Are you easy to buy from?

by | Mar 2, 2020 | Business Building Musts, Small Business Help

​How simple or complicated is it for your customer to purchase from you?

There are a few things I consistently see business owners doing in both their digital and social media marketing, as well as offline marketing, that they could tweak a little to make it easier for customers to buy. 

My mentor taught me two things around this subject: 

  1. Make yourself easy to buy from, and
  2. A confused buyer never buys

I’m pretty sure if you looked your own consumer behaviour, you would agree with both of those above statements! For example:

  • If you have to click seven buttons to purchase something through an online checkout, you’ll likely stop after the third.
  • If you google someone’s business or look them up on social media and can’t find them easily, you’ll move onto the next business.
  • If you pick up the phone to chat to someone only to get an answering machine or an undecipherable message, you’ll again, move on.

It may not be fair, and it may not be right, but the world moves at a quick pace and we, as business owners, need to make things as simple and easy as possible in order to get the sale. 

Momentum can be lost incredibly quickly and we are well aware, as consumers, that there’s always the next business who will want our money.

So, how do you make yourself easy to buy from? 

  1. Be Your Own Customer

Regardless of if you have an online shop, a bricks and mortar or your sales are made via messenger, have you been your own customer and gone through the process?  Or better yet, asked an older relative to complete the shopping steps at your business?  What was their honest feedback about how it all went?

There’s a saying “if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”  In the context of “Being your own Customer”, if a person who has little computer skills can’t navigate your website or your social media, then there’s some fixing to do. You might need to look at applying the KISS method – keep it simple superstar! 

If your processes are streamlined, simple and easy, you are going to win more business than your competitors who aren’t. 

I super guarantee it! 

  1. Be Easy to Find

The wonderful Kate Toon, Beyoncé of SEO and a past guest of this podcast (episode 39 for those playing along at home!), once said:

If you’re not on google, are you even on the internet? 

And further to that, if you are on google but no one can find you, are you even a real business? 

Yes, it’s true, you might not come up in lots of searches, but if I type into google your actual business name and location and you don’t come up, then you are definitely not making yourself easy to buy from. 

Google my Business should be your BEST FRIEND in 2020. 

Not sure what I’m talking about, google, google my business!  And perhaps check out episode 47 where I talk about the 6 marketing predictions for 2020 – Google my Business is one of them! 

If you don’t have a website, if you can’t afford or don’t want to do google ads, make sure you have Google my Business set up and you are posting to it like you would a social media platform like Facebook. 

It will, in time, make you easy to find!

  1. Email Signature

How many emails do you send each day?  Each week?  Each Month? 

What’s your email signature look like? 

Is it branded?  Does it have your contact numbers, email, website?  Social Media icons so people can click and check you out? 

Bonus points if it has a photo of you!  I would recommend every person has a photo of themselves in their email signature.   Why?  Because humans interact with humans – not logos.  Or have both a logo and a photo or a photo of you holding the logo! 

If you create blogs or podcasts or great content like that, have a link to your latest one in the email signature too! 

I know this is something I personally need to work on because I can be a bit hit and miss depending on where I send my emails from (Gmail, outlook, mail chimpFlodesk etc).

And, on the topic of email providers, I’ve just changed to Flodesk.  If you’re interested in a new email provider – go to https://flodesk.com/c/LOVEJENN and have a look.  There’s a 30 day trial but after that, with my little link in the show notes, you can get 50% off and only pay $19 per month. 

The templates are super super good!  Trust me!

  1. Links – URL Links.

This is a big one for me.  Huge in fact. 

A huge stumbling block for businesses with online platforms, is when links to products, posts, services either: 

  1. Don’t work – they are broken
  2. Go to a Facebook main page or a home page (and not the item the link was supposed to open on)
  3. Are click-bait

It drives me insane.  I can’t be the only one!

If I click a link, then I actually expect to go to whether I think I’m going.  If I want to see product x, take me specifically there – not to a home page, not to a Facebook page where I scroll and scroll and scroll and don’t find what I want. 

REMEMBER: Make yourself easy to buy. 

My other pet hate is lack of links.  A business owner will lead you to want to view the product or buy the product or service, but then not include the link to send you directly to that product/post/service.   

You have to guess.  You have to click their name (if it’s on say a Facebook group), hope they have their business prominently placed on their personal page, or google it and see what they can find. 

From a marketing point of view, you have to have a serious good “hook” for someone to go to extra lengths to find you or find something you buy.  Most will give up rather quickly. 

A little like you probably would if you were your own customer or client! 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m totally not perfect.  My business and its assets are totally not perfect, and that’s why it’s so important to, again as sent in point one above, be your own customer!

Every few months, go through your processes, your procedures, your social platforms, your website and so forth and check them out. 

Are they pointing where you need?  Is all the relevant information there and easy to find?  Am I, as the human behind the business, easy to find? These little audits can bring massive changes if you make sure people can easily buy from you!

  1. My last point is round the saying “a confused buyer doesn’t buy”

Do what you do and do it exceptionally well.  Don’t keep adding products or services just because. 

  • If you make candles, don’t start selling social media management.
  • If you have an accommodation place, don’t start hairdressing from the reception.

Do what you do well. 

If a person can’t tell what you do, by research, by talking to you or your customers/clients, or if there is too many choices, no choice at all will be made. It’s just the way we are made up. 

So, let’s spin this into a positive.  Here are some action steps on how to make yourself easy to buy from!

  1. Take a few minutes today, or over the weekend, and be your own customer.  Go through your website, your social media platforms, click links, see where they lead, fix what needs to be fixed.
  1. Make a word document or a google doc up and put all your links in it.  All your social media platform links, your website, and any other important places you send people throughout the course of your business.  Then they’re always handy.  You don’t need to get them every time, they are all just in one document.  I have all my affiliate links in my document too.  Soif I’m ever recommending a product, and I have an affiliate link for it, I know exactly where to get it! 
  1. Use Google my Business.  Post to it, like you would a Facebook page, for instance, once or twice a week – make yourself easy to google!
  1. Look at your email signature.  If you don’t have one.  Reach out to a graphic designer and get one made.   Of course, supporting local business is better, but if you don’t have those skills around you, online is another choice on sites such as fiverr.com.
  1. Take a stock of all the ways you make money, or all the products that you sell.  Do you need them all?  Are they all profitable?  Do you have too many and just confuse your buyer?  If you know which are profitable, you know which ones to cull!
  1. If you’re sharing something for someone to look at, purchase or browse, please give them a link and a link to the exact thing you are talking about.  A confused buyer doesn’t buy and neither does a busy one!
  1. Join my Buy from a Bush Business facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/buyfromthebush/

There are over 210000 people in the group, and it is growing! It’s actually this group that has inspired this post.

So – there you have it. While there are more tips out there (including the obvious of having some exceptionally great customer service), this blog post gives you some hints on how to make yourself easy to buy from.

This blog is a transcript of an episode of my podcast Small Business Made Simple – to check that podcast out and listen in go to www.socialmediandmarketing.com.au/podcast

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Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

 

Brilliant – it’s on its way – thanks!

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