With so many devices, each varying in display size and capacity it’s possible you can lose customers due to the site not being optimised to work on anything other than a deskpop computer. Viewing an Ecommerce or WordPress website on a mobile device can be quite difficult if it is not responsive. I’m sure you have been frustrated by being on your mobile device and having to zoom in and out to click buttons or read text.

At Media Lounge we offer a single website design which is programmed to be responsive to all devices that automatically detects the size of the display and adjusts the size of its contents to use the entire display size, making it easy and simple for a user to navigate your site. But the benefits don’t stop there.

There is a lot of time saved in switching to responsive websites as you do not have to design for each device. A single web design template can serve all the devices people may use to visit your Magento site. Time is saved in updating the contents as well. In responsive websites, there is no question of updating a different page for each platform, you’re updating the same ecommerce site every time, it just looks different depending what you use to view it.

Responsive websites are still in their infancy but they are being adopted quickly. There is a huge chance that your competitors haven’t implemented a mobile solution yet, they might not of even know they need one. Use this to your advantage – make it a selling point on your ecommerce store and soon, you can outshine them easily in customer attraction.

Fortunately, getting it right isn’t just trial and error, because research (other people’s trial and error) has come up with some Twitter tactics that work especially well. Here then are some ready made handy hints to help put wings on your Twitter campaign.

When to tweet?
Weekends. Catch people when they are freer. The top brands do. They know that on Saturdays and Sundays tweets attract a 17% increase in engagement compared with those sent on Wednesdays and Thursdays.What’s more, it’s best after 8 in the morning and before 7 in the evening. That goes for weekends too.

Less is more.
Why use 140 characters when you can use 99? In fact, tweets with less than 100 characters have nearly a fifth high engagement rate than longer tweets. Why waste your energy.

#Hashtags #atleastonepertweet
Learn to make good use of hashtags because people who use Twitter just love them. They provide a memorable and accessible shortcut for getting involved in your discussion and sharing your message. Plus, if you use a hashtag or two, you’re twice as likely to get people interacting with your tweet than without.

Ask for a Retweet (RT)
Tweets with retweet requests tend to attract 12 times as many retweets as those who don’t ask. It sends your message out to a much wider audience, and if you don’t ask, you won’t get that level of publicity. Interestingly enough, it turns out that if you spell the word ‘RETWEET’ rather than abbreviating it to RT, you’re far more likely to get retweeted.

So there you have it. Plenty of reasons to dust off that Twitter account and get it working even harder for you. #itsanobrainer

First, make sure that whatever you write has the key benefits for your customers foremost. Don’t just cut and paste the product specifications from somewhere else. Use descriptions that communicate exactly what problems the item solves for the customer, and why its indispensable. It’s a good idea to consider SEO too by placing keywords strategically, but don’t focus so much on appealing to the search bots that the language doesn’t sound natural for your real human customers. Pay attention to spelling and grammar. Poor spelling is not going to engender trust in your business or Magento store. And be consistent throughout.

If you can link to reviews of the product, so much the better as this provides a peer to peer opinion of the item’s worth. Remember that reviews which are partly negative help to demonstrate a balanced view, and so could work more in your favour than endless unconvincingly glowing reports that seem too good to be true.

Include a call to action to encourage active rather than passive engagement. This could be in the form of a direct invitation to purchase, or perhaps a link to view related products. Showing a wider range is good, as customers like to feel that they are making a choice from a number of options and so weighed up their purchase sensibly. But don’t make the range of options so wide they get overwhelmed and lose interest.

So in summary, don’t underestimate the value of a decent product description. Educate your customers respectfully, and they are more likely to buy and come back for more.

A really powerful way to improve your site’s performance is to consider particular goals and aims you have in mind, and then analyse some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that relate to that aim. For example, if you’re looking to increase sales by 15% over the next few months, you’ll need to find out what the site traffic is, what the daily numbers of sales are and the conversion rate. On the other hand, if you need to cut down on the number of phone calls to customer service this year, then you might want to find out what type of calls tend to come through, and which page on the site most often prompts those queries.

Here are some examples of Key Performance Indicators you should consider when reviewing the impact of your website.

Sales
Which goods sells, and how much they cost.
The size of an average order.
The ratio of new customers against repeat customers.
The rate at which shopping carts are abandoned.
Sales made during different periods – weeks, months, days, hours.

Marketing
How much time visitors spend on your site.
How many pages visitors view.
How many subscribe to your newsletter or text facility.
The number of followers you have on social media sites.
What are the sources of traffic to your site?

Customer Service
How long does it take to resolve problems?
How many emails does customer service receive?
How many calls are taken by customer service?
How often is your online chat facility used?
What type of problems do customers contact you with?

With data like this to hand, you should be able to get some valuable insights into how to increase conversions and improve business.

For starters, take a fresh look at your ecommerce website. Does it look like a messy patchwork of visual elements and ads or is it clean, streamlined and inspirational? Customers are used to forming snapshot impressions online, just as surely as if they’d walked into your real life office and spotted fading decor and a stack of unwashed coffee cups. But show yourself to be professional and you’ll reap the rewards in sales.

Pages on your website should include an About Us section that gives clients a flavour of what makes your business different. Research shows that customers who visit an About Us page are five times more likely to buy, and they spend over five times as much while they’re there. Include a page of FAQs and be clear and concise about the small print of your policies as it builds trust when you’re actively transparent. If you can show some feedback from satisfied customers in the form of reviews and testimonials, even better!

Another simple solution is just to make sure your telephone number is clearly visible, as this reassures customers by giving them a non-virtual contact point where they can check you’re for real. Similarly, include ways for clients to pay using credit and debit cards so that they can benefit from further protection in their purchases.

Finally, just checking – you do have a social media presence, such as Facebook, right? If not, make it a priority. Having active integration with social media on your website, lends further credibility and improves accessibility to your store.

With these measures in place, you should find not only your conversion rate grows, but your own confidence in your brand will too.

January 1st – New Years Day
Diaries, calendars and journals are dead certs. Or could your product be marketed as part of a new hobby or healthy lifestyle choice for the new year?

February 14th – Valentines Day
All you need is love, anything pink or heart shaped will sell well. Also, items that can be personalised or gift wrapped.

March 10th – Mothers Day
What worked for Valentines Day might still work for Mothers Day. Add to that, nostalgic and photographic products. But don’t limit yourself to stereotypes. Mums come in all different flavours…!

March 17th – St Patricks Day
Green products – perhaps even eco green – could be a good marketing ploy to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland.

March 31st – Easter Day
Eggs, rabbits, chocolate, as well as products linked to reflective and spiritual themes. Simple little additions to your ecommerce store will work wonders.

June 16th – Fathers Day
Socks and ties obviously (!) but use your imagination and see if your product could be a random and unexpected hit for Dads!

August – Summer Holidays
Summer can be unpredictable. But whether you’re letting the summer sunshine in, or making the most of a rainy day, it’s all about the branding message.

September – back to school
School items are obvious, but don’t forget, as it’s the start of the academic year you might find a way to reintroduce your January best sellers too.

October 31st – Halloween
Dark and spooky, natural and autumnal, ornaments, candles and party ware.

December 25th – Christmas Day
Christmas means you should be able to stick a red bow on anything and sell it – from stocking fillers to filing cabinets.

December 31st – New Years Eve
And finally, products for the ultimate party! This is also the perfect time to shift leftover stock with bargain sales.

You’ll probably want to start by pinning down exactly who you’re selling to and find out what exactly they’re looking for. What are the perceived benefits that will hit the spot for that particular audience. If you’re pushing ‘low, low prices’ while your clients are looking for high end class, then you’re likely to miss out on the sale. You might decide to survey your customer base to find out exactly what appeals to them about your brand, and be prepared to face criticism in order to learn how you can improve your sales pitch.

Make sure that the design and message of your site is going to appeal to your intended market. Use the words and graphics that will make the strongest impact, and show that you have some idea of the demographic you’re hoping to sell to. So, for example, if your brand is for younger single women this is likely to have a very different feel and tone than a site aimed at retired couples. In defining more carefully who your real target is, you’ll probably end up with less global appeal, but more targeted relevance.

And of course, make sure you really know your product or service well so that you can use that knowledge to enhance the perceived value to all your online visitors. This means finding out everything that’s great about what you’re selling, and all the ways in which it’s better than other brands on the market. Also know your competitors – know what you’re up against. In that way you’ll be better prepared to stand alongside the best of them in the market place, with confidence you have an edge they can’t match.

One way is to reward clients with small gifts that show you care. Whether its a stack of free greetings cards branded with your logo, a free pen or bag, or perhaps a glass or mug, receiving something tangible as an added extra is a recipe for leaving your clients with a satisfied glow. Free delivery can have a similar effect, but if you can appeal to the physical senses of the customer by giving them something they can touch and make use of, you could deliver an even stronger message.

If you’re considering rewarding loyal clients, then weigh up whether you want to spell out exactly what customers have to do to receive gifts, or whether it’s better to keep your cards close to your chest for a more organic, less contractual-feeling approach.

You could choose to display the total current points that your client has amassed since first purchasing items from you. Alongside that, display the target number of points they need to achieve in order to receive rewards. That way you’re incentivising buying behaviour  in a way that will openly encourage clients to invest in their loyalty to you, with repeat purchases, larger orders or referral of new customers.

But you may find that a more subtle approach pays dividends. Keeping the rules behind your reward scheme a secret means that you can surprise customers when you let them know you value their relationship with you. Sending an unexpected email informing them of the gift or free delivery, or just including the reward in their order package, will create a more personal touch with a longer lasting impact. You might have to wait longer for the sales to kick in, but the loyalty you promote will have ongoing benefits for a longer amount of time.

So, work harder on building a relationship with your customers, and you should enjoy a long and lucrative partnership.

1) Understand what exactly the client values most about your product or service.

Is it the free delivery? The quick service? The unique style or design options your business offers that no one else does? What is it that encourages repeat customers to come back to you rather than go else where? When you know the answer to that, you can specialise in that aspect and justifiably enhance your price.

2) Consider the monetary value you provide your customer.

Whatever your product or service costs you to deliver, the question is how much reward does it give to your customer? You’ll want to weigh this up according to competitors too, but just because something costs you £10, that doesn’t mean you can’t charge much higher if it’s offering your customer hundreds of pounds of benefit.

3) Undercut the others.

You might decide to enter the market place at a lower price to your competitors in an attempt to try to gain some of their business. Then when customers are on board with you, you can increase your prices. Bear in mind that if you do so, you’ll need to give them a reason not to walk off and purchase from someone else. If they were searching for the lowest price in the first place, they’re probably still looking for it. There will always be someone who can offer a lower price than you.

4) Only keep your most lucrative customers.

There’s a rule in economics that 20% of customers generate 225% of profits, 10% create a 125% loss and the other 70% are somewhere in the middle. It really is worth renegotiating terms with your least profitable clients, and only keeping them on if they agree to pay you what you’re worth. That way you’ll remind yourself to value your own time, and you’ll create more space to deal with more profitable sales.

1) Commit longer term

If you decide you’re going to take the plunge, you’ll want to see it as something that will reap benefits over time, not just in the short term. Stick with it.

2) Keep learning

You’ll have a learning curve to start with, but rules and protocols keep changing, as do trends and culture. Stay on top of the game.

3) Stay updated

Keep your profile updated so that visitors know you’re serious about being there. Make sure you have some recent news to talk about.

4) Interact

You’ll want to participate in conversations and hashtags, and show your support to others related to your brand. Build up rapport and gain the trust that you want for your business following.

5) Target carefully

Remember that in the fast pace of social media, different demographics are most at home in different platforms. Depending whether you’re looking for teenagers, students or grandparents, you’ll have to make insightful decisions as to whether your business profile is better suited to Linkedin, Pinterest or somewhere else.

6) Don’t spread yourself too thinly

Rather than trying to have a foot in every camp from day one, choose a platform to start with and build up experience in social media gradually.

7) Make the most of each platform

You’ll probably want a different marketing plan for say, Facebook and Twitter, as each will present different benefits and challenges. Take some advice and see what works best.

Do your homework

It’s pointless to try to pretend you’re a seasoned pro if you’re just starting out in social media. Learn the ropes and learn from what others are doing.

9) Start small

Much better to take some time to quietly find your bearings, rather than making a loud statement on your arrival and end up looking like a complete novice.

10) Don’t take your eye off the ball

Its just too easy to find yourself wasting time with distractions that aren’t going to end in sales. Be disciplined and keep your personal status updates for another time!