Six tips for making your
catalog site more effective
By Andrew Mallory
Recently we received an email from Bob and Peggy Langevin, who asked us to take a look their site, www.familyshoppingnetwork.net. It’s a catalog site that sells a wide range of different products.
As always, I’m delighted to offer a few pointers on how they could improve their site’s performance.
(And for everyone else who has a multi-product site, please pay close attention — these tips apply to you, too.)
Tip #1: Make sure your products appeal to the same target market
First of all, Bob and Peggy (and everyone else who runs a multi-product site), I want to point out that the safest way to set up a successful catalog site is to sell products that appeal to the same target market.
In other words, sell a range of tennis-related products that appeal to tennis players, or vintage Ford truck parts and accessories that appeal to antique Ford truck collectors.
When it comes to online sales, the more targeted your message, the better. It makes MUCH easier to attract targeted traffic to your site, and gives you many more chances to sell different items to the same customer. And that makes a huge impact on your bottom line!
To be honest, Bob and Peggy, when I arrived at your site I wasn’t really sure what you sold.
I saw that you had health products and Christmas gifts and decor (three product categories targeting completely different markets) coming soon — and I saw you had links for “Build a Bear” coupons, eBay “Not just for kids”, and cell phones on Amazon — three MORE completely different markets.
So right off the bat, there are six different audiences you’re trying to target with your site. Frankly, the fact that you’re trying to appeal to so many different groups at once makes me nervous.
I worry that you’re going to find it extremely tough to drive targeted traffic to your product pages — and if you don’t get the traffic, you won’t get the sales.
Tip #2: Feature a compelling USP that hits your visitors smack between the eyes!
Bob and Peggy, when I arrived at your site, the first thing I saw was your URL — familyshoppingnetwork.net — with the catchphrase, “Where a dollar has value.”
Since the top of your homepage is the most important real estate on your site, I suggest you replace your URL and catchphrase with a strong, benefit-rich headline that emphasizes your USP (in other words, your “unique sales proposition” — the selling feature that sets your site apart from all the others out there).
Based on your homepage copy, I’d say your USP is, “If you find the same product for a lower price, we’ll match it!”
If I were you, I would include a headline to that effect right at the top of your site. It could say something like,
“Announcing the lowest priced top-quality gift items on the ‘Net — guaranteed!”
This benefit-rich headline should be the first thing your visitors should see, in order to answer the top question in their minds: “What value does this site offer to ME?”
However, I should warn you: “The lowest price — guaranteed!” is not a bad USP — but it’s not great, either.
The problem with making low price your USP is that it often results in a “race to the bottom,” where businesses repeatedly slash their prices in an effort to undercut their competitors.
In order to win that game, you have to be selling a MASSIVE volume of products, otherwise you’ll never make enough profit.
Also, if you’re selling regular consumer products, you’re likely to be going against some very stiff competition — for example, Wal Mart, eBay, and Amazon, who are all famous for selling items at heavily discounted prices!
And if you’re competing with industry giants like them, chances are you’re going to lose.
You might want to consider narrowing the number of products you sell and focusing only on one specific category (such as African heritage gifts) and then research how other business sell such items online so you can come up with a different unique sales proposition that helps you stand out from the crowd.
(Such as, having the largest or rarest collection of African heritage items, or selling only “fair trade” items that help the artisans that make these items.)
Tip #3: Your visitors need to know EXACTLY what you’re selling — as soon as they arrive on your site
As I mentioned above, it’s difficult for first-time visitors to figure out exactly what you sell on your site. In addition to the links I mentioned above, you have four pictures of different gift items on your homepage. Yet none of those pictures click through to actual category or product pages.
I did some exploring and discovered that the link that says, “FSN Gift Store” leads to a page that features different images representing your various product categories.
It would be better for you to prominently feature these different product categories right on your home page. Also be sure to include a line or two of copy that explains the value of owning each type of product. Images are great, but it’s WORDS that do the heavy lifting job of selling online.
Remember, your visitors want to know what you offer the second they arrive on your site! You don’t want to make them dig for that information.
Every time you make people click on a link, you lose 30% of your visitors. That’s why you need to keep the number of clicks to an absolute minimum.
Tip #4: You need to have a compelling opt-in offer — on every page of your site!
Bob and Peggy, your best chance of making money with your website is to collect your visitors’ email addresses and build a large opt-in list you can sell to over time. That’s why you need to have a highly compelling opt-in offer boldly featured on every page of your site.
(You’ll get the best results if you put it in the upper left-hand corner of your site, right beneath your headline.)
Right now, you encourage people to sign up for a free membership to your site, which shows you know the value of opt-ins. That’s a good sign.
However, right now the only benefit people get for giving you their personal information is the chance to see how much your different products cost!
Since your USP is offering the lowest price available, you need to back that up with proof — and you shouldn’t make your visitors pay for it by handing over their personal information!
You’ll get far more sign-ups if you offer something of real value, such as a guide to the most popular gifts for “those special people” in your life, or an eBook on different African myths, legends, and traditions that are reflected in the African heritage items you sell (if you were to focus your business only on them, for example)
You could even offer a “50% off your first purchase” coupon — and then when you send a transactional email delivering that coupon, you can tell people about certain items you’ve got on sale and let them know they can get a further discount on those items if they use their coupon in the next 24 hours. (Or some such thing.)
It’s important to remember that most visitors don’t make a purchase on their first visit to a site.
That’s why you have to give them a compelling reason to join your mailing list, so you can overcome their “buyer resistance” and build a strong relationship with them so they’re more likely to buy from you in the future.
Tip #5: Your copy needs to speak directly to your customers’ needs
The number-one rule to selling things online is, always write copy that describes your products in terms of the benefit they hold for your customers.
And be sure to use language that’s clear, to the point, and easy to understand.
Bob and Peggy, I have to admit that I was confused by the titles of some of your product category links — for example, “Coastline,” “Beach Living,” and “Beautiful Beasts.” It wasn’t immediately clear to me what I’d find if I clicked on any of these links.
And then when I did click on some of them, what I found didn’t meet my expectations at all!
For example, when I see the term, “Beach Living,” I think of items such as shovels and pails and beach towels. And yet when I clicked on the link, I found items such as dolphin wall mirrors for sale.
You want to make sure that you don’t set false expectations in the minds of your visitors. Because if they don’t find what they’re expecting, they’re going to be disappointed. And disappointed visitors usually leave, never to return.
Ultimately, whenever you have a choice between writing something that’s cute versus something that’s clear and obvious, ALWAYS go for clear and obvious!
Your visitors will thank you, trust me.
Tip #6: When it comes to SEO, “divide and conquer” is the rule
The first thing I do whenever I’m reviewing a site is look at the source code. A quick peek at your source code told me a LOT.
First of all, I was delighted to see that you’ve included your keywords in your meta tags. That’s great. It shows you know the basics of search engine optimization.
However, your keywords are all over the place and speak to a wide range of different topics.
(For example: group discounts, discounted gifts, baby gifts, wedding gifts, outdoor living, bath and body, and African heritage.)
There are two big problems here… One, because these keywords refer to so many different things, they’re going to seriously dilute your efforts to get ranked well with any particular topic cluster.
(It’s kind of like “rock soup” — there are so many things in there, one particular flavour simply doesn’t stand out.)
And two, you have very little copy on your page to support most of these keywords. And the search engines hate it when people try to get ranked for keywords when there isn’t any relevant content on their site for them!
You would be far better to set up a different product page for each product category and optimize each one for the keywords that actually describe what people will find on that page.
For example, optimize your “African heritage gifts” page ONLY for keywords that are related to gifts from Africa, and optimize your “dolphin-themed gift items” page ONLY for keywords that relate to dolphin gifts.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t optimize for your homepage, however! Just be sure to optimize only for those keywords that speak to the more generic subject of “getting good deals” or “buying cheap gifts” online.
This will help you immensely with your search optimization efforts. Plus, it will ensure that people who find you via the search engines have to make as few clicks as possible to get to the actual product pages.
(And like I said before, the fewer clicks you make your buyers take, the better!)
Okay, Bob and Peggy, there are a few tips to get you started. There’s a lot more I can tell you, but not within the scope of this newsletter. If you — or anyone else — would like detailed advice on how to improve your site, you can visit me in the Internet Entrepreneur Club forums.
There you’ll find me and a bunch of other IMC experts who are eager to help you ramp up your sales and take your website to the next level.
To take a 30-day test drive of the Club for just $2.95, go to
See you in “The Club!”
[Ed. note: Andrew Mallory is one of our top Internet Entrepreneur Club experts.]
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