn’t need meds”, ect.
  • If you tend to be the more logical person, you can always employ a creative type to write articles, advertising and videos about your products.
  • Know your target market. If your business mainly caters to local customers, focus your marketing on the zip code or area code of your business. Next, address your articles to things that people in your area are interested in and that simultaneously relate in some way to one of your products or services.
  • Using every form of media available is not necessarily the right answer. You can still pick and choose. That said, you should use photographs, articles, mobile apps, click2call advertising on mobile, emails and blogs at the minimum. If you have a national or international product market, using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest are all assets worth considering.
Per Wesley Yuhn Tampa, Florida, if your advertising budget is limited because of the size of your business, advertise during the down times in your sales stats. For example, for vacation homes at the beach, advertising in the winter – especially at holidays – offering discount rates for those who book before Christmas is a great way to secure bookings for the summer. 
 
Push it out as a great present for Christmas or Chanukah and extend the booking dates to February or March instead of just the summer. 
 
If there is an art to e-commerce, it’s in the way that you adjust to the most popular ways of accessing sites today instead of getting stuck in a comfortable, but unproductive, method.