You know the value in having a website, but despite your best efforts (or what you think are the best), you’re still struggling to attract more customers. What’s going on and how can you improve your website’s success? Below are four reasons why your website just might not be as successful as you may think and how you can turn things around.

You’re targeting the wrong people.

Most website owners think that they’ll get better results by promoting their website to everyone in the world. This may get more people on your website but let’s be honest—most of them wouldn’t be interested in buying what you have to offer. In order for your website to be successful, you must clearly define a target audience—a group of people that are most likely to buy what your website offers. Then, focus all of your marketing efforts on those people. While quantity is always good, quality is much more important. Make sure you’re targeting quality users.

You’re not listening.

There are two different kinds of website owners. Those that listen, and those that just want to sell. Website owners who engage only in selling are typically doomed for failure. While you can definitely target and sell to customers on your website, you have to develop a relationship with them first. You need to know who they are, understand their wants, and then give them something that actually has value to them. Websites that succeed are the ones that establish intimate relationships with their users to offer them something they’re actually interested in. And they can offer that because they’ve listened. They’ve researched their users by engaging in conversations with them, monitoring their needs and making real-time improvements to their website to accommodate those needs.

You’re confusing your users.

There are two very important things that websites owners neglect on their websites: usability and content. For instance, doing things like adding too many interactive elements on one web page make it difficult for users to decide what to do or how to find what they need. This is poor usability. Content that is passive, bland, and lengthy will diminish your credibility and turn off users. If you neglect these two things, you end up with a confused user that will leave your site in a heartbeat and won’t think twice about ever coming back again.

You’re just ‘dabbling’ with it.

Do you invest time and money into your website? If not, you’re just ‘dabbling’. And that’s where many website owners are right now – they’re ‘dabbling’ or ‘experimenting’ with their websites, but they’re not putting any real investment into it. They’re not hiring help, they’re not investing in real campaigns, and they’re not paying for tools that will help them improve their success rates. And just like with anything else, they’re getting what they paid for. So if you’re one of the ‘dabbling’ types, don’t be surprised if you’re getting dabbling results.

But in spite of all the perks, there are still many e-commerce sites that don’t yet fully deliver in ways internet consumers would expect. All too often we see e-commerce websites that look beautiful but fail to deliver on the basic yet necessary functionality to retain customers and increase sales.  While an e-commerce site that is poorly designed isn’t compelling to users, a site that doesn’t function well or lacks basic online shopping features is much worse. So what exactly does your e-commerce website need to survive these days?

1. SEO pages

You should make sure your pages are search-engine friendly. And I don’t mean just submitting your site to online search directories. I mean conducting a real, hard-core SEO strategy. The urls, the content, meta data, keyword frequency and density, should all be taken care of if you want to increase the visibility of your e-commerce site in major search engines. Otherwise, how else would people find your products when they’re looking for them in Google?

2. Website Analytics

You need a reliable and effective analytics solution that can tell you how your site is being used. It’s very critical to know how many users are coming to your site, where they’re coming from, what products they’re most interested in, etc. With this valuable data, you’ll know just what your site needs to decrease abandonment rates and turn prospects into buyers.

3. Multiple payment options

If your checkout process doesn’t give users more than one payment option, this can make a good sale turn sour.  If a customer’s preferred payment method is not available, not only can’t customers pay you but it really dimishes the credibility of your e-commerce business. There are tons of payment methods available like Google Checkout, Bill Me Later and Paypal.

4. Personalization

E-commerce sites should provide visitors with a personalized experience, serving up only content that’s relevant and useful. If a customer is interested in a product on your site, displaying related items while they are browsing is helpful. This is an excellent way to establish reliability and trust with buyers and increase your chances at making a sale.

5. Cross-selling and upselling

When a user clicks a product they’re interested in, this is one of the best times to show them similar items that may compliment their purchase. The checkout process is another opportunity to show relevant items to your customers while they are completing their purchases. This way of up-selling is a good way to increase your sales among the impulsive shoppers.

6. Navigational options

Your website visitors should have the option to filter your products, compare them, and sort them by price, popularity, or alphabetically. This allows your customers to quickly find products they are most interested in without having to sift through a large amount of unecessary items just to find what they’re looking for.

7. Advanced Image Viewing

Things like zoomable product images and 3d views can make a big difference to your visitors. A lot of times it can become difficult for users to make a purchase because they just aren’t satisfied with the way your products are presented. Users become much more confident in purchasing when you make multiple or enlarged views of your products so they can see exactly what they’re getting.

8. Product commenting and ratings

Research shows that online shoppers value the opinions and comments of other buyers- in fact, it can be one of the most influential factors in whether a customer will buy. If possible, your site should allow your users to comment on your items individually which will establish credibility among your users.

Once you’ve implemented these features on your e-commerce site, not only will your customers love it, but they will be more confident in purchasing from your website.  But keep in mind that even with these features implemented,   your job is not finished. E-commerce sites and their functionality are constantly evolving and your business must keep up to remain successful, sustainable, flexible, and competitive.

These days, any business can easily launch an online advertising campaign. But it takes skill and strategy for it to be effective.  It involves thinking strategically of how to establish a true connection with the most relevant members of your audience and meeting their needs at precisely the right time.  This may seem like a fairly easy thing to do, but if not done properly, you could end up wasting a lot of time and money. Here are some critical tips you should focus on to ensure that you get the most out of your next online advertising campaign.

Choose the Right Communication Channel

When deciding on where your ads will be placed, it’s important to choose an online communications medium that allows you to define a specific demographic or profile for your targeted viewers. Social networking websites, web communities, and news sites are some of the best channels to place your ads. These sites are high in traffic, offer a broad demographic of users, and allow the most flexibility when defining your audience.

Get Picky About Your Audience

If you’re looking to get the best return on your investment, you must be very specific about the types of users who will see your ads. Sure you want your ads to be seen by as many internet users as possible but it means nothing if most of them have no need or interest in what you’re offering. The idea is to reach the most qualified and relevant members of your audience. Not only will it bring in more quality leads, but will also be easier on your wallet.

Speak Your Audience’s Language

Too many times companies spend big money on online ads that don’t connect with the their viewers. Your campaign must be tailored with your target audience in mind. If you are advertising new computer software, your ad copy should include words related to that industry.

Monitor the Progress of Your Campaign

There may be times when your online ad campaign may not be as successful as you’d hoped. But it’s important that you monitor your online campaigns closely and take note of factors that influence their success or failure.  This data will help you understand what improvements can be made on future campaigns.

Keep The Advertising to A Minimum

Nothing is worse than following a company who tweets nothing but shameless plugins to increase their website traffic.  It’s okay to advertise, but try not to overdue it. If you need more advertising, do it the legal way by paying for it.

Be Relevant

It’s always a good idea to tweet things that are relevant to your business or line of work.  For instance, it wouldn’t be a good idea to tweet about the latest new Chevrolet Camaro if you’re a Real Estate Agent.  Your followers follow you because they’re interested in your business and they have expectations.  If you start tweeting things they aren’t necessarily interested in, it’ll diminish your credibility and more than likely you’ll lose followers because of it.

Tweet Often

Twitter isn’t really made for the quiet, introverted business types.  If it takes you months to tweet, you can easily fall out of the loop and lose followers. A lot of times, your followers can quickly lose interest in your brand if you’re not consistent (especially if you’re a new business). So try to tweet often. It’ll maximize visibility of your brand and keep your followers engaged.

Use A Management Tool

Managing twitter can get overwhelming, especially if you’re getting a lot of followers and mentions.  Luckily, there are many tools available that can help you better manage your Twitter account. We suggest Tweetdeck or—one of our favorites—Hootsuite.  These tools allow you to be much more productive on Twitter. You can quickly and easily schedule tweets for a certain time, get notifications, organize your followers, check your following stats, and more.

Be Social

After all, this is the reason Twitter is called a SOCIAL networking site. Unless you’re a celebrity or a globally-known brand, you must interact in order to increase your number of followers. Doing little, but significant things like following users that follow you, responding to tweets that you’re mentioned in, or simply thanking someone for retweeting your posts helps establish a group of loyal followers.

Tweet Something Valuable

Tweets that are valuable to your followers are the ones that are more likely to be re-tweeted. So make sure your tweets are beneficial to your followers. Offering a mentally stimulating quote or tweeting a link to a useful news article are good ways to give your followers a reason to keep following you.

Twitter is a powerful tool and when used correctly, can achieve even your most complex marketing objectives.  If your business sticks to these basic principles, you can easily stomp your competition, increase your company’s marketability and grow your customer base in ways you never thought were possible.

Here are some reasons why you should consider using social media:

1. It’s natural.

Its a natural way to increase traffic to your website or business.  It offers spontaneous exposure for your company’s brand to large groups of people from all over the world. This differs from paid advertising which can be expensive and risky.

2. It can increase your sales and leads.

Once successfully mastered, social communities can be a great source of web traffic on top of any traffic you are already receiving from search engines.

3. It offers more control.

While you can’t easily increase your search engine traffic, social media traffic can be very easily controlled through strategic marketing.

4. It’s lower in cost and yields a higher return.

It’s free to sign up and to maintain an account on social media sites and the only costs involved is your time. It would take you thousands of dollars to invest in other online advertising channels, but  social media can give you that for free.

5. It works well with other marketing efforts.

Social media is flexible. It can and will fit perfectly into any advertising campaign targeting other websites or search engines.

Very frequently, business owners don’t realize the potential of social media sites. But it may be just what your business needs to get to the next level.

If done right, branding can greatly contribute to the future success of your business, offering benefits that you would’ve never imagined.

Recognition

A strong brand is generally regarded as one that people will recognize, often even if they do not know about the company or its products or services. For example, The Nike brand name is known throughout the world, people can identify the name and logo even if they’ve never bought any of their products.

Image of Quality

A strong brand projects higher quality products and services. It is often true that if you show a person two identical products, with only one of which is branded; they will believe that the branded item is of higher quality.

Projects Experience

An effective brand allows your company to appear to be well-established and extremely experienced within your industry.  A lot of times, your company would appear to be more reliable and trustworthy than an unbranded business.

Multiple Products

If your brand is successful, it allows you to offer new products and services. You can literally put your brand name on new products and customers will be more likely to buy it. For example, Sony sells televisions, music equipment, consoles, camcorders, DVD players, video players, and more all under the Sony brand name.

As you may have realized, investing in a great branding initiative will help you exponentially grow your product or services and offer benefits that will take your business to heights you never thought were possible.