Who Are You?
It goes without saying that building a successful ecommerce business entails more than just making sales. Short sighted business owners will just look at aggregate sales numbers, but those with long term vision will be more concerned about building relationships than just getting those orders. The question though is how to go about growing and cultivating those relationships. After all, with hundreds of different sites all selling the same thing for pretty much the same price, how can you set yourself apart from the crowd?
We all know about the social networking opportunities. Blogging, Twitter, setting up a Facebook page, etc. These are all great tools but instead of looking at them, let's go as basic as possible - putting a face on the company name. Your customers want to know who you are and why they should trust you, so why not tell them?
Different companies have different ideas when it comes to the about us page. Some just go for the dry, boring "elevator speech" which gets completely ignored by most of the purchasing public. Then there are the creative ones. One that I really like is from the guys over at Think Geek.
This site knows its audience and how to speak to them. Instead of the standard marketing headshots, they use baby pictures for their avatars. The bios themselves speak to the customers in a voice that shows the reader that the people at Think Geek are just like their customers. Even the company dogs have profiles. Just looking at the first profile on the list, you get a soliloquy about her love for designing, Photoshop, Quake and Dance Dance Revolution. This is a bio that speaks directly to Think Geek's target audience.
The bottom line is that if you build relationships with your customers, they'll be more loyal and will keep coming back. If you treat them like numbers, they'll go find someone who will show them the love they deserve.
1 Comment
Fulfillnet Fulfillment Services says:
I think putting the owners face right on the homepage is a great idea for several reasons. I see websites that are designed specifically so that the owner's face and a link to his/her blog are the first thing that you see. You see these elements even before the calls to action and "click to buy" buttons. As you imply, it does wonders for business relationships, but it can also help with simple things like keeping visitors on your site longer, making a better branding impression, and just getting bookmarked (<--- Your true goal as a webmaster, sales are temporary, bookmarks are forever)
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