Salesscene-Keys Does your business front unlock more sales? During my 5 minutes focus on my business this morning, I spent the time considering whether my business front (in my case my website) unlocks more sales and drives more queries and have come up with a whole A4 page of things to do which I’ll be implementing over the course of this week. I would encourage you all to take a look at your websites, blogs and shop fronts through the eyes of your customers and consider whether you are showing the world the right image of your business. I got to thinking about this when I walked through my town centre at the weekend. We have a curtains shop right on the high street, and their shop window is untidy, dirty, and has net curtains up, as right behind that they store all the material that they sell for curtains. The net curtains have discoloured due to being in a window that gets strong daylight, and are so opaque, you can see all the material stacked haphazardly on top of each other. As this is a curtains shop, you would imagine that the window would be the strongest place for them to attract their target market, alas, I found this not to be the case. My website is my shop front to the world, and when I took a step back, I realised that I am not communicating the messages that I want in the way that I want to, and these were the questions that I asked myself to work out what I need to change:

  • Is it clear on the home page exactly what my business is, and how it can benefit my customer?
  • Do I have a strong call to action?
  • Am I using the correct keywords for my target market?
  • Is it easy to navigate around my site?
  • Are my services well laid out to help the customer choose?
  • Am I anticipating potential questions, and answering them on my website?
Once you start, you will come up with more questions, and some may be specific to your industry/niche. If you have a shop, take a good look at your window and ask yourself the following questions:
  • Is it clean and tidy?
  • Is it clear what I sell?
  • Is it merchandised to increase sales? Have you got like products displayed together, so if it’s fashion that you sell, make sure to dress an entire outfit, not just the basics, so think accessories, shoes, and bag too.
  • Are you special offers/promotions clear and prominent?
If you make any changes as a result of this review, it’s a good idea to note the changes, the date and revenues for the week/month before the change, so that you can measure the results of any changes that you make. I’d love to hear about any changes that you think you will make and the results from this, or if you have any other ideas to review how the world sees your business, please add your comments below. Caroline Thomas will help you to increase sales by providing sales and marketing strategies and social media marketing solutions  – to find out more or to book an appointment, please call 0844 556 5116 or email [email protected] – Caroline is also easily found on Twitter and Facebook. Caroline on Google +       Image: Elwood W. McKay III / FreeDigitalPhotos.net]]>